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Kalkaska County warns audit at risk as bank reconciliations remain incomplete
Summary
County officials told the Finance Committee that bank reconciliations dating to January 2025 are incomplete and that auditors scheduled for April 13—17, 2026 may need the county to reschedule or seek an extension; the county's accountant estimated up to 100 hours of work to compile reconciliations.
Kalkaska County officials told the Finance Committee on March 10, 2026, that incomplete bank reconciliations and account overages could jeopardize the county's scheduled 2025 audit, set for April 13—17, 2026. County Administrator/CFO Patrick Whiteford said auditors require requested documents two weeks before the audit start date and that staff were continuing weekly meetings to correct account numbers and Kaliseum charges that were posted after Jan. 1, 2026 but belong to 2025.
Accountant Corinna Hervey, joining by Zoom, said she could not verify that the county's bank accounts were correct and recommended redoing reconciliations back to January 2025. Hervey told the committee compiling all 2025 reconciliations and account reviews could take as much as 100 hours of dedicated time and that the county may need to request an extension if the auditors cannot be provided complete documents two weeks before the planned start date.
County Treasurer Valerie Tracey told the committee she had retained help from the prior treasurer and expected to complete the reconciliations within two weeks. Tracey also told commissioners that some investment listings and the Master Reconciliation were missing from the packet provided for the meeting. Commissioner Robert Baldwin said similar problems had arisen during preparation for the prior year's audit and pressed staff for an estimate of cost and time to correct files.
The committee agreed the full Board should decide at the March 18 regular meeting whether to keep the April audit dates or pursue subcontracted assistance to prepare records. No final decision on rescheduling or subcontracting was made at the March 10 meeting.
