Osage County hires auditor for 2024 and agrees to suspense-account approach to clean 2024–25 ledgers
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Summary
Commission approved Gordon CPA for the 2024 audit and heard a detailed plan from contract accountant Linda Smith and consultants to use a suspense account and period-13 adjustments to close 2024 and allow limited 2026 operations while detailed reconciliations continue.
Commissioners approved Gordon CPA to conduct the county’s 2024 audit, subject to legal review and execution of a final contract. The selection followed an extended briefing from contracted accounting consultants (Linda Smith and firm representatives) about a backlog of transactions that were processed outside the principal accounting system (CIC), unreconciled bank activity, and the need for period-13 adjustments to close the 2024 books.
Consultants recommended temporarily posting unidentified or unallocated items to a suspense account so the county can close 2024, open 2026 business operations, process at least one accounts-payable run, and continue the labor-intensive reconciliation and reclassification work (matching bank-paid items with invoices and department approvals) over subsequent weeks to months. They estimated the detailed catch-up effort could require multiple staff-weeks or contracted-hours and said payroll runs and immediate vendor payment processing are high priorities. Commissioners discussed risk trade-offs, auditor involvement, and possible staffing or consultant augmentation to accelerate the cleanup.
The board asked staff to return with a clarified timeline and a plan that details steps, resource needs, and potential audit implications. The consultants and county finance staff agreed to prepare a clear recommended sequence for the commission by the next meeting, with the goal of processing at least one AP run the following Tuesday while continuing reconciliation in parallel.
