System to track expenses
Fayette County department heads and row officers attended a primer Friday for implementation of a new accounting software system designed to prevent overspending and set to begin Feb. 1. “This is really important,” said Commission Chairwoman Angela M. Zimmerlink. “We need to get the system in. It should have been in already but it’s not. … Each of you will be able to track your line item and your budget, so you won’t go over budget.”
Zimmerlink said the $150,000 system, funded by the county bond and approved by the prior board of commissioners in December 2002, was supposed to be in place at the start of 2005. Software Systems Inc. of Gibsonia is implementing the system and is to provide training and support services, Zimmerlink added.
Commissioners Vincent A. Vicites, Joseph A. Hardy III and Zimmerlink recently adopted a 2005 budget that included a 60 percent real estate tax hike. It includes $1.3 million for paying down a projected $4.7 million deficit at the end of 2004, which leaves $3.4 million worth of debt still awaiting repayment under a strategic plan that runs through 2007.
During the budget-setting period, Vicites said that approximately one-third of the line items in the 2004 budget went over budget. Throughout last year Zimmerlink repeatedly expressed frustration with the timeliness and accuracy of financial reports emanating from county Controller Mark D. Roberts, which she felt did not give the commissioners an adequate picture of county finances.
As outlined by Software Systems employees Michael Martino and Sally Daley, the new system will streamline paperwork and ensure that nothing is ordered or paid for without money being in the appropriate department’s budget.
Daley said the new system will take money out of the account at the time the order is placed and that all invoices must have a purchase order number attached in order to be paid. And that won’t happen until a given requisition passes three approval levels: commissioners’ office clerk Tina Martini, county manager Warren Hughes and at least two of the three county commissioners.
After a requisition passes muster at all three levels, it will get kicked back to Martini, who will then convert it to a purchase order, said Daley. She added that if a department head or row officer submits an invoice without a purchase order number, it wouldn’t be paid.
The system will also automatically carry out deductions for maintenance agreements and things like copy machine rentals, which represent a set expenditure each month, Friday’s session revealed. Hughes said each department and row officer will have to follow the procedure even for small items such as pens and paper, although Martini will fill out the purchase price for some of those items based on her constant monitoring of where to get the best prices.
In response to an employee’s question, Daley said the system would be set up so that a breakdown of where budgets and line items stand will be available for regular printout and distribution.
Zimmerlink assured the group that such reports will come on a monthly basis because the commissioners want to see them for monitoring purposes, too.
Zimmerlink said the new system, which should be operational within two weeks, requires changes in how department heads and row officers handle requisitions.