Santa Fe approves purchase of Edmonds GovTech accounting system to replace legacy platform

The Santa Fe City Council voted Jan. 23 to accept a proposal from Edmonds GovTech for a new cloud-based accounting and enterprise resource planning system, Rudy said during the meeting.

Rudy, the city finance director, told council the city has used an older Encode/Tata Technologies product since 1996 and that the system is not cloud-based, requires extensive manual entry and creates operational and records-resiliency risks. He recommended Edmonds GovTech after demonstrations and vendor comparisons with several suppliers.

Rudy said the new system will add several features the city lacks or must currently handle manually: remote access for staff, an integrated purchase-order workflow, project and grants tracking, employee self-service for payroll and HR items, and a transparency portal that posts checks and budget data online. Rudy told council the system should reduce manual hours and the need to add staff to handle growing workload.

Council approved the proposal on a roll call vote (Council member Jeanette, Council member Marks, Council member Schrader, Council member McCamey and Council member Dickerson voted “yes”). Rudy and staff said implementation and training are included in the vendor proposal; the city will phase conversion and continue to operate legacy systems (for example, court software) until conversions are complete.

Rudy estimated an increase of roughly $13,000 in next year’s budget for subscription and maintenance costs once the city transitions fully to the new platform; staff said the initial implementation payments will be prepaid and recognized in the following fiscal year.