Rio Blanco County advances multi-part finance modernization plan; payroll rollout targeted for October

Rio Blanco County commissioners and staff used a work session to outline a multi-year plan to strengthen the county’s finance operations, including recruiting a full-time finance director or, alternatively, hiring an Accountant II, migrating accounting software to InCode 10, moving payroll and timekeeping to BambooHR and piloting accounts-payable automation.

County leaders said the work is intended to reduce manual ledger work, improve reporting and lower audit risk while preserving continuity for ongoing duties such as payroll and DHS reimbursements. Staff said the county budget contains funds for the finance director in 2025 and that some software purchases were included in the 2025 budget; other purchases could come from contingency.

The presentation framed hiring and staffing as the top priority. Staff recommended posting both a finance director and an Accountant II position at the same time but hiring only one, with the finance director as the preferred hire and Accountant II as a fallback so current staff have a promotion pathway. Staff noted that Danny currently holds an Accountant I position and could be a candidate for an Accountant II promotion if the county does not hire a finance director.

Officials described a phased technology program that would begin immediately and continue through 2026 and beyond. Key elements described were:

- Accounting software: staff recommended migrating from InCode 9 to InCode 10 for enhanced reporting and smoother integration with ClearGov. A staff member said InCode 10 would not be live for the county until mid-2026 due to vendor back-end work. The migration is intended to produce easier-to-run budget-versus-actual reports and reduce manual year-end journal entries.

- Payroll and HR: the county intends to adopt BambooHR for HRIS/timekeeping and to move payroll processing into that platform. Staff proposed an October rollout for BambooHR payroll, with departments and supervisors taking on more responsibility for time approval. Staff said the change should reduce payroll-processing hours and automate forms such as W-2s and 941 reporting.

- Accounts-payable automation: the county reviewed an AP automation module from Tyler Technologies. Staff described benefits including invoice capture, budget coding templates, bundled ACH files and faster payments. The AP automation bundle cost was discussed in two places during the meeting (an initial figure of $10,000 annually was mentioned, and later a $9,000-per-year figure was cited); staff said the module would require additional setup work and a demo for commissioners and department heads. Commissioners directed that AP automation follow payroll, with a target implementation in January–February after BambooHR and year-end work are complete.

- Sales and use tax automation: staff discussed GovOS (sales/use tax software) as a way to automate reconciliation of state sales and use tax and to reduce reliance on spreadsheets. The county collects and re‑allocates some sales/use and lodging taxes for towns; staff said adopting a third-party solution will require an updated MOU or resolution with the towns and legal review. Funding for a tax automation solution was included in the 2025 budget; staff recommended notifying the towns and working on an MOU.

- DHS reconciliations and data consolidation: staff reported progress reconciling Department of Human Services (DHS) accounts and removing a separate DHS system (Sima) to reduce reconciliation steps. The goal is monthly reconciliation of DHS activity rather than quarterly or ad hoc reconciliations.

- Procurement, credit cards and fixed assets: staff proposed procurement-policy updates, implementing purchase orders in 2026, reviewing county credit-card use to reduce the number of active cards, and considering a fixed-asset module (an additional InCode module) to replace the county’s Excel-based depreciation workbook.

Staff and commissioners flagged implementation risks and cautioned about the difficulty of running multiple large transitions at once. A county staff member said "it's gonna screw up" to set expectations that rollouts will cause short-term disruption and that implementation should be staged. Commissioners agreed to prioritize payroll first, evaluate results, then proceed with AP automation and further InCode work.

Next steps identified at the session included scheduling vendor demos (AP automation and GovOS), preparing a targeted budget/calendar and ClearGov training schedule, sending a letter to towns about the sales/use tax automation plan, and producing monthly budget-vs-actual reports for commissioners and directors. Staff said they will send updated job descriptions, publish a proposed budget calendar for review and pursue cross-training and desk-procedure documentation to reduce single-person dependencies.

Ending

County staff emphasized that the work is intended to reduce audit risk, free staff time for grant and strategic work, and create succession capacity, but noted the implementation period will be disruptive and will require prioritized staging, additional training and occasional use of contingency budget funds. Commissioners and staff set tentative target dates: BambooHR payroll in October, AP automation phased in January–February, and InCode 10 migration targeting mid-2026.