Council approves new payroll software contract after staff recommends Assure; ordinance names vendor in contract language

The Sylvania City Council on May 5 approved ordinance 57-2025 as an emergency measure to adopt new human-capital/payroll software and appropriate up to $7,303.25.

Staff presented research comparing proposals and said the software recommended in staff work (identified in the meeting as Assure) would replace the city's largely manual payroll process and free up the HR manager for other tasks. Staff reported that nearby municipalities using the recommended service had no integration issues with the city's accounting software and described the export as a CSV file format used by peers.

Councilmember McCann introduced the ordinance; council voted to approve the appropriation. Staff said implementation is targeted for mid-summer, with early July as a possible go-live depending on the amount of setup work the city undertakes. Staff also said initial rollout would keep time entry at manager/foreman level rather than shifting immediate responsibility to every employee’s self-entry; the system, however, can support employee self-service if the city later chooses to adopt that workflow.

Details and sequencing: Staff spoke with Perrysburg Township and the city of Rossford about the proposed software; Rossford uses the same accounting software Sylvania uses and reported the integration was handled via CSV export. Council discussed that the expenditure was not in the current budget but that staff expects to absorb the cost within the approved appropriation.

Note: The staff presentation named the recommended product as Assure; the ordinance language introduced at the meeting references "Azure company and IP Holdco LLC." The transcript shows both references; staff and council did not resolve the naming discrepancy on the record during the meeting.