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Cherry <br />Bekaert <br />Proposal for City of Santa Ana <br />The GFOA Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting is highly recognized as the epitome of <br />financial accountability and quality reporting. As a firm, we have provided support in obtaining and maintaining the <br />certification to more than 75 governments, with several of our partners/directors participating in the program as <br />certificate reviewers. As with all our GFOA submitting entities, we will assist you in any way necessary to help you <br />receive this award every year. We will review your ACFR in comparison to our Firm's standard governmental reporting <br />checklist and the current GFOA reporting checklist to help ensure that the Annual Report is in compliance with the <br />certificate program requirements. Additionally, we will review the prior year GFOA comments to ensure that they have <br />been properly addressed and/or corrected. <br />Account Reconciliation and Financial Close Assistance <br />We provide on -demand accounting and financial close support for many financial statement areas to government and <br />public sector organizations who are significantly behind on their accounting and reporting. We also offer more targeted <br />services such as assistance with bank reconciliations or reconciling capital assets across multiple systems. Examples <br />of accounting reconciliation and financial close assistance we provide include: <br />/ Analytical review of trial balance <br />/ Bank reconciliations and outstanding items <br />analysis <br />/ Grant closeout, investigation and reconciliation <br />assistance <br />/ Revenue and expense recognition for grant and <br />other funds <br />/ Data comparison between multiple accounting <br />systems <br />/ Review and analysis of payroll data for <br />completeness and accuracy <br />Financial Management Policy and Procedure Refresh <br />/ Accounts receivable or accounts payable <br />reconciliations <br />/ Fund allocation calculations and journal entries <br />/ Subledger reconciliations and analysis <br />/ Fixed asset reconciliations and depreciation <br />calculations <br />/ Pension and other post -employment benefit <br />calculations <br />► Preparation and reconciliation of the schedule of <br />expenditures of federal and state awards <br />► Audit PBC (prepared by client) list assistance <br />Recently, many governments have made significant operational changes within their accounting and finance function, <br />often due to staffing challenges or moving to a more remote or hybrid working environment. These changes lead to <br />outdated or inaccurate policies and procedures that do not reflect the day-to-day reality of the organization. We work <br />with governments to refresh their policies and procedures to take advantage of the efficiencies they've found as well as <br />benchmark them against other governments and provide additional opportunities for improvement. Examples include: <br />/ Cash Management procedures for receiving, depositing and disbursing cash and cash equivalents <br />/ Accounts Payable procedures for verifying invoices, purchasing cards, and travel and per diem requests <br />/ Accounts Receivable procedures for billing, recording and collecting, including the process for managing <br />outstanding balances and tax collections <br />/ Budgeting procedures for developing, approving and monitoring the government's budget <br />/ Capital Asset procedures for acquiring, recording and disposing of fixed assets to maintain fixed asset records <br />/ Payroll procedures for processing payroll, including calculating and withholding taxes and other deductions. <br />/ Grant Management procedures for grants and other external funding sources, including the process for applying <br />for grants, monitoring grant spending and reporting on grant activities <br />/ Financial Reporting procedures that encompass preparing financial statement and other financial reports, including <br />the process for ensuring accuracy and compliance with accounting standards <br />Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Accounting Module Implementation or Remediation Assistance <br />Many governments see the need to implement new accounting systems to reap the benefit of newer technology and <br />the efficiencies these systems provide. When implementing these systems, it is important to have the governmental <br />13 <br />