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Fiscal officer recommends state accounting software; council to review agreement next meeting
Summary
South Russell's fiscal officer recommended adopting the Auditor of State's financial software to replace aging finance software and outlined vendor cost comparisons and migration timelines; council asked the solicitor to review the state agreement before the next meeting.
South Russell's fiscal officer told the council on April 14 that the village's current finance software has reached its end of life and recommended adopting the Ohio Auditor of State's accounting software after comparing private vendors.
The fiscal officer said the village earned $11,878 in interest in March after moving funds into StarOhio and explained migration tradeoffs among options. She presented private-vendor estimates: one vendor (VIP) would cost about $30,000 up front plus roughly $18,000 per year for maintenance; optional payroll and employee-portal modules would add about $15,000 and $10,000 respectively. Another private option cited in the discussion would cost about $23,000 up front and roughly $16,000 annually for maintenance.
By contrast, the fiscal officer said the state software available through the Auditor of State would cost about $5,000 and include a computer and printer; maintenance and hosting for that option is lower and the software is designed to produce the state-required reports. She said some local governments reported the state system worked well for villages and that the state offers training sessions; the state software would not migrate older records automatically, so historical data entry would be required.
"The state, there's also traveling clerks... it's a reasonable amount of fee, but they could help set it up," the fiscal officer said, describing available implementation support. She told council she will ask the solicitor to review a draft expression-of-interest agreement and bring a recommendation at the next council meeting.
Council members asked whether the state package includes payroll compatibility and whether existing cemetery software would be retained; the fiscal officer said the village intends to keep its cemetery records software and use the state system for financial reporting. No formal vote was taken; the matter will return for council action after solicitor review and scheduling.
