Financial Biennial Audit Report

on the Financial Biennial Audit

General Observations

• The parish is financially stable with reserves and is debt-free.
• The parish engages Cohn-Resnick, LLP, of Eatontown for regular reviews of the general ledger, bank statement reconciliations, and journal entries.
• The investment mix is conservative and is maintained by Merrill Lynch.
• All monetary transfers were traced and supported by documentation.
• All collections agree with control sheets and are deposited within a day.
• All expenditures are properly classififed and paid in a timely way.
• Invoices supported expenditures and properly charged to the general ledger.
• Files in both school and church are comprehensive and orderly.
• Credit card expenditures were supported by receipts and seemed appropriate.
• All tenants are current in payment of rent.
• All personnel files contained required documentation.
• Virtus (Child Protection) files were in order.

Observations regarding School K-8 / Religious Education Program

In 2012, the parish subsidy to the school totaled $571,000 (i.e, 28% of school budget and 44% of parish weekly collections). This has been reduced in 2013 to $450,000 (i.e, 20% of the school budget and 35% of the parish weekly collections). According to diocesan guidelines, a school subsidy should never exceed 40% of weekly collection revenue, and experience indicates that 30% is a more viable level. Using these guidelines, the school subsidy is at the extreme upper limits of the parish's ability to support the school.

Tuition for the Religious Education program totaled $42,000 (i.e, 45% of the program cost).

Recommendations

The auditor offered a few recommendations on minor points of our accounting and payroll procedures that were immediately addressed and implemented by the end of the audit period.