Internal Accounting Procedures And Separation Of Duties

By Author: Kevin McNulty
Total Articles: 2
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We wanted to take this opportunity to insure you that at Condominium Associates there are many procedures and separation of duties to safeguard against embezzling of funds from occurring. We have 17 years of association management experience with 3 CPA’s on staff. We have three offices located in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco supporting four counties; Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Manatee. We manage over 150 associations with over 18,000 owners and have 32 License Association Managers on staff.

Procedures are in place to insure a separation of duties, from the lock box for accepting maintenance fee deposits, approving the invoices, cutting the check, signing the check, reconciling the bank statements and producing the financial statements. The determination of who has security access and authority is assigned to the individual by Nelli Kieffer our Chief Financial Officer (CFO). The person who reconciles the bank statements does not have access to produce a check. Below is a brief overview of who does what.

The bank’s lock box process accepts the maintenance fees deposits and provides a file with ...
... this information to us on a daily basis.
The Manager approves the invoices in conjunction with the board.
Accounts Payable cuts the checks
Craig Caldwell, President or Nelli Kieffer, CFO review each of the checks and back up information and signs the checks.
The Accountants reconcile the bank accounts and produces the Financial Statements

The accounting system used here is called Yardi a highly regarded software system. Recently we implemented the Yardi PayScan process that allows the board treasurer to access the system to review/approve the invoices. The access can be extended to other board members.

In addition to the strict process and procedures, we also carry $1,000,000 in errors and omissions and fidelity bond coverage.

We encourage the Board Treasurer of an Association to come in and meet with their assigned Accountant to review the financial statements, a great education process for the Treasurer.

If you would like to tour Condominium Associates and see the operation yourself, we encourage you to do that and I’ll be happy to set up a time.