Finance staff: May statements look on track; business office to shift to accrual accounting for fiscal close

Speaker 3 presented the district's May 25 financial statements and told the finance committee there were no significant concerns. He flagged food-service activity on special revenue and said the general fund is "tracking as expected." He described substantial month-end work to close the fiscal year.

Speaker 3 explained the district will stop issuing the monthly cash-basis financials for June and instead transition the business office to accrual or modified-accrual accounting between June and August to record accounts payable, accounts receivable, and payroll accruals: "...the business office will be switching from the cash basis financials that we do monthly to their full accrual modified accrual basis that government entities like Grand Rapids Public Schools use and start to record accounts payable and make sure we've got all our accounts receivable recorded, do payroll accruals..." He said some payroll that relates to June gets paid in July, which requires accrual adjustments.

Committee members asked whether staff could provide training on the annual financial statements (described in discussion as a roughly "100 page" document). Speaker 3 confirmed auditors will be present in September for the annual audit and that a combined July/August monthly financial statement will be prepared and presented at the September finance committee meeting, with the audited annual financial statement typically later presented at an October work session.

Next steps: auditors scheduled for September; combined July/August statements will return to the committee in September; staff suggested offering a work-session presentation to walk trustees through the audited annual financial statement rather than addressing it in a formal board meeting.