Day Eight: Wednesday 18th

Today I worked some more on the OBRA project. I went through the rest of the files in KVS to find the termination date of the rest of the workers from the City. I found a lot of people who are currently active in the city (still working) so it was concerning that Mr. Turner had them on his retirement list from OBRA. Melissa was also concerned about how many active people there were on the list so she called him and he is coming in to meet with us on Monday morning. Next I transferred some more money into different accounts. After transferring some more money I worked on sending letters to people whose checks had bounced. People who issued checks to the city and did not have the money in their bank accounts, the checks bounced and so they are penalized. The individual is charged the amount of the check in addition to twenty five dollars for having the check bounce. Lastly I worked with a lady from the planning department who had a professional Auditor from the state coming into check out the files. He needed us to print out some copies of checks so that he could refer to them while going over the information that was recorded in the files and see if they matched. This was a long process because some checks were labeled as one but two checks were issued with the same check number for two different amounts. I also spent a little time with Melissa at the end of the day to go over our trip to the State House tomorrow in Boston. Im excited for our trip tomorrow to the State House and look forward to meeting with different Treasurers from around the state.

Day Seven: Tuesday 17th

Today was a slow and rainy day but it was still productive. I started by working with Melissa and balancing some accounts. We first found some errors in March that we fixed so that April was not unbalance anymore. This took a good part of the morning up to find all these errors. Next, I went back to finish up the tailings project. The only checks left that had not been sent out were the vet checks so we need to do more research on them. The reason it is weird that these checks are not cashed is because the vets are usually in the Veterans Service Office everyday waiting for their checks because they do not work anymore. (it is basically their pay check). I found some dates on them that will help me when I talk to John again tomorrow in the Veterans Service Office. John will be able to tell me if the checks have been voided or the payment was discontinued. Next I spent some time transfering money from different accounts so that when payroll is done for the high school it is in the right place. Also I worked a little bit today with the cashbook entering in warrants so the accounts would balance evenly. Lastly I met a guy who came into the office from Nationwide. He asked me to work on a project for him that might take a few days. At Nationwide they have accounts with money in them from people that have retired but have money in them they have earned at their previous jobs. This money was taken out of their paycheck every week. Nationwide wants to close all the accounts and give the people their money who have retired but in order to do this they need Melissa to sign off on all of them being retired. This requires me to get a list from Sandy who works in the school department office to give me a list of people who no longer work for the school. I got the list from the school department first because thats who most of the employees were who retired. I started looking through the 800 today and have 120 left to complete for tomorrow for the school department. I have a lot to do tomorrow and hope I can get it all done.

Day Six: Monday 16th

Today the first thing that I worked on was completed Payroll. I was given a few sheet from different department and so Melissa and I did them because Joanne was not there this morning. We went into KVS the accounting system and entered the times that people worked according to the sheets and the money they earn an hour into the system. Later when Joanne came in, she taught me how to proof the payroll and check for any mistakes. To proof the payroll we added up all the final amounts for each departments payroll and looked to see if Joanne and I got the same final number for payroll that the Sue in the Auditor's Office got. We got the same numbers so that meant that the numbers were correct and payroll was done and entered in the system. Later Joanne printed checks out for all departments and employees. I also worked with Melissa on finishing up some trust fund stuff because the codes were issued and given to Sue today to cut checks for but we needed to explain to here some things about the accounts the money was coming from. Also Sabrina dropped off some more of the money for the trusts so that the city could issue the high school their scholarship checks. I also checked the Treasurer's mail today and we received some of the tailings forms back explaining that the people would like the city to re-issue them a check to be deposited. We will issue those people back their checks later in the week when we get more forms returned. Also I spent some time researching addresses in order to disperse retirement money to people who are entitled to it. Lastly I made a direct deposit for payroll that we entered into the system that morning, so we took the money from the actual bank account and made a direct deposit.

