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>> JULIE: Good afternoon and welcome to the playing by the rules basic conference. Today's
host will be Mr. Tim Fuchs. During the presentation all lines will be on mute. You will be able to
ask questions at several point during the presentation. Today's call is recorded.
I will.
>> TIM FUCHS: Thank you, Julie. Good afternoon, everyone. This is Tim Fuch from the
national council on independent living. I want to welcome you to the slick net webinar series of
2011, playing by the rules, a SILC fiscal guide to federal dollars.
Today's presentation is the basics. It will be an introduction to the rules and regulations for
spending federal dollars.
Our teleconference and webinar four today is presented by the SILC-NET, a program of the IL
net training for SILCs. It is a partnership among the independent living research utilization
program, ILRU in Houston, and nickel here in wash weeds and programs for independent living
in Arkansas. RSA at the U.S. Department of Education. Today's call is recorded so we can
archive it on ILRU's website. We will break several times during our presentation today to take
your questions.
Our webinar participants can ask questions by using the text box called the public chat under the
Emoticons on the webinar platform or if you are in the CART platform today, you can ask are
questions in the CART chat.
On the telephone, you will be able to ask questions by pressing zero and one to indicate that you
have a question. We will handle all of our questions during the Q&A breaks. The material for
today's call including the Power Point and an evaluation form are located on the website. If you
are participating by telephone, you will have to have it displayed on your computer screen it will
make it easier. If you are on the webinar, the URL is the same one sent to you in the
confirmation e-mail. I want to make sure everybody has it www.N CIL.org/training/ILC finance
211 materials.HTML.
Www.NCIL dog/training/SILC finance 2011 materials.HTML.
I mention there is an evaluation form on the training page. Please do fill that out. It's very quick
to complete and it's really important to us. It will also be on the last slide that we go through
today. You will be able to click and go straight to it.
With that I want to get started today and introduce our presenters, Melissa Glisson and Tim
Glisson. They have been involved in independent living for over 20 years now. Melissa was
previously director of ARISE, the center for independent living in Syracuse and Tim worked
there as well. They share common issues and understandings with regard to CILs and SILCs. I
have enjoyed putting this training together for the SILCs. I want to thank both of you for putting
together such an excellent series for us. I'll turn it over to Melissa to get us started today.
>> MELISSA: Thanks. Good afternoon, everyone. I was chuckling that Tim Glisson and I are in
upstate New York talking to you and going to be training from here and it's snowing outside. So
I'm hoping that's only the case here and the rest of you are comfortably warm somewhere.
With that said, I will be doing the bulk of the training today. Tim will add to it as he sees fit and
will enhance some of the sections. And then Tim will be doing the next session, which is next
Tuesday. Both of us will share in the next session, next Thursday.
A warm welcome to all of you.
Before we get started here, I just want to note that we have a range of experience and a range of
expertise among all of out there. This session is really designed to cover the basics and give you
somewhat of a broad view of proper financial management and oversight for SILCs.
I'm also aware that several of you wear a CIL hat. So I would politely ask you to remove that hat
and keep on your SILC hat today. The reason being that there are differences in terms of
regulatory requirements and I want to really help avoid confusion on your part.
Having said this, there are many similarities in terms of sound fiscal management principles on
required documents and reports. Some of this will sound very familiar to you, should sound very
familiar to you if you have been involved on the CIL side of the coin.
Today much of our focus is going to be on federal regulations as they apply to financial
management. During this webinar series we will not be covering the state regulations. However,
that does not imply or mean that you can be ignorant to your own state regulations. But this
training is designed to really focus on how we spend our federal dollars and what the related
requirements are from the federal government.
Having said that, I want to just share with you a brief excerpt from a letter that was issued from
the U.S. Department of Education back in 2006 from the chief financial officer at that time,
which was Danny H Harris. I'm just sharing this with you because I think this helps to set the
stage for this training and I can guarantee you that these sentiments ring true today.
Mr. Harris says, in the context of his letter, in general the department expects that you administer
education grants in accordance with generally-accepted business practices, exercising prudent
judgment so as to maintain proper steward ship of taxpayer dollars. This includes using fiscal
control and fund accounting procedures that ensure proper disbursement of and accounting for
federal funds. In addition, you may use grant funds only for obligations incurred during the
funding period.
And I think that that really again sets the ground and sets the stage for what we are talking about
today. And really, answers one of the questions of why, why it is so important. You will hear me
say a couple of times that legally we are accepting money that has some strings attached and we
need to play by the rules.
Okay. Let's go to the next slide, please.
Okay. Again the objective here for this session is to identify the key components and best
practices of effective general fiscal requirements and management. And during this session we
are not only going to look at best practices and principles that are behind sound fiscal
management but we are also going to make and really defend the case for why it is so critical to
understand and employ these practices.
This is often an area where people will accept their contracts, accept their awards and say oh, I
didn't really realize we had to do it this way. Or I didn't understand there were legal requirements
associated with this. We are going to talk about that today and hopefully give you enough
information so that you have a really gb understanding of why it's important and where do I go to
find the information I need to, so that I can adhere to the regulations.
With that said, let's begin with some broad concepts and principles. Later on in the session we
are going to move to more specifics or what I call standards.
Okay. Note again that for many of our standards and principles, I'm going to relate them back to
the fiscal standards that are set forth in the federal regulations.
So for this session you will see noteations to the Rehab Act, what is called OMB circular. We
will talk about that in the next session, how all of those fit together. For this session I wanted you
to begin to see that this relates back to the federal regulations on some of these overriding, over
arching principles and some of these practices.
I will also -- I'm sorry.
You are also going to learn in session 2 how the regulatory agencies are knit together to give you
a better understanding of how the regulators work. It may sound confusing for some of you if
this is new to you, but trust me, it will all come together. This is just the basics today. The next
session it will come together and in the third session we will flesh it out even more.
Next slide, please.
Next slide?
>>: May, Melissa, your computer. Guys, go back to the applicant will practice sound fiscal
management.
>> TIM FUCHS: Sorry about that.
>> TIM GLISSON: That's okay.
>> MELISSA GLISSON: Again we see that the applicant will practice sound fiscal
management. And this comes under standard 75, standards.
The applicant here is you, you are the receiver of federal dollars. I know that comes through your
DSCQ. You are the receiver of federal dollars.
I consider this probably the most important over arching principle or I might say the ultimate
goal of financial management that we will at all times practice sound fiscal management.
We are going to revisit this standard in just a few minutes, but I would like to think that by the
time we are done that this, you will understand what we mean by sound fiscal management.
Next slide?
Okay. If we take a broad view here of the fiscal side of SILC, we see that there are three
investors or three players. Sound fiscal been r practices benefit all three parties. It's important to
take a minute here to understand this. We have three outcomes of financial management, sound
financial management.
First being that it will result in effective and efficient operations for you. Again, you the State
independent living council. Effective and efficient operations relates to your systems and your
procedures.
