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Consultants praise Round Lake’s transparency, urge formalized forecasting and policy updates
Summary
Consultants presenting a financial assurance review praised the district's improved reporting and transparency, recommended codifying forecasting practices and fund-balance policy clarifications, and suggested considering non-spreadsheet forecasting tools; the board discussed and will track implementation of recommendations.
Matt Bubnis, director in the public sector practice with Biggertile Advisory Group, delivered an executive-summary overview of a financial assurance review that assessed the district's financial reporting, forecasting methods, internal controls and peer benchmarking.
Bubnis said the district has made notable improvements: regular preparation of monthly reports, use of multi-year projections to inform budgets and posting of required documents online. He recommended formalizing standard operating procedures for forecasting and monthly reporting, clarifying fund-balance policy language to identify use and replenishment triggers, incorporating capital expenditures into forecasts and considering software forecasting tools to reduce spreadsheet risk.
"The forecast serves as the single source of truth," Bubnis said, while also noting the inherent risk with Excel-based models and pointing to alternatives such as Frontline for forecasting. He emphasized adding executive summaries and interactive dashboards to improve public understandability.
Board members thanked the consultant and asked for follow-up cadence on the specific recommendations; the administration committed to prioritizing items and returning to the board with status reports on the recommended improvements.
No formal board action was taken on the review itself; the finance committee will incorporate the recommendations into its work plan.
