By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

The Chilton County Humane Society’s first-ever audit is nearing completion.

During a board meeting on Oct. 5, Treasurer Bill McCay said the only thing left for him to get to the auditors is the bank statements from October 2016.

“I talked to Janice (Hull of Hull & Russell), yesterday and went over some of it,” Board President Katherine Reece said. “Because it was a first-time audit, she had to go over some things with me. It looked like everything was going OK.”

McCay said after the audit is complete he and some of the other board members will meet with Hull about any recommended changes to handling finances and documentation.

Board member Jeff Melton said the audit was important to many people in the community, including the Chilton County Commissioners. He said it will give the organization a way to show people information regarding the organization’s finances.

The board is taking steps to make keeping and retrieving records simpler in the future. The board previously approved closing one of its bank accounts, so that all funds will be at one bank.

“When all the money is at one bank, it’s a lot easier,” McCay said.

During the Oct. 5 meeting, the board unanimously approved purchasing an iPad through a payment plan. The device will be used with the Square point-of-service payment system.

Board Vice President Kristi Hyche said Square charges 2.75 percent of each transaction as a fee for using the service.

“It does charge us for using it, but so does the one we already have,” Hyche said.

She said this will allow the shelter to accept credit and debit cards at the shelter and keep electronic records of adoptions, donations and spay/neuter vouchers.

The software will also allow the shelter to take payments from a person’s phone by using a payment app like Apple Pay.

Receipts can be printed for customers.

“It goes directly into the account that I pay bills out of,” Hyche said.

Updates to the software are free.

The shelter will continue to accept cash payments as well.

Reece said the Square card reader was helpful to have at events where people do not have cash.

Hyche said she used her personal iPad and Square at the Spaghetti Dinner fundraiser to accept $500 worth of payments. (The entire event raised about $3,000.)

“Every time we have an event with an auction, that is the first question people ask us — do you take credit cards and debit cards?” Reece said. “We’ve had sales where people wouldn’t have bought stuff if they hadn’t been able to use their credit card.”

Having this second square will allow the Humane Society to process payments from more than one person at a time.

The Humane Society Square will be used for everyday transactions at the shelter.

Payroll is also done electronically now, which will make payroll documents easier to find.

During the financial report, McCay said the organization had $6,000 in the bank, $6,000 in bills and about $4,000 in reserve to cover payroll for the month.