I would guess, and I know from my experience in doing other trainings, that many of us have had
the unpleasurable experience of clunky or faulty systems. Some of you know they can really
lead, if they are not corrected in time and not addressed, it really can lead to fiscal ruin.
Sound policies and procedures can help to prevent this. They don't totally prevent this, but they
can really help to prevent this. That's just one outcome for you as a SILC.
The second player here is the public. The public demands, and I would add rightfully so,
accurate and reliable fiscal reporting. And as Mr. Harris said, he referred to it as taxpayer dollars,
which includes all of us, by the way.
This not only affects your marketing, but also your credibility. That people will be able to
depend and rely on the fact that what you're reporting is accurate.
Last but not least, it's the law. I assume we all know the conditions consequences of unlawful
behavior. I often quote and appreciate the saying that if you don't want to play by the rules, don't
take the money. We don't have to like the rules, but we must follow them if we accept the
money. In this case, ignorance is clearly not bliss.
On a final note here, if you were to add the word "do we have" in front of each bullet, in other
words, if you say do we have effective and efficient operations, do we have reliable financial
reporting, do we have regulatory compliance?
That to me is a good litmus test for your board regarding the fiscal side of the council. So that is
something to keep in mind.
>> TIM GLISSON: Melissa, you look at that side and you see effective and efficient operations
and you say what does that mean? What does it imply? In the previous slide we were identifying
best fiscal practices of effective practices. It seems like a nebulous term but it is described in
EDGAR 74, Education Department Administrative Regulations.
What you it implies you have control over and accountability for all funds, property, and other
assets.
So that effective is not very nebulous. It is very specific.
>> MELISSA GLISSON: Thanks, Tim.
Okay. Let's move forward to the next slide, please. A quick point of consideration. Why does
anyone more than our CFO, which is our Chief Financial Officer, the finance person or CPA,
need to have an understanding of the basic financial fiscal components? Why do we all need to
bother ourselves with this? This is not an all inclusive list you see in front of you, but for good
reason. I guess I could argue that.
Why the basics? First of all, so that we can understand budgets. The total budget as well as some
may have what we call program budgets, individual budgets or activity budgets, to really
understand the numbers and understand how they work.
Which leads us to the next bullet, to read and understand financial statements. We are not talking
about a level of understanding here where it's just a rubber stamp and relying on the fiscal people
on the council to do the work and we just nod our heads and say yes.
What we want to make sure is that people understand what they are looking at. And how the
numbers work together.
Thirdly, to meet contract obligations and again to make sure that we know what we need to do
and that we are in fact doing it. And you are going to see more on this when we talk about cost
principles, which is in the third session of this webinar. We really need to understand how we
can spend the money, what we can spend the money on and how we need to report on what we
spent.
And that varies across councils as to the type and nature of the activities they are providing, who
is responsible for the budgets around those activities and the dollars around those activities.
You can see it's more than just the director and/or the CFO.
We can communicate with our funders, respond appropriately to our funders. That's the fourth
bullet. That we can communicate with them. We understand the language. And if you will, the tls
of the trade.
So that as we, especially as we grow -- I'm sure there are many of you who are saying yes, we
wish, we hope. I encourage you to think like that.
As we grow, that we really understand the language around this and that we understand what is
the expectations are from our funders so that we can respond appropriately.
Okay. The next slide.
Everyone needs the basics. Well, the board or the council if you're a nonprofit, a 501(c)(3), we're
using the word board and if not, we use the word council member, maintains legal responsibility
for the SILC. The Executive Director is charged with overseeing the fiscal process, which will be
outlined later in this session.
The more each member of the SILC team understands the finances and the fiscal process, I
believe the higher the likelihood of effective and sound fiscal management. There is no person,
no person's role is too small or insignificant to not be a part of this process. And noting, of
course, here that each may be required to have a different level of understanding. I have to tell
you that, just a little side story here, while I was Executive Director of a CIL -- I'm violating my
own resume and putting my CIL hat on here just to make a point.
I saw a dramatic change in the way our center -- we were a very large center at the time, a few
million dollars, a dramatic change in the way our center operated around our financial policies
and procedures and our fiscal, if you would say a steward ship, when we took the time to educate
the entire staff about the financial processes and the budgets, et cetera.
>> TIM GLISSON: The culture of the agency changed, I think is what you're trying to say,
Melissa.
>> MELISSA GLISSON: Yes, people really took ownership there.
I encourage you as council members to really think about this and to promote it, if you will.
So on our slide here, I have the first bullet is the board of directors or the council member is the
second bullet and then the Executive Director and the fiscal staff.
The leadership team which is, again if it's a larger council, people who help to oversee or are
involved in certain aspects of activities.
Lastly but not leastly, the staff people that have an understanding that is appropriate importance
the job they have.
Okay. -- correction: For the job they have.
Before we move into the basics and the tentative standards, let's take a few minutes and define
some of the terms so that helps with the communication of the standards and the regulation.
With that, Tim, the next slide, please.
Okay. Fiscal terms. I am just going to go through these fairly quickly and give you a sort of brief
definition or understanding. And I want to point out the third bullet, which says respond
appropriately to funders. It's true, but it is not a fiscal term that we are going to define here. I
apologize for that. That was my error.
We are going to skip over that one.
The first bullet here, when we use the word award, which is what the federal government uses, it
really means financial assistance that provides support to accomplish a public purpose. We often
call it a grant or a contract. The government calls it award. You will see this in some of the
regulations, which is why I want to point it out. When I first started seeing the word award, why
do you get an award for taking this money? I don't want you to get too excited about it.
Accrual basis for accounting, I know this is new for many of you. This is contracts as a cash
basis, with the accrual basis of accounting, we record revenue when it is earned and expenses
when they result in liabilities.
It is what almost all CILs and SILCs should be using if they are not already. This is in contrast to
the cash basis. That's where we record cash received when they are received and disbursements
as expenses when they are paid not when they result in liabilities.
Okay. We are going to skip number 3, the third bullet. Move down to allocable. You will hear
much more about this in our third webinar next Thursday, but let me just explain it now.
These are costs that are distributed to multiple awards. They benefit the account charged and the
portions of the benefit provided.
For some of you that have been around for awhile, we used to call them admin and overhead, A
& O, you'll see people refer to them. Cost and benefit, the entire agency. You can't opinion b
pinpoint them 100 percent to one award or one contract.
Let's see. Allowables is the next bullet. Allowable are costs that the award will pay for. There's
more information and we will see more and talk more about this when we talk about OMB 122.
Not everything here, all the money is -- actually, let me hold that thought and keep going here.
I'm sorry.
Okay, the next one cognizant federal agency. That is the agency that gives you the most federal
dollars and for SILCs it would be RSA, Department of Education.
And a direct cost. Those are expenses that are related to a specific cost objective that we can say
that this expense goes directly back to this pot of money, if you will, or this contract.
Indirect costs. Again, those are costs, expenses, I'm sorry, that are for a common organization
expenses. They are not assigned to a specific award.
