Oxford Village’s books got a clean bill of health from the auditor last week.

The municipality’s financial statements for the 2017-18 fiscal year received an unmodified opinion from the East Lansing-based firm of Stevens, Kirinovic & Tucker, P.C.

During his Jan. 8 audit presentation, Aaron Stevens, a principal in the firm, told the village council that opinion is “the highest level of assurance that we can provide for a set of financial statements.”

“That’s what you want to see as a council,” he said. “That means without exception, the financial statements are presented fairly in all material respects in accordance with GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles).”

Stevens said he “couldn’t be happier” with how smoothly the audit process went.

“It did go markedly better than it did last year,” he said. “We were able to complete field work (at the village office) in one visit this year versus the four visits that we made last year.”

The village’s general fund ended the previous fiscal year on June 30, 2018 with an unassigned fund balance totalling $671,721.

This money can be spent or saved at the municipality’s discretion.

That $671,721 represents approximately 31 percent of the village’s annual expenditures, which is a 3 percent increase from June 30, 2017.

Stevens told council the Government Finance Officers Association recommends maintaining a minimum fund balance equal to two months of normal operations, which works out to approximately 17 percent.

Oxford’s percentage is equal to almost four months.

The village added $63,162 to its savings. With the exception of a small dip in 2016, the fund balance has been increasing since 2014, according to a line graph presented by Stevens.

“I’m encouraged to see everything trending in a positive direction,” said village President Joe Frost.

During the 2017-18 fiscal year, the total revenues for the general fund amounted to $1.89 million, which was a decrease of “less than 1 percent” over the previous year, according to Stevens.

The total expenditures amounted to $1.845 million, an increase of about 2 percent.

A pie chart presented by Stevens showed the village  spent 60 percent of its money on public safety and public works. Public safety amounted to 37 percent, while public works was 23 percent.

The sewer fund has an unrestricted net position (or fund equity) of $688,501. “That represents approximately 152 percent of your operating expenses,” Stevens said.

The water fund has an unrestricted net position of $71,757, which represents about 23 percent of operating expenditures.

“That one’s a little low,” Stevens said.