Friday, October 28, 2016

Is this a financial merry -go-'round?

Hi,

Wanted to update you on the Budget VS Actual Reports.   You will only be receiving them once a month now after the Interim TA has reviewed and approved them to be sent.   You should get the one for October on or around the 7th of November.

Kelli Pontbriand
Accountant
Town of Templeton
978-894-2765


from the latest report of the Town Administrator:

"The VADAR system refuses to pay any amount due if it will cause the line item to go over budget. I believe that the Town Administrator - in their role as defacto finance director - should be deciding whether or not to do this override (I need to know when a department heads run over their budget and be looking at how we will address it.)"

My thought is if you have a weekly budget versus actual, you have a better tracking of funds available and therefore how much you have to spend. When you have up to date information, you know, like keeping your checkbook register up to date or keeping track of account balance and how much you pay on a debit card. If department heads are doing their job, they should not be spending more than they were given at town meeting. It seems pretty simple but this is Templeton where we seem to always try to reinvent the rules of finance, in my opinion. Lets see if any selectmen speak out on this or do they continue to smile in public and say everything is alright, you know, just like the 2017 budget, so called.


posted by Jeff Bennett