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Fort Lauderdale finance director highlights ERP settling, new utility-billing system and large delinquent balances
Summary
Finance Director provided an overview of last year’s ERP rollout issues, the under-budget procurement of a replacement utility-billing system tied to the AMI rollout, and said about $7–8 million of delinquent utility accounts remain on older accounts.
Fort Lauderdale Finance Director (name not specified) told the Budget Advisory Board on Dec. 19 that staff continue to stabilize a recently implemented enterprise resource planning (ERP) system while preparing to bring a new utility-billing system online in coordination with the city’s advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) rollout.
The director said the ERP go-live last year left unoptimized processes and delayed audited financial reporting by several months; staff will finish optimization work this fiscal year. He noted the city replaced several other core systems in the past year — payroll, HR and financials — and has already completed payroll W-2 issuance after the payroll system change.
On utilities, the director said the replacement utility-billing system has been procured under budget, will integrate with the newly purchased AMI meters, and should improve revenue collections and customer service. He said the city plans to migrate only active owner accounts into the new system and to close or “liquidate” old tenant accounts to avoid transferring historic delinquent balances into the new platform.
The director told the board about a large delinquent accounts backlog: roughly 40 percent of outstanding utility receivables represent older tenant accounts, equating to approximately $7–8 million. He said the planned ordinance change to permit owner-only accounts and the new billing system will improve collections and allow the city to lien properties when they are sold.
In procurement, the director said work continues to streamline small-purchase processes and update procurement ordinances to improve timeliness. No formal budget action was taken at the meeting; the director said the utility-billing procurement and AMI implementation timelines will continue through the fiscal year.
