Audit again shows need to change from 12-year-old system
By Nate Adams, Correspondent, The Times
Downingtown Finance Director Judith Walters explains to Mayor Josh Maxwell and the Borough Council the detail of a financial audit that again shows a need for the borough to upgrade its accounting software.
DOWNINGTOWN — The Borough’s finance department is operating on outdated and ill-supported software, according to a recent audit of the borough’s 2012 budget.
Judith Walters, the borough’s Director of Finance, shared the audit’s findings at Wednesday’s meeting, saying that the recommendation to upgrade has been made “a number of times” in previous audits.
“Until we want to put serious money into new software, we’re operating on [an out of date] basis,” she said.
The borough currently accounts its finances on a “cash-based” system developed and purchased by the borough in 2002. Walters says that accrual accounting, which is considered the industry standard and measures finances based on time of transaction and not time of received payment, would allow borough audits to proceed more smoothly.
“Our software was a collaboration between a CPA and a computer R&D firm and was designed specifically for municipalities,” she said. “It’s fine for our day-to-day stuff, but the software isn’t capable of accrual basis, which are standard now. It’s just a suggestion from the audit firm, but it’s one that has been made for a few years now.”
Walters said that the borough paid roughly $17,000 for the software in 2002, which she said made it “a great deal less expensive” than other accounting programs, which cost between $70,000 and $100,000 in 2014.
“It’s not getting in the way of anything, but it keeps coming up,” she said.
Council member Cara DeStefano spoke in support of finding funding for updating the accounting software.
“We’ve been stretching $17,000 for 12 years now,” she said. “We need to look into this, because if this software crashes, we won’t be able to get it back,” she said.
Walters called the 2012 audit “a clean opinion” that verified that the borough’s 2012 budget deficit came in under projections. Walters said that the borough is expected to receive it’s bond rating in March.
The next borough council meeting is scheduled for March 5.
