I’m glad this winter is about over.  Not because it was a hard cold winter but because I’m ready to be done with audits.  Yes, plural!  Not only did we have our annual financial audit but we also had an IRS and an Iowa Use Tax Audit.  To make a long story short, there were differences of opinion, discussions regarding each other’s opinions and finally an outcome.   I cannot stress enough, how priceless it is to be able substantiate our positions and procedures with documentation showing the when, why, who what or how. I would like to express my appreciation and Thanks to the staffs of United Concrete, Wendling Quarries, Illowa, L.L. Pelling and Manatts in gathering and reporting the information required by the auditors.  You’re assistance resulted in a job well done!!

In addition to the audits this winter, we were also kept busy by obtaining the construction financing on the racetrack, planning and preparing the banker’s book, direct deposit of employee expense envelopes, the L. L. Pelling conversion to Viewpoint plus the ordinary updates and day-to-day activities.  Throw in a few Continuing Education and computer training classes and it brings us to the end of March, ready for the new construction year to start.

To assist our employees during the busy season when many work countless hours away from home, we are going to pay employee reimbursements “expense envelopes” by EFT “direct deposit” instead of a check.  This should make it easier to assure that the reimbursement is in our employee’s bank account in a timely manner.  To make this process work effectively, you will need to follow the procedure below. Should there still be any questions, please contact Pam, Laurie or myself in the Brooklyn Office:

1. All reimbursement requests are due in the Brooklyn Office on Tuesday.  They must be complete and have the required approval(s) before being paid.  The funds will be deposited into your account on that Friday.  Any reimbursements that miss the deadline date or were incomplete will be processed the following week.

2. The EFT (check) stub from the AP reimbursement will be included within your paycheck envelope.

3. Each person that is on an expense account will need to fill out and sign an Employee’s Authorization Form along with a voided check to be on file with Accounts Payable (Laurie Hash).

During our annual process review, we discovered several opportunities to improve our Accounts Receivable Application to Collections process. In addition, we now scan the checks and attach them to the electronic invoices in Viewpoint.  Under the old system, anyone who had to research a check had to determine which month it was in, and then sort through hundreds to thousands of checks.  Now, we can just go into Viewpoint, look up the customer in question and view the attached checks.  Now that is efficient!  The functionality is also operable in the Accounts Payable module.

Not to steal Nate’s thunder, but he has made several updates to make our lives easier.  The main focus of these updates deals with disaster recovery, which will be discussed in the accounting taskforce meetings in the year to come.  We hope we never have to use it but, in the end, it makes Manatt's, Inc. and our subsidiaries a stronger organization.

As I finish this article, spring is not in the air, but it is around the corner.  I understand that Mother Nature plays a big part of what we can and can’t do but it’s ultimately your responsibility to perform your job in a safe manner so that we don’t place anyone at unneeded risk. HAVE A GREAT 2006 CONSTRUCTION YEAR.