Internal controls. We will talk a lot about this today. Those are policies and procedures that are
in place to protect the assets and allow for proper record keeping. That internal controls is a big
ticket item, if you will, for the federal government. And rightfully so. And I can be a cheerleader
for that concept. As you'll see as we talk more about that.
A pass-through entity. We just simply, it is a nongovernmental earings that gives awards to
another nongovernmental agency to carry out a federal plan.
For most of you the money goes to the DSU and it's passed on to you unless you receive obvious
I a, your monies outside of RSA money, Department of Ed money. If you have other monies
coming in, it goes directly through an not through a pass through.
Gross income received by a contract for supported programs. If you have a program or activity
that is supported by the government and you make money above and beyond in that program or
activity, that is considered program income. There's regulations around that. And GAAP, the GA-A-P stands for generally-accepted accounting principles. This really is the basis of all
accounting, used to prepare, present and report financial statements.
I know I went through those quickly. I'm making an assumption that many of these terms, if not
all of them, are not brand new to folks. It's not the first time you've heard or seen them.
I am hoping that that was enough. We will be using these terms as we go through the training
over the next three webinars.
Okay. Next slide please.
A view as I say from altitude. A look at three over arching prib Pells that really govern financial
management and steward ship. We are going to talk quickly about these three. We will review
the specifics which support these principles which kind of feed up to them. This one you saw in
the first slide. I told you we would come back to this. The applicant will practice sound fiscal
management. This comes directly from the Rehab Act. You will see in session 2 that the
Rehabilitation Act takes precedence over any other presentation. Sound fiscal management will
help you to have effective control and accountability for all your funds, your property and other
assets. This really sets the stage and the expectation.
And these principles that we're talking about are not just principles that guide federal dollars.
They should guide your entire budget, no matter where you get the money from.
The next slide, please?
Okay. Over arching principle 2, transparency and accountability are's key. The CPAs love this.
Anybody who is out there that has a CPA hat on, you're nodding saying yes, yes.
Transparency. Show all. Some like to say, we only have one set of books, completely open and
honest in our record keeping.
And that's, you know, basically somebody can come in, the appropriate person obviously I'm
talking about here. And there you have it. You can see exactly what's happened, what occurred
up to this point.
Accountability. Basically what we are talking about here is that we are accountable for the
dollars and the resources and the services. And you are able to demonstrate and defend how you
have spent the money that was given to you that we have a paper trail to support that.
And related to this principle in section 25 of the Rehab Act it states that all programs and
services are to be provided effectively and efficiently, which means we are accountable to our
funders in the way that they can see it.
You know, the question is or the question that we're answering here is are we using the dollars in
the way that they were intended to be used, both effectively and efficiently.
>> TIM GLISSON: Melissa, you mentioned one of the basics is to be respond appropriately to
funders. People may find it interesting that as we respond appropriately to funders by being
transparent and accountable, the funders are responding to their funders, as you called owl r all
of us taxpayers, by being accountable back in April of 2006 before two gentleman ran for
president. Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain, they were cosiners of a bill that was the federal funding
and accountability transparency act. It ties together in who you are accountable to. You must be
transparent.
>> MELISSA GLISSON: Right. Let me adhere that you are in, your accountability and
transparency would be to the DSU.
Okay. Next slide, please.
Lastly, the third over arching principle as I call them, systems must provide accurate, current and
complete disclosure. I would add to this of the results regarding the use of funds used under the
grant project.
Again, that's right out of the OMB circular A110.
This is the crux of any financial management system, whether you are a SILC, a DSU, a CIL or
any other nonprofit.
And when we talk about steps here, we are talking about our roshed keeping, our processes and
our -- our record keeping, our processes and procedures. They must be accurate, complete
disclosure.
Accurate, you have heard the saying garbage in, garbage out. Don't be misleading. If it looks
wrong or doesn't add up, it probably is not accurate. We can all see the, we have witnessed the
rise and fall of large businesses to see that accuracy and misleading -- inaccurate and misleading
leads to trouble.
So let's see. Current, up to date, not only with the recording that you give to your funding
sources. Perhaps through your DSU, but also at your board meetings. Anything that is more than
a month maybe two months once in awhile, behind, in terms of reporting, you need to question
why. Because a lot can happen in two months time and a lot can get away from you.
Lastly, complete disclosure which relates to transparency. Complete disclosure. Honest and
factual.
Okay. Let's move to the next slide. Those were the principles. Now we move into some of the
specifics. Or the standards, which I call them. Again these are taken directly from the
regulations. They are not in any particular order here of priority. But we will just start here. We
are going to go over a few of the standards that are more applicable and most often used.
Okay. A clear paper trail. This comes right out of EDGAR. Which is the education ->> TIM GLISSON: Department guidelines administrative regulations -- Education Department
Administrative Regulations. I thought you were asking just for the D there.
>> MELISSA GLISSON: No, I had a senior moment.
This allows a clear paper trail. Allows the auditors and the federal reviewers to follow the money
from the point of award to the receipt of the cash or the receipt of the contracts to draw down to
the expenditures and then lastly to the cash that's left after the expenses have been made.
So the expenditures. Let me just point out a couple of things here because I think, the contract is
self-explanatory.
Expenditures, how you spend the money by line item. Okay? Specifically how it was spent.
Cash after expenses means the money that's left over. What do we do with the money that's left
over? What have we done with it? All pieces of this information must be kept in records that are
available for review by our funders, audit ors or other appropriate interested parties.
We keep original documents and some of you are out there, I know the reputation sometimes of
finance people is they will track me down for every stinking receipt. Well, they should be
tracking you down for every stinking receipt because they need to put that in their files. All
original receipts and original documentation must be kept in the record.
Okay. The next slide, please.
Okay. Source documentation. That's another standard from OMB circular A110. This is
documentation that must be kept. Documentation refers to the original document and it shows all
of the expenses, the justification for the expenses, you know, was it travel for part B activity?
Was it an office supply expense? And the funding source. And we need, in terms of justification,
justification for thr contract. You know, is this something that was allowable in this contract?
And the funding source, if it's clear what funding source, if you have more than one. What
funding source paid this expense? Where was it charged to?
An example of support documentation, maybe receipts, the original receipts, invoices. Time
sheets if we are talking about payroll. Time sheets that are signed by employees if that's
applicable to your council.
Okay. We are going to skip slide 13 and move right to slide 14.
The reason for that, those were duplicate slides.
Okay. Another standard that we are going to talk much more about in a few minutes is having
proper internal controls. And these are defined as policies to ensure federal funds are
safeguarded. Safeguarded doesn't mean we lock them up and put them in a safe and only one
person knows the combination. It means a lot more than that.
One of the key examples, I guess the priority control that the government talks about and many
accountants and CPAs if you have ever had an audit, this is often one. SILCs may have a limited
number of staff people. I know that's true for CILs. It's separation of duties.
And that is basically here means that we have no one single person performing all the duties on a
fiscal process. The same person doesn't open the mail, cash the check, pay the bill, records what
happens. So proof of, it's separation of duty, fiscal controls.
