What Is An Audit Of The Pickens County 2016 Budget

Budget management analysis is used by mangers as a tool and helps determine that all resources available are being used efficiently. The budgets are determined yearly and are based upon the previous year’s budget and variances. This paper will discuss specific strategies to manage budgets within forecast, compare five to seven expense results with budget expectations, describe possible reasons for variances, give strategies to keep results aligned with expectations, recommend three benchmarking techniques, and identify those that might improve budget accuracy, and justify the choices made.

“Access to good financial information is essential to success in the policy and financial management arenas” (Bartle, Hildreth, Marlowe. P. 222). Proper accounting is the cornerstone to working towards a balanced budget. The CAFR (comprehensive annual financial report)

The financial health and welfare of Thurston County is dependent upon establishing and maintaining sound budgetary principles and strategies for implementation. These financial principles will govern the development and administration of budgets for all county offices and departments. The County is to prepare fiscal and capital budgets that are to be balanced to be able to forecasted, which are to be consistent with approved strategic goals and capital improvement goals. Each county office and department will periodically seek to use citizen feedback in the development of the internal strategic plans to develop the high priorities for Thurston County government. For each department, resources are made available that will remain aligned with the strategic planning and priorities developed with the public input. Thurston County will create and maintain a reserve for the general fund that is equal to one month of the budget annual expenditures. The reserve will serve the purpose of the financial stabilization account to safeguard against possible revenue shortages

The second is listed at 150000 in the Selling, General & Administrative Budget within the Facility & General Operations Level Expenses. The last of the three line item that references to Utilities shows up in the same exact section and has the amount of 54000. This was extremely convoluted and seems redundant for the Utility costs. Beyond the confusion, the totals of the three Utility costs came out to 259747 for the year 9 Utilities expenses. These totals in cost for the utility related expenses seems very high compare to the year 8 utility expense of 150,000. With this said CB should consider a revised budget that is more detailed and gives a clearer explanation for the line items pertaining to the utility expenses.

Since a company’s’ budget is typically based on knowledge from their financial history therefore, if a budget variance occurs, it can be because inaccurate estimates were done, or one or more factors have changed unexpectedly, and the company need to make some type of adjustments to their budget. Once a company discovered a significant budget variance, they will need to identify the cause, and address it accordingly. For example,

Based on the spreadsheet, the Human Services Department faces a great shortfall. Our department is planning to make a 5% reduction from the Social Services Fund within the Human Services Department. In the Social Services Fund, we require the reduction of the expenses category in order to hit the target reduction. By reducing 5% of the Social Services Fund, the cost of target reduction would be $ 2,679,764. Then based on the target reduction, we are planning to reduce the 2015 adopted budget.

The general fund type consists of general revenue and general services. The special revenue fund type consisted of higher education improvement, cultural facilities building, and Clean Ohio Conservation Program. Next, the capital projects fund type consisted of: mental health facilities improvement, parks and recreation improvement, administrative building, and juvenile correctional building. The enterprise fund type consisted of: liquor control, state lottery, and workers’ compensation. Finally, the agency fund type consisted of: agency, accrued leave liability, and volunteer fire fighters’ dependents. The totals for each of the fund types are: general government ($1,015,491 for adjusted appropriations (aa) $875,7998 for total committed appropriations (tca), $139,693 for uncommitted appropriations (ua), and $888,605 for budgetary expenditures (be); total community and economic development fund: $2,042,882 for adjusted (aa), $1,374,832 for total committed, $668,050 for uncommitted, and $1,250,961 for expenditures; total local government support and tax relief fund: $4,110,991 for adjusted, $3,943,201 for total committed, $167,790 for uncommitted, and $3,943,201 for expenditures; capital outlay fund: $1,133,362 for adjusted, $446,471 for total committed, $686,891 for uncommitted,

This budget contains grants, reimbursements from schools, and payments that is from schools. $72.9 billion was set aside for public and higher education institutions. Most of the money is difficult to get if it is for a project that it was not intended for. Since the legislature cannot take money out of these two accounts when they would like, they just cut the budget. This is to give them more wiggle room in other areas that they would like to see the budget go to. There is a cycle that can be seen throughout the government. If the state wants money they need to spend what they have in order to receive federal

In our final analysis, Team E agrees with the CEO’s report to the Board. The indicators are as follows: The audited report shows that the previous years losses had been turned into a gain, and Net Patient Revenues had grown to over 9%. Furthermore, the hospital took the necessary steps to the overall economic recession by holding an emergency meeting that allowed them to pay out their annual debt early.

DEEP carries a low balance of expenditures totaling $567 to public safety with no expenditures within the general government, public welfare and debt service accounts. However, PMS, DV, and CC all carry expenditures. PMS has the balance of $150,572 in the general government expenditures sector and DV has the balance of $303,401 in the public welfare sector. CC has a deficit expenditure of $5,000 in general government despite not having any revenues for this fiscal year. Finally, DEEP started with beginning year fund balance of $4,866,750 and ending year fund balance of $6,971,225, which shows the fund, has increased more than $2 million. The other three program funds have decreased.

The gap between actual spending and forecasted grew over $2 billion by 2012. The state’s budget suffered by the hands of the growing rate of unemployment. This growth in unemployment came along with entitlement caseloads, Medicaid and temporary cash assistance.

As mentioned by Thompson (2010), in the Associated Press, “Lawmakers bridged a $19 billion shortfall, more than 20 percent of the $87.5 billion general fund spending plan”. This shows that the state was heading towards a financial crisis and more deficit creation. Moreover, Thompson (2010), in the Associated Press also points out that “It includes no tax or fee increases but uses a combination of cuts, funding shifts, delayed corporate tax breaks and assumptions about money the state hopes to receive”. The budget gave rise to other dependent costs such as delayed tax refunds. It was uncertain that the State will receive the required funds from the federal government to ensure that the important programs will function the way it used to be until the funds are received.

Bibb County Revenue Sources mainly include property tax, local option sales Tax, Insurance Premium Tax, intergovernmental Revenues, Fund Balance Applications, Fines and forfeits revenues. All these revenues are as discussed below:

Of the money gathered by the state, almost 1 billion dollars is sent to other state agencies (such as the Department of Public Safety, Education, and other state colleges and state parks).3 This money is regulated by the state government to go to these other agencies, which detracts from the department of transportation’s ability to handle road maintenance. So, even before taking into account the increases due to inflation, the budget of TxDOT is decreased by $1 billion dollars (almost half of which goes to the state’s educational system).

A company's budget serves as a guideline in planning and committing costs in order to meet tactical and strategic goals. Tactical goals such as providing budgetary costs for daily operations, and strategic objectives that include R&D, production, marketing, and distribution are all part of the budgeting process. Serving as a guideline rather than being set in stone, the budget is a snapshot of manager's "best thinking at the time it is prepared." (Marshall, 2003, p.496) The budget is a method in which to reign-in discretionary spending, and will likely show variances between what costs have been anticipated and what costs are actually incurred.