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Finance director says bank reconciliations near complete; auditors scheduled, recommends temporary accountant
Summary
The finance director reported bank reconciliations about 95% complete, a Jan. 31, 2025 audit-submission goal, and recommended a temporary contracted accountant for about six months while processes are standardized.
Finance Director Josh McNeil told the Manassas Park governing body Jan. 7 that contracted accounting support has helped the department catch up on bank reconciliations and that the city is on track to complete reconciliations and invite auditors to begin field work.
"If I had to quantify it in terms of percentages, we're at about 95% in terms of completing the bank reconciliation," McNeil said. He told the council that the auditors (Robinson, former Cox and Associates) were notified the city would extend its audit timeline by roughly six weeks and that staff aims to submit the annual comprehensive financial report to the Auditor of Public Accounts by Jan. 31, 2025.
McNeil described two contracted firms working with the city: I. Bailey (accounting and reconciliations) and KTEC (project management and policy drafting). He said the city is standardizing processes, documenting operating procedures, simplifying the chart of accounts and addressing extraneous receivable accounts so reconciliations can be completed monthly by internal staff. He also recommended using KTEC temporarily to provide an interim accountant for up to six months while the office stabilizes, then hiring a permanent accountant.
Councilmembers asked about cost savings from fewer late fees and whether HR exit interviews were informing turnover mitigation. McNeil said vendors had not seen late fees in the past 12 months and that exit interviews identified pay and benefits elsewhere as a top reason for departures. He said the city aims to pay invoices more quickly — moving from roughly 72% of invoices paid within 30 days to about 90%.
Staff said the city signed a contract for a new fully web-based financial system on Dec. 31, 2024, and targeted implementation for July 2025; utility-billing work will be phased because of capacity constraints.
The council approved continuing contracted review and scheduled an annual performance evaluation before renewing contracts.
