Some expenses decreased after audit

Income from property taxes, the earned income tax and real estate transfer taxes were all up last year, Ed Furman of Maillie LLP said at the April 4 Lower Salford Township Board of Supervisors morning work session while reviewing a rough draft of the audit of the township’s 2016 finances.

On the other side of the led- ger, “You had pretty good control over the expenses,” Furman said. “Nothing really jumped there. Actually, a couple categories decreased.”

Auditing has changed since the days when the auditors picked a sample batch of township records for review, he said.

“We do a lot of electronic auditing,” Furman said, “so we actually download 100 percent of your general ledger transactions for the year.”

That is then run through auditing software and analyzed, he said.

Other changes include the reporting on pension funds, he said.

“We’ve got almost 10 pages now of pension disclosures, which, before, was almost one page,” Furman said.

The township ended 2016 with more revenue and less expenses than budgeted, he said.

“Overall, it was a good year for the general fund,” Furman said.

“The pensions and liabilities were essentially stable,” he said. “The [township-owned Lederach Golf Club] golf course was basically almost cash-neutral.”

The final version of the audit

should soon be completed, he said.

The numbers in the final version will be the same as in the draft audit, Township Manager Joe Czajkowski said.

“There’s some narrative pieces that have to go in, but the numbers are done,” he said.