The Audit Connection Blog
Change Management Lesson 5: Moving from competence to mastery
Employees who have knowledge about a new process aren’t automatically proficient at achieving the desired results. Even with the best of intention and motivation, if I just depend on my individual knowledge and desire, I might never attain the needed ability level to make a new or changing process successful. So how do we incorporate a new skill into our ability? ... CONTINUE READING
Start the year off right – new best practices and tools for bank reconciliations!
The monthly reconciliation is an essential control activity to government finance. Although we cannot prescribe a uniform way to perform your reconciliation, we have developed a list of best practices to consider and compare to your own government’s current processes. ... CONTINUE READING
Summary infographic of Washington's 2019 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report
Each year, as required by law, the state publishes its Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) to provide information on the state’s financial position. To make this important information accessible to the broadest possible audience, the State Auditor’s Office prepares this CAFR summary to provide a snapshot of the state’s financial position, including revenues and expenditures, cash balances and debt. ... CONTINUE READING
Change Management Lesson 4: Training for knowledge
Change management starts with building awareness and desire because it recognizes that success requires each employee to choose to adopt and use the new process. Training for new knowledge will yield best results if the people involved have enough awareness and desire to embrace the change, and to seek knowledge and put it to use. ... CONTINUE READING
New phone numbers for the Office of the Washington State Auditor
Beginning in February, several phone numbers for the Office of the Washington State Auditor will change. ... CONTINUE READING
Change Management Lesson 3: Improvement requires desire to change
How many of us have been shaped by a work culture that lives by an “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” rule? But what does that really mean? ... CONTINUE READING
Some governments move off unauditable list
In response to legislative interest in addressing unauditable governments, the State Auditor’s Office recently updated the status of this small group of noncompliant districts. ... CONTINUE READING
Spending Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds? Here are some resources for you
We know that many of our local governments in Washington received funding from the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (CSLFRF). While the State Auditor’s Office (SAO) hasn’t audited this funding source yet, we’ve compiled some resources to help you comply with this federal grant program and, hopefully, avoid future audit issues. ... CONTINUE READING
Change Management Lesson 2: Building Awareness of the Change to Come
In our Lesson 1 post, we introduced change management as a strategy to implement successful process improvement initiatives. In this installment, we will introduce the ADKAR (Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement) change management model. This is a five-stage approach to help organizations manage the people side of change. Today, we will focus on Awareness. ... CONTINUE READING
Visit SAO during our 1-day Performance Audit Workshop!
Are you, or someone you know, currently enrolled in a college degree program? Interested in learning about an exciting career where you can help improve government services? Well, you're in luck! ... CONTINUE READING