Finance

The Finance Director reports to the City Manager. This office handles all budget, accounting, payroll and accounts payable information. The Finance Director oversees the Revenue Services Group, which includes the Purchasing Office, City Assessing office, Treasurer, Income Tax and Utility Billing departments.

Our Mission Statement

The mission of the Finance Department is to provide high-quality centralized accounting and financial reporting services for the City of Battle Creek, both to internal customers in other city departments, and to the ultimate customer group, the citizens of Battle Creek.

Responsibilities

The highest priority of the department is to invest, manage and monitor the city’s financial resources according to sound operating practices, and to report the results of the city’s operations in compliance with generally accepted accounting principles, as well as with federal, state, and local laws and regulations.  

In addition, the Finance Department provides proactive and ongoing assistance to other city departments to help them perform basic financial functions, produce reports that provide useful information for managing the financial resources and operations entrusted to them, and deal with long-term financial planning.  The Finance Department also coordinates the budget process and develops revenue projections for use in the city’s Revenue Controlled Budget process.  

Comprehensive Annual Financial Report

Finally, the department issues the city’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report which reports on the results of the city’s annual audit, performed by an independent firm. The department also issues the required State of Michigan Citizen's Guide to Battle Creek Finances, along with a performance evaluation dashboard, which can be found in the Budget section of our website.