Auditing a Negative Balance
Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 11:49 am
I just got called as an auditor, so as I'm preparing for next month, I looked at LUFAS for the wards that I'm assigned to audit so that I have some feel for what issues have cropped up in the past. One thing concerns me: according to the Other Account reconciliations that I can view, one of my wards has had a rather large negative balance in an Other subcategory that dates back to mid-year 2011 (the amount hasn't changed in any of the Reconciliations I can see). I think I've talked with this ward's financial clerk in previous meetings, and the negative balance may even date back to the CUBS conversion.
This negative balance has been offset by other subcategories, including one that is possibly a parent category of the negative subcategory, but at least once, the positive balance of the parent was less than the negative, so the only way the entire Other account was positive was through offsets by clearly unrelated subcategories. The whole thing strikes me as something that should have been corrected in past audits, but it hasn't been marked as an exception. Is there something I'm missing or overlooking (entirely possible)? Should I talk with them before the audit, bring my concerns to the stake clerk, or should I do both?
This negative balance has been offset by other subcategories, including one that is possibly a parent category of the negative subcategory, but at least once, the positive balance of the parent was less than the negative, so the only way the entire Other account was positive was through offsets by clearly unrelated subcategories. The whole thing strikes me as something that should have been corrected in past audits, but it hasn't been marked as an exception. Is there something I'm missing or overlooking (entirely possible)? Should I talk with them before the audit, bring my concerns to the stake clerk, or should I do both?