Another Successful Agency-Wide Audit
2025 Agency-Wide Audit: The agency has completed another successful agency-wide audit!
This year, one of the major areas of focus was our Health Center Cluster, which required significant coordination, documentation, and preparation.
A special thank you to Dunia Mershon, Sandra Helton, Jennifer Moore, Angie Knipp, Angie Smith, Kim Van Hoy, Brittany Merritt, Courtney Ward, Brittany Hodge, and Sierra Frisby for all of your hard work and assistance throughout the audit process!
I’m sure there were many others who contributed to this success as well. A successful audit truly takes all of us doing our part to remain familiar with grant regulations, best practices, agency policies, laws, and the requirements that apply to our work.
A very special thank you to our retired friend, Barb Crabtree, who continues to assist us in preparing the required financial statements. We greatly appreciate her continued support!
What does a Successful Audit Really Mean?
A successful audit demonstrates strong financial controls, appropriate documentation, regulatory compliance, and responsible stewardship of agency resources.
But what many people don’t see is the tremendous amount of work that takes place throughout the year to make that successful audit possible.
Behind the Scenes:
While our auditors may only be on site for a few days, the audit is really the culmination of months of intense and meticulous preparation.
Before the auditors arrive, our team works to ensure that every balance sheet is reconciled to the penny. This may look like a Fiscal Specialist reconciling a bank account or a Staff Accountant or Bookkeeper reconciling general ledgers, allocations, and other activity to ensure every dollar is accounted for.
Documentation Matters:
Believe it or not, auditors rarely take our word for it! They require physical or digital documentation to support the transactions they test.
Our team spends significant time making sure transactions are:
Recorded accurately
Recorded in the correct budget period
Properly documented
Allowable under applicable regulations
Reasonable and necessary
Consistent with the purpose and mission of the agency.
Auditors closely examine expenses to ensure funds were used appropriately and transactions were recorded in the proper period. This is where Accounts Payable and our procurement processes play an important role in ensuring required approvals and supporting documentation are in place.
We don’t know which transactions the auditors will select for testing. Our goal is to make sure every transaction is properly documented and supportable, whether or not it is ultimately selected.
Payroll: One of Our Largest Expenses
Payroll is typically one of an organization’s largest expenses and is therefore an important area of audit testing.
Our Payroll Specialist, HR, and Fiscal team work throughout the year to ensure employee pay is properly documented, time is accurately recorded, transactions are recorded in the correct period, and related benefit and tax requirements are met timely and accurately.
The Revenue Stream:
Billing and Accounts Receivable work throughout the year to ensure revenue is properly documented, recorded in the correct period, and accurately reported.
This provides stakeholders with transparency regarding where our revenue comes from and helps ensure the agency maintains a strong cash-flow position by making sure funds due to the agency are collected and recorded properly.
For our Health Centers, this process starts well before a payment is received. Providers, Front Desk staff, Clinical and Billing all play an important role in ensuring encounters are completed, coded, submitted, and ultimately collected timely.
The Complex Layer: Grants & Compliance
Grant and compliance reviews are conducted routinely throughout the year to ensure the agency is spending funds in accordance with applicable federal regulations, grant requirements, and the purpose for which funds were awarded.
Grant Managers play a critical role in this process. It starts with an approved budget and continues with ensuring that funds are spent appropriately and in accordance with the requirements of the grantor.
The Fiscal team works alongside program leadership and Grant Managers to help monitor financial activity, identify potential issues, answer questions, and ensure resources are being used appropriately.
These funds have been entrusted to us to further the mission of the agency and the programs we operate. Good grant management helps ensure we meet that responsibility.
The Final Product: Financial Statements & Disclosures
Financial statements and disclosures are the final product of work that takes place throughout the entire year.
Our Controller and Fiscal team work to maintain a strong accounting system, ensure financial information is accurate, and bring together the information necessary to prepare these complex, vital, and required reports.
Financial reporting also provides leadership and the Board with the information needed to understand the agency’s financial position, make informed decisions, and plan for the future.
Fiscal: Partners in the Mission
Fiscal is sometimes viewed as the departments that deal with numbers, paperwork, and rules. While those things are certainly part of the job, there is a much bigger purpose behind what we do.
Our team works with program staff, leadership, HR, IT, and other departments throughout the year to ensure that financial decisions are compliant, sustainable, properly documented, and aligned with the agency’s mission.
This means asking questions, identifying potential issues, looking for ways to improve processes, monitoring financial activity, and helping departments understand the financial and compliance requirements that affect their programs.
The goal isn’t simply to have good financial records at year-end. The goal is to have strong processes throughout the year that protect the agency and allow us to make the best use of the resources entrusted to us.
Every Department Plays a Part
A successful audit isn’t just a Fiscal accomplishment, every department and every employee contributes to our success.
Grant Managers, Directors, authorized purchasers, and all employees play a vital role by ensuring transactions and supporting information are reported accurately and timely.
That might look like:
Completing a timesheet accurately and on time
Providing a purchase order and supporting documentation
Completing an in-kind report
Following procurement and approval requirements
Providing documentation when requested
Properly recording program activity and expenses
For our Health Center, Providers, Front Desk staff, Clinical staff, and Billing staff all play a vital role in ensuring encounters are completed, coded, and submitted timely. Ultimately, that work helps turn the services we provide into revenue that funds those services and supports the agency’s mission.
A Successful Audit is an Agency-Wide Achievement
The successful audit is a reflection of the work being done across the entire agency.
Every accurate timesheet, properly documented purchase, completed encounter, timely claim, reconciled
account, and properly managed grant contributes to the bigger picture.
Thank you to everyone who helps us protect the resources entrusted to Pike CAC and ensure those resources continue to support the people and communities we serve.
This is what successful stewardship looks like - and it takes all of us!