Peoria’s fund accounting software aids reporting

For years, officials in the Peoria County, Ill., treasurer’s office were encumbered with a financial reporting system that was so structured, users had difficulty creating reports in a timely manner. Employees sometimes had to write out financial statements by hand, and often officials would receive no report at all.

About 15 years ago, Peoria County began focusing on achieving greater efficiency with better financial software and equipment. With a commitment from the county board of commissioners, the county decided to move to a mainframe environment. The treasurer’s office used the mainframe system for years but became increasingly frustrated by unreadable reports and slow response time from the computer network. Users had the advantage of an automated system, but could not always do exactly what they wanted.

Beginning in 1990, the need for a more sophisticated and flexible system was explored in depth. The board decided to change to a client/server computing environment using a new fund-accounting software package. A seven-person committee was put in charge of the initiative.

After an extensive search, the committee recommended purchase of the Integrated Fund Accounting System, a software package from BI-Tech Software, Inc. of Chico, Calif. County employees can now create virtually any accounting or financial report needed.

“With our new reporting system, the excuse ‘we can’t do that’ is no longer true,” says Peoria County Deputy Treasurer Lyle McClellan, who served on the ad hoc committee.

To run its software package, Peoria County’s data processing center was responsible for recommending the most efficient hardware platform at the best price. The analysis of many servers, using cost and effectiveness as the major criteria, led the center to recommend the Aviion 4625 Unix Server by Data General, Westboro, Mass.

After implementing basic financial applications, the county saw immediate improvements. The flexibility in creating reports is a valuable improvement over the structured reports of the past, says McClellan.

Another new feature is real-time posting, which saves time by eliminating the need for batch posting at the end of every night. Instead, real-time posting is done at the main office and outside buildings, including a nursing home seven miles away.