Awards for Excellence in Government Finance

Transcription

1 Awards for Excellence in Government Finance 2011 Application This application form must be completed and returned along with your entry in electronic form by November 30, 2010, to Title of Entry: Category (Select only one): Subcategory (Select only one): ( ) Accounting, Auditing, and Financial Reporting ( ) Policies and Procedures ( ) Budgeting and Financial Planning ( ) Management and Policy Studies ( ) Capital Financing and Debt Administration ( ) Communications and Reporting ( ) Economic Development and Capital Planning ( ) Training and Technical Guides ( ) E-Government and Technology ( ) Other ( ) Management and Service Delivery ( ) Pensions and Benefits ( ) Treasury and Investment Management Name of government submitting entry: Population served: Number of employees: Name of person submitting entry: Title of person submitting entry: Mailing address: City: State/Province: Zip/Postal Code: Telephone: Fax: address: If the person submitting the entry is not an active member of GFOA, an active member must sponsor the entry. If applicable, provide sponsor information below. Name of sponsor: Title: Government: Telephone: Mailing address: City: State: Zip: Government Finance Officers Association 3

2 Local Significance and Value 1. Please give a brief general description of the project or program being submitted The Electronic Accounts Payable system is an InfoPath form that utilizes SharePoint and Active Directory to electronically route invoices and vouchers for approval and payment. Invoices are scanned to a SharePoint Library upon arrival, and electronically attached to a voucher. Administrative staff then routes the voucher to the purchaser to code and describe the purchase. The voucher is then automatically routed to all managers who need to approve the purchase, and ultimately to Accounts Payable for payment. 2. Describe the local events and/or problems that led to the undertaking of this project/program. The primary reason for creating this system was to ensure all payments were made in a timely fashion. Prior to this system, payments were being delayed as a result of purchasers and managers taking too long to approve invoices for payment. Invoices would stack up with purchasers and managers, or were misplaced, which resulted in delays. Additionally, there was no way to track invoices once they left the Finance Department if a vendor inquired about the status of their payment. There was also not an effective system in place to ensure required approvals were made before the invoice was submitted for payment. This resulted in additional delays while the invoice was sent back to be signed by the appropriate person. 3. Describe the role the finance office/finance officer played in this project/program. The Finance Department designed and built the system with input from managers, supervisors, and IT staff. 4. How much time did each participant devote to this program/project? Were outside consultants engaged? We estimate approximately 400 hours were devoted to this project over approximately five months. Outside consultants were not utilized.

3 Technical Significance What financial concepts, standards, or techniques are displayed or advanced by this entry? Why is this important to the public finance profession? This system ensures that all invoices can be tracked throughout the approval process and are not lost along the way. It also ensures all invoices go through the required approval process. There is also an advantage to vendors who receive timely payments and can be given status updates making for better customer relations. Transferability How can this project/program be adapted for use by other organizations? Who else might benefit by its adoption? Would significant modifications be required for implementation? The only requirements of this system are Microsoft InfoPath (part of Microsoft Office), Microsoft Active Directory, and Microsoft SharePoint. Due to the integration with Active Directory and SharePoint, another organization could not just install this system as is. It would need to be customized for each organization, however the concept could be easily utilized by other public agencies to create a similar system by staff familiar with these programs. The system uses InfoPath rules and SharePoint workflows to complete these tasks. Documentation What documentation describes the entry (e.g., reports, forms, memoranda, software, audio-visual materials, etc.)? All materials must be provided in electronic format. Process When invoices are received, they are immediately given to Administrative staff to be scanned into a SharePoint Library. The original invoices are filed for later matching to the finalized voucher. The Administrative staff then create a new voucher, link it to an invoice and route it the purchaser. When the Requestor field is filled, a query automatically fills the Manager field with the name in Active Directory. This field is directly tied to the Requestor field and can only be changed by changing the requestor. The voucher form itself. Items highlighted in yellow represent required fields, and will not let the user proceed unless they are filled in.