Conflict of interest, we are mandated to abide by written policies and procedures. We will talk
about that in session 3.
An independent audit if you are required to have one.
These are just a few examples of internal controls. I wanted you to see that this is a required
standard. You must maintain and use internal controls.
The next slide is, we mentioned earlier having effective and efficient operations. Here we
specifically see that we are called to have an efficient accounting system, which also implies that
it's an effective, even though we don't have the word effective there.
What we are talking about here is an accounting system that is user and system friendly. People
not only understand it, but they use it properly. Not one that looks good on paper, but is
effective.
Here sometimes I think the error is that we may have a system that is too much for us. It provides
information that we don't need. I'm sure the office at the other end of the spectrum, too. Some of
you used systems that were not enough. It didn't give you things that you need the. It needs to
meet the needs of the SILC, this is important. It must meet your financial management needs, but
reporting needs.
There are so many financial management systems out there now, I couldn't tell you which wn is
best and which meets most of the standards and requirements.
But certainly there are some considerations in determining what might be the best suited system
for your SILC. For example, considering the size of your budget. Of course, allowing some
growth, I would always note.
The number of staff people you have who are able to operate, or planning to have operate the
system. The scope of activities that you are involved in. And some money that is available for
administrative overhead. Just some considerations in terms of a system.
And one that meets the needs of the agency.
And lastly, the system needs to conform to GAAP, which is the generally-accepted accounting
principles. So it means to make sure from a regulatory standpoint that the information you are
getting, the reports you're getting meet the standards that are outlined in GAAP.
Okay. The next slide, Tim.
Next we see that the systems we have in place really need to ensure that all reporting must be
accurate and timely. So this is again another standard here in terms of reporting and oversight.
Here not only time, but up to date on the financials. Again, I mention that typically there's a onemonth lag here unless it's year end or something. You know, you're changing systems or
sometimes changing auditors or a CPA, may cause a sort of infrequent delay. But it should be
infrequent.
In terms of oversight, internal, an internal administrator, simply means that there's one person
assigned the responsibility of contract and or grant management. And this is typically the person
who communicates with the funder. On, you know, a somewhat regular basis. They have the
relationship.
Also internal oversight can include and typically includes the internal controls. The board or
council functions related to contract administration and any other oversight that needs to occur.
In terms of external oversight, here we are talking about an independent audit if it's required and
the OMB circular 110 states that financial management systems shall provide effective control
over and accountability for all funds, property, and other assets and recipients shall adequately
safeguard all such assets and assure that they are used only for authorized purposes.
That is, I believe, the main goal, the main or perhaps outcome that RSA would like, is that we
are using, you are using the money that they get solely for authorized purposes. They want their
funds safeguarded.
Okay. Let's move to slide 17.
Let's see. I think we will do two more slides and then we will take a short break for some
questions, if there are any.
Okay. I would like to kind of end this section right here. Before concluding, statements I refer to
as four money matters that are obviously important money matters.
Federal funds are only for the goals and objectives in an approved contract. That can be very
frustrating, especially when you get mid stream and think, we have this new idea that came
across or we went out and did a needs assessment and found out that we really need to focus on
more rural activity. Whatever it is, whatever leads you to be wanting to do something other than
than what you committed to doing, but you need to remember ont for expenditures and activities
in the goals and objectives for what was an approved contract.
Too many stories out there of doing some fabulous things, but they weren't in the contract and
they were never approved. So thus never reimbursed for. You don't want to find yourself in that
situation.
Secondly, fiscal controls and account can procedures must ensure proper disbursement of and
accounting for federal funds that are internal controls and are procedures. They really have to
make sure that we are disbursing the money correctly and that we have justifiable records and
documents to show that.
Let's go to the next slide. Okay. The last, three and four. When the in doubt, check it out. Get it
in writing. And many of you, I'm sure, have experienced talking to somebody and not knowing
who you talked to and they said it was okay and now you can't remember who it was.
Or you're the staff that I say is left behind or the new staff person and you don't know whatever
arrangements someone else has made prior to you because they weren't put in the file and they
weren't put in writing.
This not only helps with the paper trail, but obviously there's been a change in staff on either the
SILC side or the funder side.
In this case I think it's really prudent to remember that it's not better to ask for forgiveness than
permission here. You'll find yourself wishing that you had asked for permission.
This applies to any changes in the contract. For any questions regarding cost principles, it's
something, if something is an allowable cost and maybe it's one of those gray areas, to really
make sure that you get it in writing. And the writing can be an e-mail, a note, whatever works
that is a piece of legible documentation that you have or that you can get.
And lastly here, relationships are critical. Here we mean relationships with funders. Certainly all
relationships are critical. You might add, but here are specifically focusing on the relationships
with funders.
I encourage you to really identify a liaison. As we talked a few minutes ago, within the SILC and
have them establish a relationship. One person.
What I know, what RSA and what most funders don't appreciate is four calls from the same
organization asking different questions. So identify one person. And the staff of the funding
source can be helpful by answering questions or sharing information. And you know, I think
sometimes we overlook people on the funding side in some of our funders because they are
always requesting something from us, which is their job.
But I think if we can somehow think about creating a partnership, because they are, they have
more information than we do about the specific funding regulations.
And we are able to ask them questions about the contract, about things like allowable costs. We
can even benefit from asking them about up coming funding priorities. Word travels sometimes
fast through relationships in telephone conversations or e-mails than it does in some official
format that may be sent out to everybody.
Also a a resource for accounting and fiscal management. I have found certainly in my own
sources with funding sources that when we are trying to create reports that are acceptable to them
or something that maybe some new pilot project where nobody has experience on how do we
report on this and what are we really looking for, outcomes, activities, that working with a
funding source and creating some kind of a document certainly has, I have seen, proven to be
beneficial.
Before we break, Tim, did you want to add anything? Or say anything?
>> TIM GLISSON: I'm good.
>> MELISSA GLISSON: Okay.
>> TIM GLISSON: You're doing a great job.
(Chuckles.)
>> MELISSA GLISSON: Tim Fuchs, can I turn it over to you?
>> TIM FUCHS: Yes, Julie will take questions first from our telephone participants.
>> JULIE: Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, you can do so by pressing zero then 1
on your telephone key pad.
Your first question comes from Camille. Go ahead, your line is open.
>> AUDIENCE: How long do we need to keep the records? How many years back?
>> MELISSA GLISSON: Camille?
>> AUDIENCE: Yes.
>> MELISSA GLISSON: The standard is seven years, a minimum of seven years.
>> AUDIENCE: Thank you.
>> JULIE: That was the only audio question. Mr. Fuchs, do you have any Web questions?
>> TIM FUCHS: Julie, I don't.
So if you are on the webinar and you would like to ask a question, of course, you can type it in
the public chat and to do that, you can type your question underneath the Emoticons and click
enter and it will appear.
If those are the only questions, then we can go back to the presentation.
