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Finance advisory committee previews Power BI dashboard, sets audit and budget priorities with council
Summary
In a joint meeting with the Town Council, the Finance Advisory & Audit Committee reviewed a new Power BI financial dashboard, asked staff for quarterly and cash-flow statements, and set near-term priorities including a Q1 review, FY25 closing and an analysis of council-directed 5% budget reductions.
Loxahatchee Groves ' At a joint Finance Advisory & Audit Committee (FACT) and council meeting, Chief Finance Officer David Delena demonstrated a new Power BI financial dashboard that pulls data directly from the town's Blackbaud system and allows interactive, date-driven views by fund, vendor, GL account and invoice.
Delena said the dashboard will be updated on a monthly cadence (month-end data with a short lag for reconciliations) and can be posted on the town website for public transparency. "This is your data," he told the council, describing the visuals and drill-down features that show budget vs. actual, monthly expenditures, vendor invoices and a vendor tab that staff will populate with financial-value and risk annotations.
FACT members pressed for additional documentation and exports (invoice-level backup), proposed that vendor financial values be added, and asked staff to add a reserves and cash-flow page. Committee member Manish raised broader concerns about recent tax increases, a reduced capital budget and the need for FACT to provide independent analysis of proposed 5% budget reductions; staff agreed FACT would receive supporting reports and that the committee could present recommendations.
Council and FACT agreed on a prioritized work plan: (1) produce Q1 financial statements and a cash-flow/reserves view to support immediate budget questions; (2) review the FY25 closing and audited statements when available and arrange a pre-audit meeting with the auditors; and (3) assess the council-directed 5% contingency and suggested procurement/policy changes. Staff committed to prepare the requested reports and to schedule joint meetings to present trends and audit findings.
Next steps: CFO Delena will add the requested pages to the Power BI dashboard, provide Q1 comparisons (FY25 vs. FY26) and coordinate auditor interviews with FACT; council and FACT plan an audit presentation as soon as the audited financial statements are ready, and a follow-up joint workshop in June to inform the FY27 budget process.
(Reporting note: statements and quotes are drawn from the official meeting transcript.)
