Ellis County accepts FY2025 audit with clean opinion; payroll accrual error corrected

Ellis County Commissioners unanimously accepted the county's FY2025 annual comprehensive financial report and single-audit after auditors reported an unmodified (clean) opinion on the financial statements.

Kent Willis, a partner at Patillo, Brown and Hill LLP, told the Commissioners Court the firm's auditors "are presenting a clean opinion or an unmodified opinion on the FY25 financial statements," the highest level of assurance an auditor provides. Willis said auditors reviewed nearly every number in the report and performed standard procedures to confirm the statements are "materially correct."

Why it matters: a clean audit reassures bondholders, grantors and taxpayers that the county's financial statements are reliable. Willis also told the court auditors tested federal programs in the single audit, including American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) spending, and found "no findings to report" on that program's compliance.

Willis disclosed a payroll-accrual error that originated in FY2024 and was discovered and corrected during the FY2025 audit. "This particular error will really have no repercussions as far as I know for bond rating, for granting agencies," he said, adding county staff corrected the entry and updated procedures to reduce recurrence risk.

County Auditor Stacy Parr introduced the presentation and thanked audit staff and the external auditors for their work. After brief questions, Commissioner Grayson moved and Commissioner Ponder seconded a motion to accept the reports; the court voted aye and accepted the audit and single-audit.

The court did not identify additional compliance findings that would affect grant eligibility. The county will proceed to close out the fiscal-year reporting cycle following the court's acceptance.

Ending: The court accepted the FY2025 reports and the auditor said staff had already corrected the disclosed payroll-accrual error; no further action was announced.