DeKalb County government considers new financial software for county offices

SYCAMORE – DeKalb County government officials are considering buying a new digital software to update the county’s existing financial software, which is about 20 years old, officials said this week.

The DeKalb County Board’s Finance Committee met Wednesday and voted to move the purchase of BS&A software forward after a brief discussion about how the financial software would be an upgrade for the county. The purchase consideration now heads to the County Board for approval.

“I’ve implemented it in the city of Dekalb, so I know it’s going to be a good fit here,” DeKalb County Comptroller Robert Miller said.

The current software the county uses for finances is more than 20 years old will no longer be supported by the company that provides it after the end of 2023. This puts the county in a situation that warrants the need to change software.

County Administrator Brian Gregory spoke to the Finance Committee during its meeting Aug. 3 and said the county received two quotes from companies. One of the offers was over $500,000 and the other one, from BS&A for $400,785. Gregory described the first company as cost prohibitive but said the BS&A quote was more in-line with what he was expected and probably the best value. The cost is not just for the software, but also the implementation and training of county staff on the new program.

Now, the county is only considering buying the license to use BS&A’s software. The company provides local government software to more than 2,100 organizations, including the city of DeKalb. The city of Sycamore also moved to start using the service this year.

Payment for the software would be doled out in three sums. Gregory said the county has allocated $250,000 for this purchase this year. He said county has anticipated two payments to be given this year, but it may only be one. Considering the software is among the more popular options for local governments, Gregory says the implementation slots are booking fast.

“We’re a little over a year out from the point where once it’s approved to where it goes live. It could be anywhere from 12 to 15 months,” Gregory said.

During the discussion, County Board member Scott Campbell, a Democrat from District 7, asked if the system’s audit trail is by person.

“Yeah. So for every user that signs in you will actually see every bit behind the scenes,” Miller said. “So you look at an invoice a year down the road and say ‘OK, this is the person that keyed it in, date and time, and this is the person that approved it date and time, and this is the person that processed it the date and time.’ So everything gets stamped with that operators date and time stamp.”

Miller and Gregory said staff from the county have had warm receptions when shown the software the county may potentially implement.

“Showing the software to the other departments and them having the big, you know, wow factor and ‘when can we get this implemented’ just kind of put icing on the cake,” Miller said, “thinking that it’s not just me thinking that. They see the software and see what the improvements can be here.”