Thank you to everyone who answered my survey about financial services.  Several people asked me to share the responses, so here they are:

We are a city library but autonomous from the city. We are not a dept of the city — have our own budget. The city collects our millage & dispersed it to us.

Our budget is $405k

10 employees — only 2 FT

Bookkeeper/Accountant — 14K a yr. (She is a contract employee, comes in every other week to do payroll/bills — approx 5-6 hrs)

Payroll fees — Quickbooks is what I think she uses for payroll — $800 a year

Auditor — 7k

I handle all HR.

Hope that helps & good luck. Bad city administrators can really mess up a library.

We're a class 4.

1.  How much do you budget for accounting services?
0. (I do the expenses myself as Director, with my Children's Librarian inputting the income)

2.  How much do you budget for bookkeeping services?
0. (I do the expenses myself as Director, with my Children's Librarian inputting the income)

3.  How much do you budget for your annual audit?
$4,000.

4.  What is your total operating budget?
$402,500.

5.  How much do you budget for payroll services?
$1,800.

6.  How many employees do you have?
4 full time (including me), 3 part time and 2 subs.

7.  Do you have employees who perform any of the above services for the library? 
Yes. See above answer.

Hope this helps!

I am sending you our P&L because I am super short staffed today, but we fall into what you are asking about.  I have a bookkeeper that is supposed to work about 5 hours a week for $30 an hour.  I believe that ADP is listed as a line item.  We've had Paylocity calling us, but they have been super pushy and very weird with their offerings (they had me speaking to the wrong person for a long time and overestimating the charges).

1. We contract for accounting services for about $23,000/year.

2. Bookkeeping is also contracted out, and included in the above mentioned cost.

3. Our annual audit costs about $4,500 each year.

4. This year it is $699,000.

5. Again payroll services are bundled with bookkeeping and accounting.

6. 18 employees between two locations.

7. No. We have a business manager who codes all incoming invoices and prepares payroll for the accountant, and does bank transfers. But the actual accounting, payroll, and bookkeeping is done contractually.

If you are a Class 4 or 5 city library, and your city does not provide financial services for the library, I would like to know:

1.  How much do you budget for accounting services?
Accounting and bookkkeping are done by the same contractor -- total budgeted for 2021 $10,630

2.  How much do you budget for bookkeeping services?

3.  How much do you budget for your annual audit?
$10,000 FY'20 expenses was $8,200)

4.  What is your total operating budget?
$2,027,683

5.  How much do you budget for payroll services?
$3,100

6.  How many employees do you have?
28

7.  Do you have employees who perform any of the above services for the library? 
No

 We are a class 4 district library.  We have an employee who does all of our bookkeeping and check writing from home.  Last year we paid $6,000.00 for that service.  They use QuickBooks for all of our financials including payroll.  We pay about $900.00 for the payroll fees through QB.  We have a 3 year contract for auditing and are paying $3,400.00 for the annual audit.  Annual budget $764,000.00.  We have 19 employees, 5 full-time, 11 part-time (this includes the bookkeeper who doesn't work in the building), and 3 subs (on call).

 


James B Lenze (he, him, his)
Library Director
Garden City Public Library
31735 Maplewood St
Garden City, MI 48135


On Mon, Jan 25, 2021 at 12:24 PM James B Lenze <lenze@gardencitylib.org> wrote:
If you are a Class 4 or 5 city library, and your city does not provide financial services for the library, I would like to know:
1.  How much do you budget for accounting services?
2.  How much do you budget for bookkeeping services?
3.  How much do you budget for your annual audit?
4.  What is your total operating budget?
5.  How much do you budget for payroll services?
6.  How many employees do you have?
7.  Do you have employees who perform any of the above services for the library?  
Thanks in advance,
    James


James B Lenze (he, him, his)
Library Director
Garden City Public Library
31735 Maplewood St
Garden City, MI 48135