>> MELISSA GLISSON: Okay, a few questions. Are people still awake?
(Chuckles.)
>> TIM FUCHS: We have one, Melissa, before we go back. Coming in from Florida they ask
since most SILCs don't get sufficient funding to trigger the requirement for an audit, do you have
recommendations how to handle it or fund it?
>> MELISSA GLISSON: Hmm, you are not alone. I don't know if misery loves company, but I
can tell you you are not alone as a SILC or as a CIL.
You know, we have dealt with this before and I know in other instances a couple of things have
happened.
One is, people have been able to get it donated. And you know, you may be sitting out there
saying wait a minute, I'm going to try to get mine donated because they are not cheap.
There are instances where people have been able to get it donated.
The other option is to not get a full audit. And a partial audit, you know, if you are -- I'm
assuming, whoever asked this question, the Florida, na they have someone come in and focus on
certain areas.
The third and we are going to talk about that here in the next part of this webinar, is what we call
an internal audit and again, that's basically testing files. I'll talk about that in a couple of minutes.
But if you are able to go to a local foundation, often that -- I shouldn't say often, but in several
instances that I can think of, people have been able to get a small grant to pay for an audit. It's
pretty -- I would think it's pretty hard to turn down, a nonprofit who wants to really have their
books checked and everything is in order. You may just be able to go to a foundation.
>> TIM GLISSON: Melissa, you're certainly right. Of course in this day and age, the climate,
economic times we are in, people want the responsibility. I can see people agreeing with you
saying yeah, I can probably do that, but I'm prohibited from doing any kind of fund raising.
Make sure you do it in your spare time.
>> MELISSA GLISSON: Right, right, which means that you would have a volunteer on the
board do it in the capacity of doing it not with their SILC hat.
>> TIM GLISSON: Or do it in your off time and that is allowable.
>> MELISSA GLISSON: Right, right. I wish that weren't the case that you do not have that --
that weighs heavy on my heart. I think that only helps to improve our finances and all of us need
an assessment.
>> TIM GLISSON: Can we ask the question, is there anyone on, Tim, for whom the educational
department is not the cognizant agency? Anybody on that they don't receive the majority of their
funding from -- I don't know if we can do that.
>> TIM FUCHS: I don't know from the list. There's only two states in the country that don't
receive the majority of their funds from the feds.
>> MELISSA GLISSON: Okay.
>> TIM GLISSON: Great.
>> TIM FUCHS: Okay. Let's switch back. Julie, have any other questions come in on the phone?
>> JULIE: No, sir.
>> TIM FUCHS: Melissa and Tim, you can take back over.
>> MELISSA GLISSON: Okay. Let's go to the next slide, please.
Okay, we are going to talk about some internal controls here. And again, these are mandated, if
you will, that we have these policies and procedures and that we also -- we talk about not only do
we have them, but we have them in writing.
So one of the most important tenets, I think, of sound financial fiscal management is that we
have internal controls.
Excuse me, let's inspect this a little more closely. Internal controls as we said just a minute ago
are a place to safeguard the federal dollars. I would add that they are in place to safeguard all
dollars, including donations.
Let's begin with a quick review here. These controls are established to protect the assets, which
is not only the dollars but any kind of property that was bought with federal dollars.
To provide consistency and operational efficiency, that we have policies and procedures in place;
that whenever you submit an invoice, the process, that it remains the same and that it's efficient
for whoever it is on the receiving end on the SILC board. Whoever does the finances, that they
can do things with efficiency and effectiveness.
Increases your fiscal viability. That this again will not prevent, no are guarantee that it will
prevent fraud and/or human error, but it certainly helps to avoid that and certainly helps to again,
with your marketing with the credibility with your funders, that it really all in all really helps our
fiscal viability.
Certainly, I guess I got ahead of myself here, uncovers potential liabilities if we have these
processes in place.
Interesting, too, I have done more work than I would like to admit with nonprofits that are in
fiscal trouble, either because of negligent on taking -- negligence on taking care of the
bookkeeping process and the finances or out right fraud or unethical behavior and 99 percent of
the time there were no internal controls in place or, if they were, they were haphazard and the
people involved in the processes weren't aware of them.
I don't want to assume that it's a given that we all have a full set of policies and procedures.
Again we'll talk about that in just a minute.
We are going to skip to slide 22 because 21 is redundant.
Thank you, Tim.
The benefits of internal control. Say it once, say it twice and hopefully we'll all get it, all
remember.
No guarantees, but the goal is to do the following. Assure fiscal prudence. This is to our
community and our funders, spending dollars wisely which is called for in the regs.
And you would be amazed at in the community -- and the community, obviously you are
representatives from all over the State who come together for a SILC council, but the community
watches. They watch us. They watch.
Safeguard the SILC assets. Again, or proper steward ship of SILC assets.
Assure fiscal compliance to our funders and donors. They help us with policy, which of course is
the board's responsibility. But setting policy which provides accountability.
So internal controls really help us to set policy.
Create checks and balances, a system of checks and balances. There may be wiggle room in how
you do activities, but never wiggle room in how you account for the money.
Checks and balances always need to be put in place. And lastly, they are required by the funding
sources. Remember, we are taking the money and we are playing by the rules here.
>> TIM GLISSON: You were talking about sharing fiscal prudence. One way of looking at that,
if the newspaper or other media got a hold of your finances, would you be so prudent that you
would be proud of what it revealed on the front pain of the paper and/or the lead story,
something along the lines of the department when the Army years ago was found to be paying
exorbitant amounts of money for a single hammer, toilet seats, things like that.
Prudence, could you be proud of what you do with other people's money?
>> MELISSA GLISSON: Good way to think about it, look at it.
Okay, the next slide. Okay. Again, the key policy, the key policy which was mentioned earlier,
that no segregation of duties limits the amount of fiscal activity controlled by any one person.
This means that no financial transaction is completed from beginning to end by one person.
Now, I know in many situations, clearly this is often an issue with CILs. We get real created
when we talk about how do you separate duties here, segregate and have checks and balances
when you only have four people in an office?
For some of you, SILC members on the council, this may be an issue as well. Given that people
come from afar and depending on the number of employees you may have.
I have two thoughts here. One is an ED or Executive Director or the chief finance person's
perspective. This is a really good control because it really helps to protect you in the event of any
problems and leaves less room for suspicion.
I know if any of you are like me, I'm very efficient. I am the kind of person who I'll do it myself
because I can get it done faster and more efficiently.
It doesn't work in this case. Think about it from that perspective, if you can. It helps to soften the
need here. I guess soften the tenet here.
Also we are working, we are human beings. We don't want to set folks up for temptation. We
never want to set people up for that temptation if they are handling 100 percent of the fiscal
transaction. This is a safeguard.
Now, we run through a few more controls at the staff leaf, the board level and the reporting level.
Not all of these will apply to your SILC. They are merely examples and best practices in some
cases.
So those of you that want to do everything correctly don't worry if some of these controls don't
fit into your organization at this moment.