Weekly Reflection: One

I had fun this week at the Easthampton City Hall in the Treasurer’s Office. I spent time this first week with the Assistant Treasurer, Joanne, and the Treasurer, Melissa, as well as people in other offices.
    This first week in the office I think I learned more in one week then I ever will. I learned how to communicate with other offices within City Hall to have different tasks completed. For example order to cut checks, I worked with Sue, the assistant Auditor, Sue, in the Auditor’s Office. I also learned how to balance the accounts that the City manages. I had an opportunity to meet with the Fire Chief, Dave Mottor, and help him close one of his accounts and move his money to another existing account managed by the City. I also learned how to use the accounting software on the computers so I could access things quickly and easily. Lastly, I sent notices to people to claim their unclaimed checks so they could be cleared in the system.
    I was asked to do many of the projects I did for my learning experiences and to understand the materials more clearly. I was asked to balance accounts because that is something done regularly on a monthly basis so one would need to know how to do this if they wanted to work in this office. I was also asked to work with Melissa with the tailings project because it is a big project that needed to be done and it not only goes a lot faster with two people but tailings had not been done in a while by the previous Treasurer so it needed to be done. I think that I have started working on some projects that will continue into the following weeks and I expect that I will benefit from having a good grasp on processes that take place every week.
    Given what I had heard from other people, I am surprised that this job is actually fun, but I really enjoy it. I have my own desk that is set up and I work there for the day with the help of Melissa and Joanne, and the day is over before I know it.    
    I did not know about everything I would be doing going into this internship, and it is very different then I expected.  However, I enjoy it and any surprises were positive. I think that this week has given me a solid introduction to the understanding of working on a weekly basis in the Treasurer’s Office. I had a good time this week and look forward to the next.

Day Five: Friday 13th

Today I went into the office even though the building is not open to the public on Friday's. I arrived at 8:30am and talked to the treasurer a little before our meeting with the principal's secretary from the Easthampton High School. She arrived a few minutes later and we all sat down and discussed the options she had for the high schools scholarships and trust money. We explained to the secretary that she could not offer an award for over $600 without filling out a ten ninety nine form so she decided to lower the higher award, which is good for their trust fund because they will earn more interest with more money in them for next years scholarships. Then when all the awards were figured out and set in place, Melissa and I worked together to find the codes for each funds account so that we could give them to the assistant auditor (Sue) on Monday so she can cut the checks. Lastly I worked on balancing some of the bank accounts that had been left alone for a few days. We found that one bank account was not adding up in particular so we worked on another one and realized our mistake in the other one while taking our minds off it and fixed them both. Today was a shorter day in the office and I left around 2:00pm.

Day Four: Thursday 12th

Today the first thing I did when I got there at 8:00am was record the receipts into the computer. Joanne had done them all and checked them once by hand and it was my job to put them into the computer spread sheet and see if they matched up with the numbers she got. The receipts are from deposits made that week from the accounts the city is in charge of. The next project I worked on was finding out more of the Veterans checks that should have been cashed and cleared because they mostly live from that money, or rely on it heavily. Some of the checks I looked up manually in the books that are kept, instead of the computer because there was no record of the checks in the system because they were from so long ago. (This project was part of the tailings). I then got the names of all the check holders from the manuel checks and then went to go talk to John who works in the Veterans Service office to see if he could help me find if the checks had been voided or not. He help me find some information out and then that job was put on hold because I was waiting for some more information. The next thing I worked on was for the Easthampton fire chief. He needed help with switching he accounts and closing one. There was some money that he could not find which Melissa and I helped him find that had been put into another one of his account by accident, so it was switched into a different one of his accounts. The treasurer helped me learn about taxtitle and I entered some of the information onto the computer to keep a log of it and give a copy to the legislature. What happens with the taxtitle is that it has to be done in a timely fashion. When a property owner is not paying taxes on their land they are warned and asked to pay their taxes. Betty who works in the clerks office try’s to get them to pay there taxes for a few years and then if they still don’d Betty will file a lean. A lean explains that the city is interested in the land and in six months the land will be for closed. If there is a developed that wants to take the land and work on it and pay taxes that is great for the city and they will pick that as their first choice. If no one wants to develop the land it will be auctioned off. The City Hall is not officially open on Friday’s but since I was sick and missed a day I will be going in tomorrow for a shorter day. Also I will be meeting with the lady in charge of the scholarship and graduation money and trust with the treasurer tomorrow to work things out.

Day Three: Wednesday 11th

Today I was sick with a fever and not able to go to the Easthampton City Hall so I stayed home. I decided to knit a hat to contribute to Mer's Knit-A-Thon so I could at least help another classmate out with their senior project.