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The Loris City council unanimously approved the purchase of a new accounting software that will give the city utilization of one software to entire accounting information. Dennis Drozdak, interim city administrator, addressed council to promote the purchase of the software totaling $103,775.20 stating that the software was needed “yesterday”. The software is being provided by Edmunds Gov Tech.
The software will be efficient and more user friendly within the departments to better track the expenditures in each department; Drozdak will be able to compile the data entered into one software to provide the city council with more accurate financial reports.
Edmunds provides a dual backup system to their ICloud as well as a secured backup to a server at a different location. This protects the data entered and if by chance the computers are damaged or crash the data could be restored. In the meanwhile the software backs up in one minute intervals to the internet based software system. Drozdak states there should never be a loss of data in instances of acts of God; nature’s vengeance in action will not permit the data to be lost.
The software that was purchased within the last five years, Nicholson, is a DOS based software and claims are made the software was unable to combine reports from all departments. Drozdak and Kenya Wright had been entering line-by-line items into documents to be able to provide financial reports. They state that Edmunds will be show more accuracy.
Payments are scheduled to begin in February or March, per Drozdak, with the first payment of $13,383.30. Four payments will be made from 2021-2024 in the amount of $22,598.10. Drozdak stated the funds for the purchase of the accounting software is budgeted and will be budgeted until the final payment in 2024. He stated this is a capital expenditure with an $89,000 surplus; the software will be an asset to the city.
Councilman Carroll D. Padgett Jr. asked if the company is bonded to prevent the data from hackers and what action would be taken. Drozdak stated that Kenneth Moss, city attorney, received the signed document from Edmunds clarifying the security of the information in the ICloud. The delay in signing the contract with Edmunds depended upon receiving the reassurance requested by Padgett before approval of council is enacted.
Drozdak and Mayor Todd Harrelson worked with companies researching new software to replace the Nicholson software the city has been using. Cost and expenditures was an issue, however security and backups of the data was just as important. No bids were requested or received. A breakdown of the costs associated with the $103,775.70 price tag is listed in the contract we received through the Freedom of Information Act. Setup fees, training and hosting fees are included in the full amount. The City of Loris will have up-to-date licenses for the Finance Super Suite I which includes payroll, utility billing, accounts receivable and business licensing, permit and code enforcement and work orders.
Other options with Edmunds would be to host the city’s website, allow online payments, credit card swipe device and more.
The council feels this is a purchase that is necessary to keep entries in one database and provide more efficient time saving entries. The excitement with Drozdak and Harrelson was apparent at the meeting that a decision has been made to make daily data entry less cumbersome to the employees.