Okay, Tim, the next slide?
At the staff level we might have these things in place. Authorizing signatories. We have a policy
about who can sign the checks, who can sign for contracts. Excuse me, just a minute.
>> TIM GLISSON: I think the authorizing signatories, what we are talking about there, is a
couple of people, maybe a Executive Director plus the treasurer of the SILC. It's another
component there, in addition to the two signatories or perhaps more, depending on the amount
that is being spent.
>> MELISSA GLISSON: That's correct. You need to agree on the amount, the dollar amount
because there's certainly some things where one person can have control. That needs to be
spelled out.
Secondly, separating accounts receivable from accounts payable. That we have those two
separate people overseeing that process. Segregating payroll from human resources for obvious
reasons. Balancing cash and checking accounts, that we do balance the cash in the accounts. That
we reconcile these accounts.
And that we are creating checks and balances for every process and procedure. That is involved
in our financial process here.
Okay, the next slide.
Continuing here, that we are inspecting payroll reports. And that doesn't mean again, for many of
you your staff is small. Certainly if you are listening with your CIL hat -- you are not supposed
to, but I'll allow you. You say oh, my gosh! To look at every single ... as I call it, it's testing.
Every once in awhile I would grab a report and run through a list of employees. Unfortunately,
we have instances where people either are not on the payroll. It is a cousin or a friend, and we
have had one -- we, I have been involved in one instance where the person had passed away and
there was checks still being issued.
We are inspecting payroll reports. Not only the names but also the amounts.
Recording cash. And the general ledger that we have a process for when cash for contracts come
in, our draw-downs.
On passwords wherever possible, especially around the finances and the accounting. Petty cash
limits. We don't have an endless pot of money that people are able to come in and tap into.
Not only petty cash limits, but that we have a process for using petty cash and that should be
reconciled typically every month.
You know, people say how much should you have? I will say it depends. One hundred dollars is,
you know, typically the norm but I know in some places it is again depending on where you're
located, it may be more rural or you may have to have larger amounts or you're more
comfortable with smaller amounts. It needs to be spelled out.
Using POs, which stands for purchase orders. Not just going and submitting a request, but
actually filling out a purchase order, which is a great paper trail. That is a great, great, paper trail.
Auditors love that one. Regular computer backups that are off site not just on site, for all the
obvious reasons.
>> TIM GLISSON: Melissa, one of the ways to think about this is in a proactive sense rather
than a reactive. You get these policies in place, you think of what is the worst case scenario and
prevent it.
We like to say the best way to clean up a mess is to not make one.
>> MELISSA GLISSON: Right. That's actually a saying in our house. Enough about that.
(Chuckles.)
>> MELISSA GLISSON: It doesn't work.
Tim, the next one. Get back on track here, Tim Fuchs.
At the reporting level. Now, the reporting level means reports that go to either the full board or
the full council or to our funding source rs.
So we are talking about board monthly financials. That actually is considered an internal control
that we have monthly financials that are presented to the board.
If you have a board meeting every two months or quarterly, I would say no less than quarterly,
that the monthly financials are still broken down and submitted at that point.
And again, we have talked a bit about the data that is accurate, that it's transparent.
We compared utilization data here, that this, this is part of your system and it's something that
you're doing, that we compare one month to the next month. That we balance our general ledger
monthly. Again, this is just timely, timely activities around the finances.
Quarterly finance committee meetings. Again, some may meet once a month, but finance
committee meetings really, I don't know that that's a specific mandate, but I do know it's at least
an expectation. Certainly it is an expectation to have a finance committee. Lastly, time sheets
with written authorization for any over time. And time sheets that are signed and then kept in the
files. Again, a paper trail.
So that's on the reporting level.
On the board level, again your accounting system must provide for these things. Sorry, Tim, the
next slide, please.
An accurate record of income and expenses.
A cost of the programs and services. They can be broken down. What is this costing us in terms
of this activity or this service that we are providing? A comparison of income and expenses and
lastly, segregation of duties that we can identify, that we do have a segregation of duties and that
we are complying with that.
Raff next slide, please.
The internal audit. I mentioned this in response to the folks from Florida who asked a question.
This is another internal control that is often utilized by SILCs were larger budgets, multiple
funding sources and maybe a variety of activities.
And this basically is done by an internal person here. So quality assurance process, assures
quality and accuracy of reporting information. We may do it twice a year, and it is typically done
by an audit commit that is on your council, maybe a specific council member or an auditor. This
is an informal process, but it really helps sometimes just to test the files and any of you who have
any accounting expertise know what I mean by that, but I will explain that if we test the files,
which is what auditors typically do, you go in and pull a few files. You don't look at every single
expense and receipt, but you pull a couple of files.
The bare minimum which you may want to do here is have the board or the council, the board
treasurer or the council treasurer or the finance committee ask for source documentation or as the
auditors do, just to test the files. Again, just an internal control that helps to -- we are not looking
to catch people. We are looking to make sure we are on the right track and following our policies
and procedures.
Okay. The next slide, please.
I've included this checklist because often check sign can and statements is the primary for
financial trouble this checklist can be used as a reminder to staff. It can be used perhaps as a
training tool. And certainly could be used for overall accountability.
You shall going to see in the webinar session next Thursday, which will be our third one, the cost
principles that dictate how we spend the federal dollars received. This is very important. Having
these controls in place will play a key role in terms of regulatory compliance for these principles.
So let me just run through this checklist here.
So check signing and payments. This is something again that would be, you would expect that
every time the check is signed or a payment is made, that these things would happen. The
expenditures were approved in advance. So there was some kind of requisition, some kind of
purchase order that was presented, and had been approved in advance.
Secondly, the request for checks was reviewed by someone. And again, it depends on how you
are, what your system is set up, which should be documented, whether it's the Executive Director
needs to approve every request or the it's the fiscal person who needs to approve every request or
perhaps if you have other members of your staff, somebody else who is the designated person.
The check signer reviews and initials the check register. This is the register that is often printed
before the checks are printed.
That typically is an Executive Director or somebody other than the finance person.
They quickly go through the check register and says yes, I approve that these checks are printed.
Typically you don't have the supporting documentation when you are approving that register, but
you can ask for that or have a system in place where there's a copy of an invoice that's presented
with the register.
Our larger checks that require two signatures, do they in fact have two signatures? Are the
checks prenumbered? Which they should be. And voided checks. Do we have the voided checks
on file? Again, another checks and balances -- no pun intended here, that we are talking about
checks.
Bank statements and canceled checks. Are they received from the bank and are they reconciled?
Some of you may be using software where they come over the computer. Are they received and
are they reconciled?
We had a situation where there was an organization that had not reconciled bank statements for
just about 14 months. And you can only imagine the mess. It was basically somebody new on the
job who made some assumptions. I don't know, the auditor was doing it, but things were quite
messy at that point.
And then the next slide, please, Tim.
The last three here, the list of unpaid invoices on filed file and reviewed periodically by the
director, that you are aware of what has not been paid.
