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Finance consultant warns software gaps have left city accounts repeatedly out of balance
Summary
Finance consultant Sue Hussard told the Finance Committee that data flows from Trio into the city—assell accounting system are producing offsetting debits and credits that leave outstanding tax and other accounts incorrect; auditors posted about $259,000 in year-end adjustments for 2024 and Sue recommended journal entries, staff training and a plan to carry audit adjustments into the new fiscal year.
Finance consultant Sue Hussard told the Finance Committee on Jan. 14 that the city—aces persistent reconciliation problems because multiple software systems do not carry audit adjustments forward into the new fiscal year.
Sue Hussard, the finance consultant engaged to reconcile the city—ooks, said auditors made "huge adjustments, dollars 259,000 worth of adjustments at the end of '24" and that those corrections are recorded in a month-14 process that is not being rolled into July and the next fiscal year. "Your general ledger account for 25 taxes should match the list of taxes that we say people owe," she said, adding that without additional journal adjustments the ledger and the tax rolls stay out of alignment.
Hussard said the city—ollects revenue in Trio, then imports receipts into Cassell through an Excel program; because the import posts paired debits and credits for some corrections and abatements, Cassell shows no net change to outstanding accounts. "There's an Excel spreadsheet that moves it... it oesn't know to say, 'we got a debit and a credit the same amount,'" she said. "There needs to be another journal adjustment done to correct that so that the list number you owe matches the list."
Why this matters: when year-end audit adjustments are recorded only in a month designated for audit entries and are not carried into the opening balances of the next fiscal year, monthly reconciliations start from the wrong numbers. Hussard said the errors affect taxes, liens, personal property and water/wastewater accounts and create recurring large adjustments at year-end. She said she has tracked the issues in a spreadsheet and has worked roughly 70 hours to date on reconciling historical items through June 30, 2025.
Committee members and staff pressed for technical and procedural fixes. Staff agreed to contact Cassell support and investigate ways to bring month-14 entries forward; the committee discussed consolidating systems, adding rules in procurement/accounting software such as OpenGov, and strengthening policies and procedures so staff can post consistent journal entries. "If Nate has a way to get month 14 to roll into July, then it will... the world will look a lot better in terms of your numbers," Hussard said.
Hussard recommended three near-term steps: (1) perform the journal adjustments to carry '24 audit work forward into '25, (2) train finance staff to identify paired debits/credits that require offsetting journals, and (3) consider whether a longer-term systems consolidation or additional modules (OpenGov, Munis, or Cassell property tax modules) would reduce manual work.
Next steps: staff committed to follow up with Cassell about bringing month-14/audit adjustments into opening balances, to produce a proposals for policy and procedure changes, and to present options for any necessary software or procurement changes at a future meeting.
