Finance Department
The mission of the Finance Department is to provide sound financial management to protect, maintain, and enhance the resources of Sea Pines for the benefit of the Sea Pines Community; comply with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and financial policies and procedures for accounting, asset management, budgeting, internal controls, debt administration, financial reporting, audit, and regulatory reporting; provide accurate, informative and timely financial information to organizational management, Boards of Directors, committees of the Board and the community at large.
Our Core Services
- Financial – Provide informative, accurate, and timely financial information to financial statement users as well as external and internal customers. Maintain update estimated and actual results of reserve studies and related estimates
- Budgetary – Develop short and long term realistic and achievable plans regarding revenue, operating costs and capital expenditures in accordance with the goals and objectives of the Sea Pines Community
- Treasury – Monitor, preserve, and control cash and investments, assets, debt administration
- Accounting – Maintain Sea Pines CSA’s and four related entities’ general ledgers, revenue and related accounts receivable, expenditures and related accounts payable, fixed asset administration and depreciation, and related debt. Act as primary contact for the independent external auditors and provide requested information for the preparation of the annual income tax return preparations
- Hardware and Software Maintenance and Support – Includes procurement, purchase, installation, repair maintenance, on-call support, security management, data backup, upgrades and replacement for all servers and computer equipment to include connectivity and access control
- Database Administration – Installation, maintenance, processing, tracking and archiving of database environments
Budget Timeline
- In early September, Sea Pines CSA staff begin the budget process for spending initiatives for the following year.
- The initial draft of the expenditure budget is essentially a wish list.
- The initial list is vetted with Sea Pines CSA President, Sea Pines CSA Director of Finance and Administration, and the Sea Pines CSA Board Treasurer.
- The review is based on general ledger line item details within each department for operating expenses.
- Comparisons are made against the prior year’s budget and a forecast of actual current year expenditures to evaluate any significant changes.
- Salaries/wages are reviewed for FTE and staffing needs. A comparable updated competitive study of area wages for similar positions is reviewed and considered.
- Major projects and capital acquisition is a major focus, as some of these projections can be prioritized for the up-coming year or a future year of the scope of the project may be altered.
- To determine the adequacy of financial resources, the following are evaluated against a projected capital reserve fund balance: Long range 7 year forecast of future operating revenues and expenses, Major projects, New and re-placement capital expenditures.
- The capital reserve study performed in 2020 continues to be updated.
- A review budget draft is presented to the Sea Pines CSA Finance Committee for detail review and comment.
- Issues of both operational and major projects are vetted.
- Discussions on potential revenue increase are held and may be included to determine the necessary revenues needed to balance a long-term financial plan.
- A second budget review is performed with input from Committee members.
- The long-term analysis of projected future capital reserve funds is reviewed to determine if the forecasted numbers, including the current proposed budget, falls within the policy guidelines of capital reserve funding.
- If the Finance Committee is satisfied that the budget is sufficient to meet the operational and capital needs of Sea Pines CSA, it makes a formal recommendation to the Sea Pines CSA Board of Directors to accept the budget as presented.
- The Sea Pines CSA Board of Directors either approves the budget or approves the budget with changes to the recommendation.