77. Procedures for the write-off of accounts receivable
PURPOSE
To establish a policy which guides the city council and staff on procedures for the write-off of accounts receivable.
POLICY
Once an account is considered uncollectible, staff will use the State Set-off Program to collect a portion of the bill.
Any accounts not collected, including those in bankruptcy, will then be removed from the accounts receivable ledger.
A final bill will be printed out and filed in a notebook. The notebook will be tabbed by the date of the write-off, i.e. month and year, etc.
The city administrator will draft a memo to the council requesting approval to write off the accounts. The specific accounts determined to be written off will be listed along with a statement that all collection processes have been exhausted; therefore, the accounts should be removed from the accounts receivable listing. The council’s approval will be documented in the minutes.
The memo to the council and the excerpt from the minutes approving the writeoff will be filed in the notebook, along with the final bills.
This notebook will be maintained by staff in order to provide documentation in case further collection of the account is possible, i.e. the delinquent customer moves back to town, etc.