4 When the Requester receives the voucher, items which are required to be filled in are highlighted in yellow. When the user fills in the account number, the Additional Approval By field may automatically populate. Each account number is assigned to a person. If that person is neither the Requestor nor the Manager, their name will appear in the Additional Approval By field and they will be included in the approval loop. A close up of the user selection controller. The Manager and Additional Approval By fields are automatically populated by the data entered into the Requestor field. If the account number is ever changed, the system automatically removes the electronic approvals from the voucher and starts the approval process over as the approval chain may have changed. When a user clicks Sign and Submit the Voucher is signed electronically and saved to SharePoint. Via a SharePoint workflow, the voucher is automatically routed to the next approver. All changes to the voucher are logged using the version feature in SharePoint. When all necessary approvals have been made, the voucher is routed to Accounts Payable. At this point, the voucher is printed and matched back up with the paper copy of the invoice. While we could continue the voucher in electronic form, we have chosen to create a paper record at this time. This greatly simplifies records management and retention requirements and presents much less risk for a smaller government. In addition, our general ledger does not have the ability to import vouchers so the information must be hand entered into the system. The tentative next step in this system s evolution is to work with our General Ledger vendor to determine a way to import the information from these vouchers directly into the general ledger. Form Administration There are controls set up in the form to prevent anyone, except the form s administrator, from removing signatures and prevent unauthorized signors. The form administrator has the ability to reroute vouchers in process in the event that a user is not available and the payment needs to be processed. There is also a process for users who are out of the office for an extended period. Users can designate another user to perform their approvals on their behalf. Users Users have several ways to access the system. When a voucher is assigned to a user, an is automatically generated containing a direct link to the voucher on SharePoint. Additionally, when users log on to the main SharePoint page or the Finance SharePoint page, they see a listing of all the vouchers they have pending to approve.

5 In the event that users do not sign off on their vouchers in a timely manner, the system is set up to remind them they have vouchers to review. Users are given one business day to complete their approval for a given voucher. After this, reminder s are sent every day to encourage them to sign their vouchers as soon as possible. (These notifications can be disabled in the event a user has a legitimate reason they are waiting to sign off, such as they are waiting for additional documentation.) The SharePoint Home Page, showing the user a customized list of their vouchers waiting to be signed. After four reminders are sent, the Finance Manager is also sent an alerting of the idle voucher and allowing follow up as needed. Behind the Scenes When a user clicks Sign and Submit, a complex series of InfoPath rules initiates. (InfoPath rules are essentially if-then statements which change the values of designated fields, as well as a few other tasks) The rule evaluates the data in the form and populates fields which are used by SharePoint Workflows to physically route the voucher from person to person. One of many InfoPath Rules which determine who the next user to receive the voucher will be. After the voucher is closed, SharePoint takes over and a workflow evaluates several fields in the voucher. Based on the contents of these fields, SharePoint routes the voucher to the appropriate person and sends them an to notify them they have a voucher waiting for them. One of the SharePoint workflows which route the voucher to the appropriate person.

6 Cost/Benefit Quantify the total resources (money and time) devoted to this project/program and identify the value added (tangible and/or intangible) as a result of undertaking it. Staff used approximately 400 hours to create the system. Troubleshooting and support after the initial role out has been approximately one to two hours per week. There have been several benefits to the system: Proper Account Coding When the organization was using handwritten approval sheets, staff would frequently use incorrect or partial account codes. This meant accounts payable had to determine which account was actually intended. This led to invoices being frequently miscoded. With this system, users select the account number from a drop-down list populated directly from the general ledger, which eliminates the guessing. Faster Processing Times Accounts Payable frequently received calls from vendors seeking payment on an overdue invoice, only to find the invoice was sitting in a stack on someone s desk. This system sends reminders to approvers if they have invoices waiting from them. In addition, if they do not approve their invoices in 24 hours, another reminder is sent to them. If they still do not approve the payment, s are sent to the Finance Manager to follow up and determine the reason for the delay. Proper Approvals The approval chain for each invoice is programmatically determined based on the user and the account code. Each voucher is approved by the purchaser s manager this approval happens on every invoice without exception. Additionally, each account code is assigned an approver. Operations account codes are assigned to the appropriate Division Director. For capital project accounts, the Project Manager is assigned to approve the accounts in addition to the organization s Contract and Loan Administrator. This ensures charges are not coded without the appropriate approver being informed of the impact to their assigned budget. The system is programmed so that if one approver fulfills more than one of these roles, they are only required to approve one time. (For example, if they are both the manager and account code approver, they would only receive the voucher one time.) Accountability of Invoices At any time the Finance Department staff can determine the status of any invoice in the approval process. This has been especially useful given the state of the economy, since many vendors want to be paid as soon as possible. Saving Staff Time Many of our users make a lot of purchases and would have to physically transport paper vouchers to the next approver, who may be a different location. This system makes that process much quicker.

7 Complexity Describe the complexity of the project/program. How much training and technical skill is required for employees to make use of this solution? Training sessions were held for each workgroup with individual training provided where needed. The vast majority of users were able to utilize the system with minimal training. Originality, Creativity, and Innovation To your knowledge, is this the first time this type of project/program has been implemented by a government entity? If not, identify previous work in this area and explain the uniqueness of your approach. While electronic approval systems are nothing new governmental entities, we are not aware of another system which accomplishes these goals utilizing existing software products and at a relative minimal cost. Most other systems would require a consultant to set-up and be cost prohibitive for smaller government entities. This system uses existing software to create a solution which ensures proper approval and accountability of purchases.