School district outsources procedures and internal control documentation to comply with new audit standards
Our client’s need
An elementary school district with a $50 million annual budget, funded primarily from state and local sources, needed to document key financial procedures and internal controls to comply with new audit standards.
Although the district’s business office personnel understood their responsibilities and the flow of information between departments, written procedures did not exist and the business office was not staffed at a level to take on the project without impacting daily operations.
Due to the limited resources, the district decided to outsource the project of documenting the financial procedures and internal controls. They were also seeking recommendations to improve key controls.
Baker Tilly solution
The Baker Tilly team was selected for our deep technical knowledge of government audit standards, and ability to identify budget-sensitive controls to help mitigate future risk. Through onsite personnel interviews and walkthroughs, we reviewed numerous key financial procedures including:
- Revenues, receivables, and cash receipts
- Payroll and benefits
- Expenditures and cash disbursements
- Treasury
- Capital assets
- Financial closing
Baker Tilly delivered comprehensive documentation of the district’s financial procedures, identified potential risks, and provided recommendations based on their current resources and technology systems capabilities.
Results achieved
The completed procedures manual was used in the district’s annual audit to ensure compliance with the current audit standards and can be modified in the future to maintain compliance. Additionally, the district’s administration implemented several recommendations to mitigate risk using current staff and system capabilities.