This again really plays into transparency. You don't want to be presenting to your board, and
especially if you are using the cash basis of accounting which I would not recommend. This is a
great example. Well, look, we were in the black here. Meanwhile you have a list of invoices that
have not been paid.
So to keep on top of those invoices to keep them in a 30, 60, 90 day file, but to really review that
and keep on top of that.
Purchase orders are prenumbered. Again, like checks being prenumbered. We have them
prenumbered so we can keep an account accounting for them.
That employees are presenting receipts on time.
Funders do not look kindly and they typically have a stipulation that everything must be
submitted prior to 30 days, 60 days, depending on the funding source and the contract, for
payment or they will not reimburse. Number one of the earlier statements I made -- I think it was
the statement from Mr. Harris that in addition you may use grant funds only for obligations
incurred during the funding period.
So we make sure that our expenses occur in the time period.
And that they are submitted for reimbursement timely as well.
And again, it only gets to be sloppy bookkeeping when you allow people to turn things in willynilly, a couple months after the fact.
Okay. Tim, can you go to the next slide, please?
I mentioned this briefly. Another financial management standard here is accounting and a
financial policies and procedures manual. You label it whatever you want. It's an accounting
manual or financial policies and procedures manual.
In OMB 110 and EDGAR 74, they talk about this and this is where you document your policies
that show your compliance to the administrative requirements that are spelled out in OMB 110
and EDGAR 74.
What they ask for is written policies and procedures. So if you go and check that, you will not
see -- well, you must have a financial management accounting policies and procedures manual.
You will see that they require you to have written policies and procedures. This meets that
standard and requirement.
Now, of course, we don't want to just document. We need to implement what is in the manual.
And it's really only as effective as its implementation. Many organizations make it a policy to
have their employees sign a signature page, which states that they have read and understand the
manual. And again, this would be something for your fiscal staff. A personnel policy and
procedures manual would be for the entire staff.
>> TIM GLISSON: Melissa, very important that people do, when they sign that, they understand
that they do understand. So as a training tool, it is often the case where people are not
understanding yes, we want to be transparent, but there's also a confidentiality to a certain
degree. We don't want to use the information to harm the funders or the agency emission. So it's
got to be dealt with on both sides.
>> MELISSA GLISSON: Right, that's a great point.
A few key points we made about the manual. Let's take a look at why, what can we use this for?
Why is it beneficial? First of all an excellent internal controls tool. Again, it contains all the
policies and procedures. As Tim just mentioned, effective training tool. When you bring on new
staff, just really helps with the consistency. That you are able to follow the policies and
procedures.
And on sort of a funny note here, this is really good especially if you have old timers, people
who have been around for awhile.
They kind of cut corners and kind of adopt their own little ways of doing things. But when
training a new staff member we all know, if any of you have taught, any of you who may drive
have taught your children or somebody else how to drive, that you -- it's kind of hard sometimes
because you have little things that you do that you certainly don't want them to do.
But going back to the financial manual, that it really is a great training tool.
Remember, it does need board approval. It is a policies and procedures and we want the board to
be on board for this.
Updated annually at least. And it may need no updating, but you will be surprised. There may be
new things that have come forward that you need to implement, especially with growth. You'll
certainly need to update it.
Again, it must be used. If we don't use it, it is only killing trees and using lots of paper.
So let's go, Tim, to the next slide.
Unless, do we have a couple of questions here?
>> TIM FUCHS: This may be a good time to take a Q&A break.
>> MELISSA GLISSON: We have two more things which are an outline of the policies and
procedures manual. We can take a break now and go ahead.
>> TIM FUCHS: Julie, why don't you go ahead.
>> JULIE: If you would like to ask a question, press zero then one on your telephone key pad.
Press zero then 1 on your telephone key pad.
(Pause.)
>> JULIE: I have no audio questions. Do you have any Web questions, Mr. Fuchs?
>> TIM FUCHS: Great, we have plenty. Let's go ahead. The first one, Melissa, comes from
North Carolina. And Cynthia asked you to clarify what you meant by balance the GL.
>> MELISSA GLISSON: Sorry, the general ledger, your's recording the information from the
accounting.
>> TIM FUCHS: She wanted to clarify, do you mean balance the bank statements or something
more sophisticated?
>> MELISSA GLISSON: No, no. Reconcile. I look at it like reconciling the checkbook, make
can sure that what you reported in the GL is what is recorded in this bank statement.
>> TIM FUCHS: Okay.
>> TIM GLISSON: Generally the principle is on a regular basis.
>> TIM FUCHS: Thanks for clarifying.
We have a long question coming in. This is an example. So it says are SILC hired accountant
who specializes in accounting. I was willing to charge a nominal fee. Comes into the week once
a week, keeps the budget, works directly with the Executive Director on board. Attends board
meetings and attends all findings meses of the DSU with finance committee and DSU. It gives
the SILC time to focus on -- so it's a comment and suggestion for other SILCs.
>> MELISSA GLISSON: That is a fabulous -- and actually, it really -- good for you. I think it's
Deborah that sent that in. Good for you, Deborah. That is an option. If people can exercise that
option, I would encourage you.
To consider it. But that is something that I know certainly CILs have utilized that kind of idea as
well. Good for you. Thanks for sharing that.
>> TIM FUCHS: Then I have some questions that were messaged to me. Let's start with those.
Somebody was wondering about what is required for reporting staff time.
So what do you need to collect in a time sheet?
>> MELISSA GLISSON: Okay. Typically you set it up, it can be a very simple form. You set up
obviously the person's name and then each day the number of hours worked. If you have
different funding sources -- in other words, if this person is splitting their time, it's easier to talk
about in terms of programs. Say I am working four hours on this program from this underwriter,
put four hours and then I would identify where that, my time is charged to.
What you want to see is not only the number of hours worked but what funding source is paying
for that are person's time. Then the cumulative time at the end of the week and signed by the
employee and signed also by the supervisor or somebody who has the authority to oversee that.
>> TIM FUCHS: Good tips. Do you have any recommendations for bookkeeping software?
>> MELISSA GLISSON: I think -(Laughter.)
>> MELISSA GLISSON: I threw that caveat out earlier. You know what, I don't. It really
depends on the needs of the organization, the size of the budget. You know, I know a lot of
people use -- is it quick books? Quick books for nonprofits. That's a familiar one importance me.
I know when we have done these trains before, we have had up to ten or 12 different kinds of
software recommended. I will tell you, though, if you are using a CPA, that would be the person
I would ask. Or if you know of a local -- certainly if you are using a CPA, it makes it much
easier for them if you are using software that they are familiar with.
>> TIM GLISSON: That's the point. What we largely found in doing the trainings in conferences
and other places, it depends on the user. If they are familiar with it and comfortable with it, the
opinions on say quick books, just as an example. Some people love it, some hate it. It's your
ability to manipulate it.
>> TIM FUCHS: Thanks for that. We have two more questions, but let's get back to the
presentation and make sure we can finish these and handle these questions in the final Q&A.
