The Organization will implement the following corrective actions for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024 to remediate the finding and address the cause of the finding. The Organization will implement the following corrective actions for fiscal year 2024 to remediate the finding and address the cause of the finding. The Organization has hired staff with higher technical accounting skills than the previous staff. The following staff have been hired full-time or will be hired soon: Payroll and Benefits Specialist, Grant Accountant, Senior Staff Accountant, Accounts Payables and Receivables Specialist, and a Purchasing Specialist.
• The current Chief Financial Officer (CFO) was hired in December 2023 and began full time employment on January 1, 2024. Additionally, all finance responsibilities currently handled by outsourced resources will be transitioned to full-time employed personnel.
• The Organization will document accounting policies and procedures to reflect the new month-end processes and provide training to staff on current and future policies.
• The Organization has implemented procedures for staff accountants to prepare balance sheet reconciliations monthly with a monthly review performed by the CFO. All balance sheet accounts are reconciled to external data for verification on a monthly basis. All revenue accounts will be reconciled to external data for verification on a monthly basis.
• The Organization has implemented a new accounting system – Sage Intacct. Additionally, we have implemented a grants project tracking module to better help with grants and contracts reporting and compliance.
• The Organization has implemented a month-end checklist for all monthly entries to be completed by assigned finance personnel. We are ensuring that all staff are trained adequately to handle any assigned task. All monthly entries are required to be reviewed and approved by the CFO prior to posting to the general ledger within our new accounting software. All appropriate backup documentation will be saved and stored within the accounting software.
• All grant related year-end audit procedures have been transitioned to the Grant Accountant who has experience with financial audits and compliance and reporting for City, State, and Federal grants.
• The Organization will ensure that Finance personnel receive a minimum of twenty-five (25) hours of training annually of relevant accounting topics including updates to generally accepted accounting principles, generally accepted government accounting principles, nonprofit and governmental financial reporting, and other related accounting trainings.
• The Organization will ensure that any personnel involved in financial reporting have the technical expertise to help with the preparation, review, and analysis of the financial statements and supplementary information.
The target date for full implementation of these corrective actions is August 31, 2024. The responsible party for the planned resources will be Gail Vijuk, Chief Financial Officer (708) 288-7897. Our address is 340 E. 51st St., Chicago, IL 60615.