Page 169 - Ord 866 Adopting a revised Fiscal Year 17-18 and new proposed Fiscal Year 18-19 budget

Goals and Objectives

18 Finance Department

Program Trends

Finance and accounting are core functions that often expand in direct correlation with an
organization that continues to expand
Staff experience has increased with the addition of a Finance Technician II to handle all
financial matters related to the Academy and the Westlake Academy Foundation.
Plans for continued future expansion at Westlake Academy combined with residential
population increases and economic development will continue to challenge the Finance
Department’ s ability to maintain the highest levels of service and quality with existing staffing.

2017- 2018 Highlights

MUNICIPAL FINANCE AWARDS
Prepared, submitted and received the Town’s
Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for recognition from the Government Finance
Officers Association.
Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for recognition from the Government Finance
Officers Association. Received an unqualified audit opinion on the 09/ 30/ 2017
Comprehensive Annual Financial Report.

ACADEMIC FINANCE AWARDS
Prepared, submitted and received Westlake Academy’ s
Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for recognition from the Government Finance
Officers Association. Awards received for 2009 thru 2017.
International Award for Budget Excellence for recognition from the Association of School
Business Officials International. Awards received for 2009 thru 2017.

STAFFING STRUCTURE
Keeping with our team stated goal to continually improve and implement the HPO concepts
in Westlake, we had an opportunity to review our current staffing structure and internal
processes to implement efficiencies.
The Finance Department had budgeted to hire another Accounting Technician in FY17/ 18;
however due to the efficiency and organization of the team, we were able to push out the
hiring to FY18/ 19.

INTERNAL PROCESSES
Workflow for Accounts Payable - The Finance Dept. is in the process of streamlining the
accounts payable process using AP Workflow through Laserfiche and STW. The accounts
payable ( AP) process touches every Dept. within the organization and when the AP process is
inefficient, it doesn' t just make life difficult - it can cost money. We are making dramatic
changes to the performance of our municipal AP function by digitizing and automating the
process, slashing the time required to make payments and eliminating conflict,
miscommunication, and re-work. Streamlining and automating our accounts payable process
can result in reduced processing time and more accuracy in your records and financial
reports; therefore, giving our staff more time to work on bigger projects and goals. NOTE: this
process was officially rolled out on October 2017.

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