City Commissioners will be asked during their Feb. 15 meeting to review and accept the annual comprehensive financial report, or ACFR, for fiscal year 2021, which ended July 1, 2021 and associated documents.

The ACFR is a 200-plus page bound document and is available in the Finance Department, Civic Center Room 104 or on the city’s website.

Montana law requires that local governments must file a financial report with the Montana Department of Administration within six months of the end of a fiscal year.

City’s audit report on Jan. 5 agenda [2021]

The city’s audit committee met Jan. 26 to review the documents with the third-party auditors.

The committee includes one city commissioner, the mayor, two citizens, the city manager and finance director.

The required client communication letter in draft form was explained by the auditors to the committee and there were no current year recommendations and no prior recommendation with the letter.

Audit contract on city agenda this week [2019]

The letter comments on any internal control recommendations related to the operations of the city that would adversely affect the city’s ability to record, process, summarize, and report financial data, according to the finance department’s staff report.

The auditors made no recommendations for fiscal year 2021.

The committee approved the letter and responses.

City’s audit report considered for acceptance on Tuesday [2017]

The new ACFR will be submitted to the Government Finance Officers Association’s certificate of achievement program for review. The prior year’s ACFR was submitted and subsequently awarded the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting.

The city has received this certification every year since fiscal year 1994 and staff anticipates this year’s report will meet requirements to receive the certification as well, since all comments and recommendations made by GFOA for improvement of presentation were implemented in this years’ report, according to staff.

The commission’s acceptance of the report is usually done during the second meeting in December, but that didn’t occur due to software and staffing issues, according to staff. The city received a filing extension from the state and GFOA until the end of February.

This is the third year of a three year audit contract with Anderson ZurMuehlen and Co., P.C.

The local accounting firm was awarded the city’s audit contract for fiscal years 2019, 2020 and 2021 during a March 2019 city commission meeting. The audit contract is between Anderson ZurMuehlen, the city and the Montana Department of Administration, Local Government Services Bureau.

It’s the sixth year Anderson ZurMuehlen has audited the city.

The city will be issuing a request for proposals for future audit services.

If the commission doesn’t accept the financial report, the city will withdraw the required reports and not meet the extended deadlines, as required by state law and bond covenants.