About the Auditor’s Office

The Auditor’s Office acts as the General Accounting Office for the City of New Bedford. The Auditor’s department processes accounts payable for all city departments after review of invoices and processes payroll after input by city departments. Its main responsibilities are monitoring the City’s expenses for compliance with the adopted budget and applicable laws, ordinances and policies that may apply. As keeper of the General Ledger for the City and associated records, the department coordinates the annual City Audit. The Auditor also lists the actual total local receipts collected for the Tax Recapitulation each year as well as other reports for the State such as the annual Snow and Ice report and Accounts Receivable.

The City operates under a centralized accounting approach, whereby the City Auditor’s Office has a team responsible for all accounts payable and accounts receivable activities. Given this centralized system, the Auditor’s Office and CFO’s Office  provides support to the staffs of other departments to improve City budgeting and reconciliation of records for internal departmental books. Centralizing accounts payable has standardized the way in which bills are processed and approved, vendors are communicated with, and records are kept which allows for smoother operations and stronger oversight on spending.

Public information requests of a financial nature, even if specific to an individual department, should be directed to the Auditor’s Office so that responses are tied to the books of the office, which is the official record of the City.