Banner County Balancing Report
To the Banner County Board of Commissioners: June 25, 2024
Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Josi Morgan, and I work with accounting and bookkeeping accounts year - round, as well as preparations of payroll and income tax returns. I am also the Deputy County Clerk in Kimball County and have worked with the MIPS accounts payable and payroll software for many years.
The Banner County Imprest checking account and the Banner County Payroll checking account are being reconciled from January 2022 to current. Adjustments need to be made to correct errors in calculations in requesting funds from the County Treasurer. I have been working very closely with County Clerk Katie West and her assistant Ashley Morris. They have been very helpful in finding the information I need and open to making changes to the processes in the office.
To be clear, there is no misappropriation of funds and all funds are accounted for. I have discovered several issues that will need further (later) corrections, including errors on federal and state tax withholding reports, some of which go back several years. We will need to confirm the taxes due and payments made for those taxes before this process is complete in fact, several of the payments made in this time frame were from 2022 and prior years.
Adjustments included discerning which checking account to pay different deductions from, claiming the county share of deductions like social security and retirement, properly voiding checks for duplicate invoices/payments, and correcting payments and the setup of deductions in the payroll system. For example, in the beginning, there was an expense listed on the payroll register that hadn’t been used in many years.
It is correct, as I assume you have been told, that counties process payroll and claim differently. Which fund pays the deductions vary considerably from county to county. Staff from MIPS, the payroll and claims software program, cannot train efficiently since there are so many different ways to claim withholdings, etc. Kimball County pays withholdings and insurance differently than Banner County, but also differently than Morrill County, etc. so it is hard to get advice from other county offices. Katie and I have discussed the payroll deductions and have determined the best way to claim those deductions and insurance premiums for Banner County implementing how MIPS set part of it up, to clarify payments. All items having to do with payroll will be paid from the payroll checking account from this point forward.
I have found the information and corrections necessary to reconcile the two bank accounts listed above (with some corrections still needing to be made from predecessor clerks). This should help to verify the County Clerk’s Office balances with the County Treasurer’s Office, which should be completed fairly soon. Additional work will still need to be done to correct the accounts and funds in the accounts payable system in order for the expenditure amounts to be correct and available for use in the upcoming budget preparation.
I am working with Katie and Ashley to use the MIPS program to reconcile the accounts monthly. This has not been done for quite some time, if ever, so it will be a time-consuming task to mark those many old outstanding checks as cleared!
Katie requested I turn in an invoice to be considered this fiscal year. Please know I have charged you a greatly reduced rate, showing goodwill and that I truly want to help a neighboring county. Besides, I enjoy a challenge!
I hope I have answered most of your questions concerning the reconciliation of Banner County’s Imprest and Payroll checking accounts. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions. Please note this is still a work in progress.
Josi Morgan