Loading...
The URL can be used to link to this page
Your browser does not support the video tag.
07-22-08 Item 23 supplement
Supplement to item # 23 11111M RT& C CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS To: Matilde G. Menendez, CPA Finance Director -City of South Miami, Florida From: Sheri Figueroa, CPA Date: July 21, 2008 Re: Budget Process Clarification At your request, please find our comments related to your budget inquiries: Budget Process The City legally adopts annual budgets for the general fund and special revenue funds. The City commission is presented with a proposed budget least 45 days prior to the close of each fiscal year. This budget includes proposed expenditures and the means of financing them. The budget is adopted after Commission review and public hearings, but prior to October 1 of every year. Budgets are approved on a fund -by -fund basis and management may transfer amounts between line items or departments, as long as the transfers do not result in an increase in total fund budget. However, expenditures may not legally exceed appropriations at the department level. Budgets are considered a management control and planning tool. Appropriations not encumbered lapse at year -end. Management should propose and the City Commission should approve a budget amendment when necessary for the appropriation of funds to meet budgeted expenditures. Encumbrance accounting, under which purchase order commitments for the expenditures of monies are recorded in order to reserve that portion of the applicable appropriation, is employed as an extension of formal budgetary integration in the governmental funds. Encumbrances outstandin at year end are reported as reservations of fund balances, since they do not constitute expendituor liabilities of the applicable fund. Because these amounts do not appear as act q ex e dre gs, tn,�t e curre�g year ;they wed_ to. be re- appropriated in the next years `bud e 'OC r'©ii n`�fil a isiz thatahme encurniZrances; which will be included as expenditures in the subsequent year, cause total expenditures to exceed budgeted amounts. Conclusion We hope to have answered your questions satisfactorily. Please let me know if you have any additional questions. We are available to discuss this letter with you at your earliest convenience.