Treasurer Requests Extension for Check Reconciliation - Audit Planned for Spring

SCHOHARIE — Schoharie County Treasurer Mary Ann Wollaber-Bryan requested an additional month to complete the reconciliation of monies for the county’s health insurance account. The County Board of Supervisors had requested an update by the end of January, and accepted the request by the Treasurer until the end of February.

County Board Chair Bill Federice said that the board accepted the request “to provide an accounting of where we are.”

He said that the board would then “review at that time” after February 28.

“To reiterate, the checks and bank accounts have always been reconciled monthly.  There never were 8,500 checks that were not reconciled,” said the Treasurer. In December, Town of Wright Supervisor Alex Luniewski questioned more than $1 million in funds from insurance funds being in question, including 8,500 checks needing further explanation.

In a letter to the County Board, the Treasurer said that the process of adapting to the county’s new accounting and administrative software was underway.

Training to use the check reconciliation module in the new Tyler Munis system took place the week of January 27th.  The process of reconciling checks in the Tyler system has begun, while monthly manual reconciliation of all accounts will continue as normal.

“There continues to be challenges in working within the parameters of this current system as we continue to learn,” said the Treasurer.

The Treasurer requested additional time to complete the reconciliation process in a letter to the Board of Supervisors dated February 7th. 

The Treasurer wrote that there were a number of wider issues facing the Treasurer's Office than the reconciliation of monies related to health insurance. She wrote that there were issues with singling out the employee share in the health insurance account due to the automatic nature of the Tyler system "which is needed to complete the reconciliation."

She also included a request until the end of February for the complete reconciliation of the county’s health insurance account.

Prior to the deadline, the Treasurer provided an update on the process of check reconciliation and the shape of the county’s accounting. 

In the written report from Jan. 31, the Treasurer explained to the County Board of Supervisors that "January has been an extremely busy month with year-end requirements to get done, such as W-2s and 1099s. Neither of these went smoothly in the Tyler system and there were many fixes that needed to occur along the way." She thanked county employee Gretchen Randazzo for her help. She also cited Richmondville Supervisor Jeff Haslun for coming into the office and spending time observing the processes and accounting of the office. The Treasurer further invited supervisors to "discuss any questions or concerns" or to "see what other reports may be available and/or helpful." 

According to the report, Wollaber-Bryan wrote that due to the "automatic posting of payroll in the Tyler system" that the office has not yet "been able to find a way that can single out the employee share" in one budget line item. She is seeking assistance from within county government to make that happen. 

"Since the Tyler system in payroll does not include the retiree share of the premium, a new process needs to be developed, and new reports need to be found in the system." 

She said that right now the Tyler system is "only posting employees who are getting paid for a pay period. If the employee does not get paid due to FMLA or some other reason, the system does not show anything." 

Wollaber-Bryan further said that the system does not account for the fees the county pays CDPHP insurance to administer health reimbursement. She said that the transfer of the employee share "can be processed for March-October" but has not yet occurred. 

Separately, the Treasurer reported that all checks and bank accounts have been "manually reconciled through December 2024." She said that this process is a monthly one, and not weekly, "and will continue to be done monthly." 

The Treasurer said that there was further training on two days in January to utilize the Tyler system for check reconciliation. The county is also working with the Tyler company to create a template to import information from NBT Bank and the Bank of Richmondville to import information. At the present time, the accounting staff is manually clearing and un-clearing checks in the Tyler system. 

She said that all 2023 and 2024 transactions "in each account must be cleared prior to starting the process for 2025" and that this process began at the beginning of February. She further wrote that not all checks issued by the county are processed in the Tyler system, such as DSS checks and EBT transactions and that "both manual reconciliation in addition to Tyler reconciliation will need to be completed and verified."

This week, “The request for additional time was through the month of February. We are currently investigating the process the new system uses to conduct transfers between budgeted accounts.   Once we determine this, we will be able to make any necessary corrections in a timely manner. Barring any other unforeseen complications, I am fairly confident this should be accomplished by the end of the month.”

The Treasurer also said that she spoke with the county's independent auditors, Bonadio, to let them know about the concerns. She said that Bonadio is set to begin an audit "in March and continuing into April."

Federice said that several processes within county government were “antiquated and archaic,” including elements of the payroll system. Some were being done by hand, he said.

“You can do this in minutes.”
“We need to bring our check reconciliation process” into a system that “any $100 million enterprise would have,” Federice said.

Regarding the February 28th deadline, the Treasurer was optimistic about the process.