State Auditor's E-Update - 2/4/2022

1. Message from Auditor Blaha

2. Meeting: Supplemental State Aid Work Group

3. Released: 2021 Revenue Thresholds for Audit Requirements

4. Available: County TIF Information Form

5. Released: CTAS 2022 Now Available through SAFES

6. Available: 2021 Annual Financial Reporting Forms

7. Avoiding Pitfall: Schools – Cash Receipts

1. Message from Auditor Blaha

If you report on COVID-19 funding in your community, you may be wondering how that data is shared with the public. To see your data on COVID-19 funding distribution, and data from across the U.S., visit PandemicOversight.gov.

At the Office of the State Auditor, we love comparison tools. This site also has an interactive map to compare our data with other states and go deeper to check out distribution at the local level.

As a steward of financial resources in Minnesota, we know how important financial integrity is to you. I hope you find this to be a useful resource.

2. Meeting: Supplemental State Aid Work Group

The Supplemental State Aid Work Group will meet on February 10, to continue its consideration of how supplemental state aid is allocated to firefighter pension plans.

The meeting will be held from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. remotely via Zoom, and will be live-streamed for those who are interested in watching. The live-stream link, and the meeting agendas and materials, are available on the Supplemental State Aid Work Group page of the OSA website.

3. Released: 2021 Revenue Thresholds for Audit Requirements

Cities – A city with a population over 2,500 must have an annual audit performed.

Cities with Combined Clerk/Treasurers – A city with a population of 2,500 or less and a combined clerk/treasurer must have an annual audit for 2021 if its annual revenue is more than $245,000. A city with a combined clerk/treasurer and annual revenue of $245,000 or less must have an Agreed-Upon Procedures engagement once every five years.

Towns – A town with a population over 2,500 and 2021 annual revenue of $1,092,000 or more must have an annual audit.

Towns with Combined Clerk/Treasurers – A town with a combined clerk/treasurer must have an annual audit for 2021 if its annual revenue was more than $245,000. A town with a combined clerk/treasurer and annual revenue of $245,000 or less must have an Agreed-Upon Procedures engagement once every five years.

Special Districts – A special district must have an annual audit for 2021 if its annual revenue was more than $245,000. A special district with annual revenue of $245,000 or less must have an Agreed-Upon Procedures engagement once every five years.

The Office of the State Auditor has developed minimum procedures and a reporting format for Agreed-Upon Procedures engagements of cities and towns that have combined the offices of clerk and treasurer, and special districts, with annual revenues less than the audit threshold. The minimum procedures and reporting format for Agreed-Upon Procedures engagements can be found on the OSA website.

4. Available: County TIF Information Form

The County TIF Information Form is now available and is due from counties by March 31, 2022. The form captures information for 2021 regarding a county's TIF administrative activities, distributions of tax increment, and transfers of the TIF enforcement deduction. Please refer to emailed instructions on accessing the form in SAFES.

If you are responsible for reporting in your county and did not receive an email, please contact our office at tif@osa.state.mn.us.

5. Released: CTAS 2022 Now Available through SAFES

We are pleased to announce that CTAS 2022 is now available through our State Auditor Form Entry System (SAFES).

If your entity purchased CTAS Version 8 or higher, there is no additional cost to download and use CTAS 2022.

CTAS 2022 includes fixes and feature requests in the Payroll and Reports Modules. Some of the major changes include an updated 1099-MISC form and newly added 1099-NEC form. Also, the 2022 Federal and State Withholding Tax Tables are included so CTAS users no longer need to import the tax withholding tables from our website.

For additional details on the fixes and feature updates, please see the corrected issues on the OSA website.

Questions should be emailed to ctas@osa.state.mn.us.

6. Available: 2021 Annual Financial Reporting Forms

The 2021 Annual Financial Reporting Form (Reporting Form) is now available through the State Auditors Form Entry System (SAFES). You will need a SAFES User ID and Password to access the Form. If you need a SAFES User ID and Password please send an email to SAFES@osa.state.mn.us with your name, title, entity, public mailing address, email, and phone number.

Instructions on completing the Reporting Form can be found on the OSA website.

CTAS Users are now also able to submit the State Auditor Data File and Financial Statements right from CTAS. Instructions can be found on the OSA website.

For local government entities reporting on a cash basis of accounting, the Reporting Form (CTAS: State Auditor Data File) and Financial Statements or Audit are due by March 31, 2022. For entities reporting on a GAAP basis of accounting, the Reporting Form and Audit are due by June 30, 2022.

7. Avoiding Pitfall: Schools – Cash Receipts

Schools should periodically consider reviewing some basic internal control procedures for payments received from students, parents, and members of the community. Here are some basics worth following:

Provide a sequentially pre-numbered receipt to the person turning in the payment. If a teacher/coach collects the payments, the teacher/coach should use a pre-numbered receipt book. At a minimum, the teacher/coach should maintain a list of the individual payments received, including whether the payments were cash or checks (and the check number). The teacher/coach should be provided with a receipt when the funds are turned into the main office for deposit.
Indicate on the receipts whether the payment was in the form of cash or check and, for checks, indicate the check number.
Use pre-numbered tickets for events and document the starting and ending numbers of the tickets sold at the event. Have someone other than the ticket seller reconcile the number of tickets sold to the money collected.
Segregate duties so the person preparing the deposit slip is not the person collecting the money. Have someone other than the person preparing the deposit slip verify that the description of the deposit on the supporting receipts agrees with the funds actually being deposited (e.g., cash vs. check amounts on the receipts match the deposit; the receipted checks are the checks actually being deposited).

This Avoiding Pitfall is available on our website.