Town Accounting Program
Town Accounting Program staff Janet Swem, Doris Bittenbender, and Joyce Muka (L to R) at work in the Gill Town Hall.
About The Town Accounting Program
The Town Accounting Program is a fee-for-service program initiated by the FRCOG in 2005 to respond to the needs of Franklin County communities for professional accounting services.
Overview
Small communities are facing increasing difficulty in finding qualified professionals to provide the services required to meet current accounting standards and increasingly complex program demands. The Town Accountant Program is a fee-for-service program initiated by the FRCOG in 2005 to respond to the needs of several Franklin County communities for professional accounting services. Services include warrant input, journal entries, reconciliation of cash and receivables, year-end closing entries, Free Cash certification and Schedule A preparation.
Current Activities
The FRCOG currently has agreements with seven communities, including Ashfield, Gill, New Salem, Sunderland, Wendell, Whately, and Williamsburg. In conjunction with the FRCOG, six participating towns have entered agreements to become users of the FundWare accounting software. All these towns are fully converted to the new accounting software, with Ashfield also converting to the FundWare payroll module. For town departments with high-speed internet access, accounting files are able to be viewed from the web. Additional office staff have been trained to access their town's data on an inquiry-only basis in order to research account activity and vendor history.
The town of Sunderland has purchased the FundWare accounting package as part of its own upgrade of financial software, and the FRCOG accounting staff supervised the conversion and implementation of the accounting module. Until the town purchases, licenses, and configures its own stand-alone hardware platform, the FRCOG will host Sunderland’s accounting program and payroll module on its own Greenfield server.
Future Activities
The FRCOG anticipates the expansion of the Town Accountant Program in the future as additional towns seek dependable, cost efficient and professional accounting services to meet their increasing accounting needs.
Page Last Updated: March 13, 2008