Every year the city has an auditor conduct an Audit. The auditor looks at the financial transactions of the city and accounts for revenues and expenditures for the various funds. There are inquiries into payroll, vendor transactions, bond payments, and receipts. This takes a bit of time for the city to gather up the required data as well as the auditor to put it all together into a single report.
The preparation for the audit is something we think about on an ongoing basis. Standard transactions are one thing but non-standard ones require additional detail. Having this detail readily available in the “Audit File” makes the process go a bit quicker. Having an audit file and anticipating needs also saves time as we don’t have to dig for the information. Being totally prepared isn’t possible as part of the audit process is to “test” documentation and files but having a system that allows for that retrieval is also important.
The report was given to the council at the May 2012 meeting. The audit and related information is available at the city web site. At that meeting a summary was made concerning our books. The city is in good financial condition.
On the revenue side our variance from budget saw the largest difference in the property tax area. The budget and levy had been completed for 2011 with no adjustment made for the Breezy Point Resort tax appeal. All property tax adjustments made, as the result of the appeal, happened in 2011, for both 2010 and 2011. Smaller deviations were noted in charges for services and fines, both of which didn’t meet budget projections.
On the disbursement side expenditures were kept in check with positive variances in most line items. Overall expenditures were $148,661 under budget. This improves unreserved fund balance by this amount. This is after we have transferred funds to Revolving Capital. The Revolving Capital Fund was improved by $148,962. The majority of these transfers provide for future expenditures. They also help manage ups and downs in levy requirements allowing for a planed approach to capital expenditures and improvements.
The audit was accepted by the council and they were pleased with the outcome. I was pleased with the effort made by employees to manage expenditures. We all pitched in to address the shortfall that was pending. We also benefited from some other unexpected revenues so in the end we had a great finish.
