Audit Services

The City of Reading (City) is seeking bid/proposals to supply Financial and Compliance Audit Services to the City’s Finance Department for the years ending December 31, 2026, 2027 and 2028 as further detailed throughout this RFP in clusive of all tasks, deliverables and/or products required herein. If the City makes an award in connection with the bid/proposal, Attachment I “Contract” and all terms and conditions of thi s RFP a s well as all documents incorporated therein shall form the entire agreement between the City and the successful Bidder.

The 2026 audit won't commence until early 2027 (interim fieldwork). The audit field work usually starts on the first Monday of April; however, it has since drifted to the second Monday of April. The City typically receives a draft audit in September, October or November and the audit is usually, but not always, finalized by the end of the calendar year. The City would like to have the audit fieldwork start earlier than April, but in no event should the audit fieldwork start later than the second Monday in April.

The City uses ADP for the payroll and Dallas Data Systems for the Reading Area Water Authority (RAWA, a blended CU, does the City's billings for water, sewer, recycling and trash). We receive a draft of their audit on or around May 31st and the final usually in late June.

The City currently uses Conrad Siegel for the actuaries to measure our pension and OPEB liabilities. The drafts of each are usually available in May or June of each year.

The Reading Parking Authority and the Reading Redevelopment Authority are both discretely presented to CUs of the City; they each have their own annual audits conducted by large firms. It is presumed that the audit firms file the DCED reports for both CUs; the City has no involvement in their DCED filings.

The City Auditor signs confirmation requests, provides assistance on auditor PBC lists and other questions, schedules and participates in Audit Committee meetings.

On or around March 10th of each year, the City provides our external auditor all trial balances for the preceding calendar year. During March, they group the TBs and draft the PA DCED AAFR. After City personnel (usually Controller and City Auditor) review and approve, City management (Controller) will log into DCED Municipal Statistics and submit the PA DCED AAFR. The City needs this level of routine assistance to continue.

The City has four professionals in the Finance Department: the City Controller and the Director of Finance have major involvement with the audit. The Grant Manager and Secretary have little to no involvement with the audit. A few of our accounting staff have significant involvement with the audit, primarily with account reconciliations and providing audit information.

Herbein & Company, Inc., Certified Public Accountants has performed the audits in calendar years 1997 through 2024. Herbein and Cherry Bekaert merged on or around October 20, 2025. The successor firm is Cherry Bekaert, who is engaged to perform the City's audit for calendar year 2025.

The City is currently using Tyler Munis to maintain the accounting records. The Governmental Fund Financial Statements are reported using the current financial resources measurement focus and the modified accrual basis of accounting. The proprietary and fiduciary funds are reported using the economic resources measurement focus and the accrual basis of accounting.