Accounting is often overlooked in any company. They pay bills, make sure the money is where it needs to be and generally make themselves as unobtrusive as possible. The less people have to think about the finances, the more work they can get done.

If KPUD employees drive through someone’s hayfield, or cause a power surge that destroys a computer, accounting submits claims and resolves the issues. They take care of retirement and insurance, and a million other things that are never seen.

The department includes auditor, Jim Moss, accounting manager, Greg Gallagher, and two full-time bookkeepers, Randee Slater and Judy Woody.

The accounting department handles accounts payable and receivable, payroll, audit, specialized billing, monthly financial reports, employee benefits, insurance claims, debt payment, taxes, analytical studies and the myriad of small details that go along with managing the finances of a public utility.

Accounting involves a lot of coordination. Each department sees the purchase order, and the receipting slip, but accounting sees the bills and everything in between.

Jim and Greg interface with all of the departments within KPUD, allocates resources within the department depending on the time of the month (payroll, accounts payable), prepares monthly financial reports for the Commissioners, and handles the financial analytical studies. Their goal is to get through audits cleanly, each year.

Jim Moss, who started with KPUD in 1984, is the auditor for KPUD and oversees accounting. Bookkeeper Randee Slater, who started in 2006, handles coding of payroll, accounts payable, correlates purchase orders, receipts and invoices, and does quarterly taxes and fringe benefits. Judy Woody also started with KPUD in 2006. Her responsibilities include accounts payable, payroll, bad debts, excise taxes, transportation, asset recording, sales stats, analytical studies, and the sales journal.

Twice a month, payroll is a sizeable task for the accounting department, because there are various groups of employees, each with different contracts and benefits, and each job completed is charged to the department from which it originated. Annually, the audit process consumes large amounts of time. When the auditors are in the building, the accounting staff is the liaison between them and the rest of KPUD. Their work includes preparing documents, answering questions, and following up with questions or concerns within each department.