During the past year, you probably have made a lot of changes in your organization “on the fly.” The urgency of the pandemic meant some things weren't negotiable. Other changes in the external environment – regulations, economic conditions, community needs – have followed each other at a relentless pace. You likely had to make many decisions and probably convinced your team as “we have to do it this way for now.”
Spring is a time of renewal and energy, plants come alive and start to bloom, the green grasses grow, and the air has a fresh, clean scent. Spring is a great time to dust off the cobwebs of last year, and start afresh. If you've filed your annual report, then it's a good time to kick off some spring cleaning at your workplace.
Here are some ideas for you to consider:
Do you ever wonder if a key control can be a person? Maybe you have a long-standing employee that everyone goes to for answers, or perhaps an employee that really knows and understands a certain process. People are most certainly an important part of the control system, and governments benefit from these valuable employees that contribute so much.
As we operate in a more virtual and electronic environment, some of your control system documentation might go by the wayside. While less paper can be good, it's important to keep some evidence of your key controls in action.
What is a key control?
It's that time of year, local governments are busy finalizing their annual financial reports and filing them with our Office. There's a lot to remember and effective reviews are very important to ensure a quality product.
As you work to wrap up your reporting year, we want to remind you about resources you might find helpful. The resources covered in this article are specifically for governments preparing statements under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).
With the pandemic, many governments have and will receive additional federal funding, such as the Cares Act. For some governments, this might mean going through a federal single audit for the first time.
A federal single audit is required when you spend more than $750,000 of federal funds in one year, regardless of whether those federally-sourced funds came directly from the federal government or were passed through from a state or local government.
Do you ever feel like you keep having the same conversations about shared projects over and over? You spend half your time just talking about the same ideas you chewed on last time with little forward progress. And now with the addition of a video conference platform, conversations can feel even more frustrating and less productive. What can you do?
Many of us have been experiencing a significant amount of change in our organizations lately. Having a structured framework to help sustain those changes is an important part of change management and as relevant now during this disruption as it is when we have time to thoughtfully work through a change initiative.
Congrats on submitting your annual report. If you are a local government user, the Financial Intelligence Tool's (FIT) role-based functionality allows you to access your 2020 data right now! There is no need to wait until June if you use the “Live” Annual Filing Data option. First, login in to FIT, then select “Live” Annual Filing Data in the upper right hand corner drop down menu. You now can explore your updated trends, financial health indicators and more.
We know a strong internal control system is important for accurate financial reporting. Not sure where to start? Don't worry ― we have a tool for cash basis reporters that can help.