>> MELISSA GLISSON: We will be pretty quick, last two slide. What I have given you here on
the slides, slide 32 we should be on.
This is a sample table of contents which is typically included in your policies and procedure
manual. Again just like the financial management system. The manual needs to meet the needs
of the SILC and the requirements of the fund b funding sources.
Let me quickly review what you might include here. First of all, your board's role and
responsibilities, roles and responsibilities or your, the council's roles and responsibilities.
Really this will delineate typically the committees that are set forth. The expectations of the
executive committee, finance committee, et cetera.
Secondly, the accounting procedures. How are we going to set up the chart of accounts? How do
we deal with income and expenses? What are our banking procedures? Do we go to the bank
daily, once a week? Is there a designated person? Maybe we don't go to the bank. Nowadays we
do everything online. If we go to the bank to make deposited, that work an example of how to do
that.
Third category, financial management. The revenue and expense classification, budget
management, budget development. How are we going to do that annually? Who might be
involved?
The third bullet here is purchasing policies. Again, this would relate to, we have numbered
purchase orders, they must be submitted five days prior to purchase or must be approved by, you
know, the director and a fiscal person.
I'm just giving you examples here.
And then on the next slide this continues. Tim, can you forward the slides? Thank you.
Financial reporting. The annual budget will be included there. Any contract requirements and
audits. And under there we may have contract management requirements, vouchering, draw
downs, those kinds of things.
And lastly, again just in this model, payroll policies. How do we deal with independent
contractors? Some personnel policies. We may, you may want to put personnel policies and
procedures in a separate handbook, but it doesn't need to be.
And conflict of interest is really on everybody's radar these days. Especially RSA has talked a lot
about this. You can put it either here in this manual or in a personnel policy handbook.
Again, this is not an exhaustive list but it is simply a sample of what might be included. And
again, depending on your needs. The key here is document through a policies and procedures
manual. Have it written down in an organized and cohesive sense.
>> TIM GLISSON: I think that's important, Melissa. When you come to an annual budget, if you
have your policies and procedures down, you have your accounting down, you have a spending
cost history that you can carry forward when you are talking about increases in allocations,
perhaps, to major funders.
>> MELISSA GLISSON: Right, right.
That's it for our presentation. Going in your direction.
I know we do have a couple more questions perhaps. I hope that it has been helpful. Let's see if
we have more questions here, Tim.
>> TIM FUCHS: Julie, why don't you go ahead first.
>> JULIE: If you would like to ask a question, press zero then 1 on your telephone key pad.
(Pause.)
>> JULIE: I have no questions at this time. Do you have any Web questions?
>> TIM FUCHS: I do. Let's finish these up and see if any roll in in the meantime.
Okay. So coming in after the bookkeeping question someone asked, this is going to be common
for SILCs. We're too small to do separate signing payment and other functions for our controls.
We don't have that many staff. What do you recommend we do?
>> MELISSA GLISSON: Right, right.
I am not surprised at that question. Well, you know, when I say get creative, sometimes I don't
know how small is small. You know, maybe it's three employees, three people.
Then you have one person do part of the function. Somebody else maybe just signs off on it or
reviews what you have done.
Sometimes you can have a SILC member, a board member who is not in the office. You can
certainly have them because that's another person, another set of eyes. I would encourage that to
be somebody maybe who is in an executive, like treasurer or the vice-president or ->> TIM GLISSON: Leadership capacity. I think the principle is, as long as there's two people,
somebody can look over somebody else's shoulder.
>> MELISSA GLISSON: Right, right.
>> TIM FUCHS: Okay, great.
>> MELISSA GLISSON: Auditors, too, sometimes will provide, once a month or every two
weeks, auditors will have somebody look over the checks, too.
>> TIM FUCHS: The final question on the Web is tangential to the software question, but a little
more complicated.
So they say are our SILC members don't understand the reports our software prints out. Any
recommendations for training them how to read the reports? It sound like it's not about the
software, it's about understanding the reports.
>> MELISSA GLISSON: I see, the SILC members don't understand the software or the print
outs. I will eel tell you, the quick answer is board training.
In all seriousness, this happens not just on SILC councils, but it can happen on CIL boards, too.
My experience has been and as I have related to others, start slow. You know, let people at least
understand part of the reports. You might want to start with maybe the balance sheet. This is how
much money came in. These were our expenses for the month. This is where we left off.
I would just encourage you to do it as a board training. I would say, or as a council training. I
would say let's do 15 minutes at the next four meetings where we're going to talk about the fients
and allow people to -- about the finances and allow people to ask question and no question is a
dumb question. Ask them, because ten other people are probably thinking the same thing.
You may want to bring somebody else from the outside if you don't have somebody comfortable
in house doing that.
>> TIM GLISSON: If you go to the external route, I would pick up on Deborah's point. Get
somebody, there are folks out there who want to make a name for themselves. Talking to a
statewide agency isn't a bad resume builder. You will be surprised who may be willing to do that.
>> MELISSA GLISSON: I know the next webinar we are doing on Tuesday, Tim Glisson is
going to talk about regulartors and regulatory commitments and don't assume that every SILC
council members understands even the financing. In hindsight of what I just said, you may want
to start with that. This is where the money comes from, this is how it flows. Break it down into
more digestible pieces.
>> TIM GLISSON: So expect Tuesday to be very digestible.
>> TIM FUCHS: Well, that was the end of the Web questions and we just clicked over to 4:30.
Let's give one last chance to the folks on the phone, Julie, if you don't mind.
>> JULIE: No problem. If you want to ask a question, press zero then 1 on your telephone
keypad.
(Pause.)
>> JULIE: And there are no questions.
>> TIM FUCHS: Okay. Great.
>> MELISSA GLISSON: Tim, in closing, the last slide, 35, it lists the regs, the regulatory
parties and the Web address. Are you going to mention that?
>> TIM FUCHS: I am on it now.
It might be your computer. I'm displaying it now. Everybody should be able to see it.
>> MELISSA GLISSON: Yeah, I do have it. Do you want me to talk about it?
>> TIM FUCHS: No, just wanted to point out what that was. I'm going to click over finally here
as we wrap up for today to the evaluation page. That's actually a live link. If you're participating
in the webinar, click on that link and it will take you to the evaluation form. If you're on the
telephone, you can access it on the training page where you got the materials from. You have my
word, it is very easy to complete. Doesn't take long, just a minute. If you are participating in a
small group today, you are welcome to discuss it and print it out but share your thoughts. Melissa
and Tim, thanks for a great beginning to our series. Everyone else, thanks for being with us. Part
two is next Tuesday, the 26th and part 3 will be next Thursday, the 28th, both at the same time.
And we will use the same connection information. If you keep this handy, this is the same
webinar link and teleconference code weeing use on those codes.
Tim and Melissa, please hold the line. Everyone else, have a wonderful afternoon.
(The webinar concluded at 3:33 p.m. CDT.)
(CART provider signing off.)
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