County staff propose enforcing purchase orders over $250 and quarterly revenue claims to improve fund estimates

Tompkins County finance staff proposed a tightened procurement and requisition process at the April 10 Budget, Capital and Personnel Committee meeting, saying stricter enforcement will help the county estimate fund balance throughout the year.

Daryl Tuttle, part of the finance and IT team working on the county’s requisition‑to‑purchase order workflow, told the committee the county currently lacks a critical software module for electronic requisition approvals and will rely more on formal purchase orders in the near term. He said the team will recommend requiring purchase orders for purchases over $250 and will provide training for departments before enforcement. "We are going to propose adjustments ... to require purchases over $250 to have a PO before going any further," Tuttle said on the record.

Why it matters: finance officials explained that encumbering funds using POs will give more accurate, real‑time estimates of available fund balance and better budget control. The $250 threshold is already in an older accounts‑payable policy staff found; the current proposal is to enforce rather than change that threshold.

Key points from committee discussion

- P‑cards: County staff said purchases made with P‑cards still represent roughly $200,000 per month and would not immediately be captured by the PO enforcement; that exposure will be managed through other controls.

- Workload and exceptions: Several legislators asked whether a $250 threshold would create excessive paperwork for routine expenses (utilities, fuel, recurring accounts). Staff replied blanket POs for recurring accounts will continue and training will be provided to minimize overhead.

- Reporting repeat noncompliance: Staff will develop a process to identify departments that repeatedly fail to follow the policy; the county administrator will receive reports and the finance office can distribute information to legislators. Committee members requested non‑public handling of any persistent offender lists and recommended distribution to the county administrator rather than public meeting discussion.

- Revenue recognition: Finance staff also said they are working on a revenue recognition policy that would require departments to submit claims quarterly so revenues are recorded as claims go out rather than at year end. The policy will be presented at a future meeting for adoption.

Next steps

Finance will roll out training on PO creation and the vendor workflow, begin enforcing the established $250 PO requirement after training, and present the revenue recognition policy at a future committee meeting.