Finance
The Finance Department is functionally responsible for City-wide financial and management services including general accounting, financial reporting, budgeting, internal audit, risk management, purchasing, payroll, economic development analysis and debt management.
The Finance Department also provides clerical support to City agencies in the form of Administrative Support Team personnel and services provided by Document Services.
| Finance Director | Dave Schmiedicke | 267-8710 |
| Budget & Program Evaluation Manager | Christine Koh | 267-4913 |
| Accounting Services Manager | Patricia A. McDermott, CPA | 266-4478 |
| Risk Manager | Eric Veum | 266-5965 |
| Treasury Manager | Craig Franklin, CPA | 266-6067 |
| Internal Audit & Grant Manager | Kolawole Akintola | 266-4421 |
COVID-19 Response and Cost Tracking
Munis Information
- Agency specific Project 12914 should be used to track COVID-19 response time and supplies expenditures.
- Agency specific Project 13463 should be used to track redeployed employee time.
- The GL account used with either project is determined at the agency level. If you are unsure on what GL account should be used, please reach out to your agency accounting person.
- No paid or unpaid leave time should be coded to either project. The projects are for tracking expenses on actual time worked.
Timekeeping for Response Activities
- All time related to the COVID-19 response should be entered into Munis for the appropriate pay period. Any time spent working in your normal agency should be charged to your agency specific project #12914, Coronavirus.
- All time recorded in the project should be coded the appropriate reason code. See the table below for each reason code and a short description.
| Code | Reason | FEMA Category Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0121 | COVID-19 1 | Management and control, and reduction of immediate threats to public health, including EOC and disinfection costs |
| 0122 | COVID-19 2 | Emergency medical care supplies, equipment, disposal, and transport |
| 0123 | COVID-19 3 | Medical sheltering |
| 0124 | COVID-19 4 | Food, water, ice, medicine, and other consumable supplies |
| 0125 | COVID-19 5 | Movement of supplies and persons including transit services provided as part of the City’s response |
| 0126 | COVID-19 6 | Security and law enforcement |
| 0127 | COVID-19 7 | Communication of general health and safety information to the public |
| 0128 | COVID-19 8 |
Search to locate members of the population requiring assistance |
| 0132 |
COVID ADDTL WORK REDUCED STAFF |
Overtime spent on normal work duties because another employee is out on COVID-related leave |
Questions about which code to use should be directed to Finance Budget Analysts.
Timekeeping for Redeployed Staff
- Agency staff who are redeployed to support other agencies should charge their time to their home agency's project 13463 regardless of where the work is performed.
- Individual agencies do not need to add budget to this project, Finance will monitor the status of this project and add the necessary budget.
- All time recorded in the project should be coded the appropriate reason code. See the table above for each reason code and a short description.
Non-Personnel Expense Tracking
AP Invoice and P-Card Expenditures
In order to maximize potential future reimbursement for COVID-19 expenditures, all AP invoice and P-card entries related to COVID-19 expenditures should include a “Description” indicating the category in which the expenditure falls. The format for entering this information is:
COVID [#], [remainder of comment]
To enter comments in the format above, all users will type “COVID”, a category number from the table below, and a comma, followed by any information they would normally provide in the Description field.
| Number | FEMA Category Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | Management and control, and reduction of immediate threats to public health, including EOC and disinfection costs |
| 2 | Emergency medical care supplies, equipment, disposal, and transport |
| 3 | Medical sheltering |
| 4 | Food, water, ice, medicine, and other consumable supplies |
| 5 | Movement of supplies and persons including transit services provided as part of the City’s response |
| 6 | Security and law enforcement |
| 7 | Communication of general health and safety information to the public |
| 8 | Search to locate members of the population requiring assistance |
Questions about which code to use should be directed to Finance Budget Analysts.
Budget staff will be reviewing all AP Invoices and P-Card Allocations in the workflow to ensure the comments are included and formatted appropriately.
P-Card Allocation Instructions
To ensure complete and up-to-date tracking of COVID-19 expenditures, agencies are required to meet the following deadlines for p-card allocation daily by 4 pm.
Any transactions related to COVID-19 should be assigned to the COVID-19 project (12914), and include a description with the appropriate expenditure category as explained above. The following instructions explain how to allocate part or all of transactions to a COVID-19 project.
If 100% of a p-card transaction is related to COVID-19:
- On the “Transactions” page, scroll down to “Allocations”.
- Add the project account 12914-XX-200, where XX is the two-digit agency code.
- Enter 100 in the “Percent” column to indicate that the full transaction was related to COVID-19.
- Process the transaction as usual.
If only part of the p-card transaction is related to COVID-19:
- On the “Transactions” page, scroll down to “Allocations”.
- Add the project account 12914-XX-200, where XX is the two-digit agency code.
- Enter the percentage of the transaction related to COVID-19 in the “Percent” column. This is calculated as the (Amount of Transaction related to COVID-19)/(Total Transaction Amount). Enter the project and/or org and object code that the remainder of the transaction should be charged to in the next line.
- Process the transaction as usual.
If you have any issues allocating transactions, please contact bfalkowski@cityofmadison.com.
Frequently Asked Questions
When should employees be charging time to this project?
- Any direct time that employees spend working on the City’s COVID-19 response should be charged to this project.
- Direct time would include the following instances:
- Attending planning meetings either within Departments or at the Citywide level
- Procuring supplies that will directly be used in the response
- Developing contingency plans and/or communication materials the City may use as part of its response
- Responding to specific work orders as part of the City’s response efforts to COVID-19
- Overtime shifts resulting to keep pace with response efforts and/or staffing shortages
- Direct time would not include the following instances:
- Staff time spent procuring general supplies that may, or may not, be used as part of the City response
- Routine call response that may or may not be associated with COVID 19 response
Should we charge employee sick leave for instances of the flu to this project?
- No, the intent of this project is to track costs associated with response efforts. Employee sick time should be properly coded but not charged to this project.
Are we tracking costs with the intention of being reimbursed?
- These cost tracking protocols are based on the reporting categories and guidance provided by FEMA. On March 25th, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act was agreed to by federal lawmakers. Based on this package cities with populations less than 500,000 will access direct assistance through their state governments rather than by applying directly to the federal government through FEMA.
- We are continuing to take these cost tracking steps to ensure accurate records using the reporting standards that will likely be required by the State of Wisconsin.
- Under the Governor’s State of Emergency, local governments have flexibility under existing State programs that restrict General Fund appropriations. Accurate cost tracking through using the established projects will be vitally important for future appropriations from the City’s fund balance to fund a portion of the response.
Should employee straight time be charged to this project?
- Yes, all employee time (whether straight time or overtime) related to the City’s COVID-19 response should be charged here to ensure consistent reporting mechanisms across the City.
What’s the effective date for charging expenses to this project?
- The effective date is consistent with when the guidance was issued to agencies from the Finance Director, March 10th. Any payroll charges before this effective date DO NOT need to be backdated.