7.2 Consider Closing EDA checking Account
Staff Report
Date: January 3, 2023
For: Anne Hurlburt, Interim City Administrator
From: Colleen Firkus, Treasurer
Subject: EDA Checking account
The EDA has had a separate checking account and checks since 2014. In 2021 when I got in a
balancing issue that lasted 6 months, part of the solution was to create a separate cash account
for each checking and investment account to track debits/credits separately from the main cash
account 10100.
This worked very well for a time, except for the EDA account. Anytime a credit card is used to
pay for an EDA event or supplies, the charge would go against the main cash account 10100
with all the other credit card expenses. Or a check is written and the wrong cash account is
chosen while processing the check. This would make it necessary to do a journal entry to move
the expenditure to the correct cash account and do a bank transfer between the two checking
accounts. Since I would often not be aware of the expenditure until the following month while
balancing, it became necessary to record expenses and revenue in transit for the month. Or I
would forget to do the bank transfer and the journal entry would be in a separate month from
the actual activity occurring between the two checking accounts.
Abdo, Eick & Meyers which helped me straighten out the original mess in 2021, said it is cleaner
to keep separate cash accounts for each checking and investment account. However, making
journal entries and transfers between accounts has been causing unnecessary work.
I would recommend to continue tracking EDA expenditures and revenues in their 225 Fund, but
use the main cash account and close the EDA checking account starting in January 2023.