City hall continues to have issues with its new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, so much so that city administration needs a bylaw changed so it has more time to prepare 2021’s fiscal documents.
City administration brought forward a financial statement preparation extension bylaw during the July 25 regular city council meeting, requesting an extension to the provincially legislated due date for audited financial statement and public account preparations to Wednesday, Nov. 30 for the 2021 fiscal year.
Provincial legislation dictates that municipalities submit financial statements and public accounts for the previous year by Sept. 1.
A council report explained that the city has implemented a new software program to complete year-end financial statement preparations and is currently operating with two financial systems with two charts of accounts.
Furthermore, the structure of the financial statements has been changed so that the financial statement schedules comply with public sector accounting standards per the auditor’s recommendations, the report continued.
The report added that The Cities Act under section 360 (4) allows council to extend the due date by bylaw for a “council-related matter” if it believes the city cannot meet the legislated deadline.
The proposed bylaw concerned Coun. Dawn Luhning, who pointed out this was the second time city administration had informed council that the transition to the ERP system was taking longer than expected due to problems.
“It just seems like every time the City of Moose Jaw changes its financial system, we run into all kinds of issues,” she said. “We need an update on how difficult this is or if it’s going to be finished soon.”
The finance department is currently shifting to a new ERP system, which is no minor task, explained finance director Brian Acker. The department is attempting to move from two systems to one system, while it previously said that it expected to experience significant issues during this process.
Operating with two financial systems with two different charts and accounts also makes it difficult to perform regular year-end financial activities, he continued. Furthermore, city staff face a steep learning curve with the new software, creating further difficulties.
It also doesn’t help that it’s summer and people are on vacation, while the auditor is not available “at the drop of a hat” and needs to be booked.
“As far as the overall difficulties with the migration to the new system, it’s actually going fairly well. This is probably the most major hiccup we’ve run into,” Acker added. “… it’s not unexpected given the complexity of what we’re dealing with.”
City hall is progressing on several issues, such as moving to a new e-billing system and implementing a new virtual city hall, said city manager Jim Puffalt.
Even though city administration is delayed with producing year-end documents for 2021, this is the first — and likely last — time its business cycle will be affected by the move to the ERP system, he added.
Another concern Luhning had was that budget discussions begin in the fall. She wondered if the troubles with ERP would add further problems to that process.
City administration has decided to shift the preparation of the financial statements and public accounts to the city comptroller from the director of financial services, while all other budgetary functions will remain with the latter and should not be affected by this problem, said Acker.
“We’re actually underway with our budget preparation at this point, so we don’t foresee any delays with budget,” he added.
Council then gave three unanimous readings to the proposed bylaw, which means it goes into effect immediately.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Aug. 8.
