Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Financial Management Tools topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
District to implement online budget software; staff recommend Unisolutions for transparency and multi‑user budgeting
Summary
Finance staff recommended procuring Unisolutions (Unit4/Unisolutions) for web‑based budget and reporting functions including monthly budgeting, multi‑year forecasting and public budget dashboards; implementation is scheduled for six months and will be funded with one‑time fund '29 monies and ongoing general‑fund support for subscription costs.
Chief Financial Officer Bob Ebershell and finance staff explained the district’s search for an integrated, web‑based budgeting tool and recommended Unisolutions (referred in discussion as Unit4/Unisolutions) over an Oracle alternative.
Ebershell described limitations of the district’s current workflow, which relies heavily on Excel exports and manual calculations. The proposed software offers web-based, multi-user budgeting, personnel budgeting, capital project modules, monthly reporting and the ability to publish an automated budget book and public dashboards.
Staff said they reviewed several vendors and narrowed the choice to two. Unisolutions was recommended for these reasons: lower total implementation cost relative to Oracle, unlimited user licenses (allowing principals and many users access), and existing public-sector references including Aurora Public Schools, Douglas County, City of Greeley and Colorado State University. The annual subscription figure cited in the presentation was approximately $100,000 with unlimited licenses; the implementation schedule is six months. Funding for one‑time implementation will come from fund '29 closeout balances and ongoing subscription costs will be covered in the business services general fund budget.
Trustees praised the transparency features and asked staff to wait to publicly announce the project until implementation is complete and the district can show the product. Ebershell said the district will implement over the next budget cycle and return updates to the board.
No recorded board vote is shown in the transcript excerpt; staff presented the purchase rationale and budget plan and answered trustee questions.
