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City staff outlines vendor self-service portal rollout, estimates $8,000 first-year cost
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Summary
City staff described a planned vendor portal to let suppliers manage accounts, submit invoices and check payment status. Implementation was described as roughly six months and budgeted at about $8,000 in the first year and $4,000 annually afterward; staff requested direction from council.
City staff described plans to roll out a vendor self-service portal that would let the city’s suppliers maintain their own contact information, submit invoices and check payment status online.
City finance staff said the portal would be part of the city’s existing Tyler Munis enterprise resource planning system and that the estimated implementation timeline is about six months. "The estimated implementation timeline for this product is about 6 months, and the cost is going to be about $8,000 for the first year and $4,000 for every year afterward," a city staff member said.
The presenter traced the project to the city’s earlier migration from its legacy GEMS software. "So back in 2019, the city started migrating from the GEMS legacy software over to Tyler Munis," the staff member said. Staff noted the city rolled out resident access to Munis about a year earlier and is now seeking vendor access to streamline workflow.
Staff said the portal is intended to reduce manual data entry by a city employee who currently receives and enters thousands of vendor invoices by email. "The city has thousands of vendors who submit their invoices through an email. Then we have a staff person who enters all of those invoices in. She enters thousands and thousands of invoices every pay cycle," the staff member said, adding the portal would reduce that administrative burden.
Officials also said the portal could help vendors track payment timing. "If there is a portal that we could direct them to to see when the check will be cut, when they should be receiving it, I think that also saves time at all levels," a city staff member said.
Staff noted the city currently issues most payments by check and hope to increase ACH payments in the future, but said the ACH capability is not yet in place.
At one point a council member asked whether the portal would interface with payroll; staff said payroll is handled by the ERP but "this particular product does not have any interface with payroll." The presentation concluded with staff asking the council for direction to proceed.
No formal vote on the portal was recorded in the transcript; staff said first-year costs are included in the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget.
