Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Municipal Budget topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Finance committee hears plan to centralize payroll, target monthly closes and shift some IT costs to central services
Summary
City finance leaders told the Finance Standing Committee they secured clean audit opinions, delivered the FY27 proposed budget on time, and plan to convert a payroll contractor to a full-time payroll manager while building a roadmap to achieve more timely (eventually monthly) book-closing, contingent on filling vacancies and potential system upgrades.
A finance presenter told the Finance Standing Committee on April 23 that the department obtained clean audit opinions for the ACFR and single audits, delivered the proposed FY27 budget to City Council on April 13, and has documented more than 50 standard operating procedures to strengthen resilience.
The presenter said the department faces multiple staffing vacancies but has prioritized operational continuity: "we delivered the 2027 proposed budget on time to the city council" and has built SOPs to create durability, the presenter said. He recommended converting an existing contractor who handles payroll into a full-time certified payroll manager to support payroll compliance and grant reporting.
The committee pressed the presenter on whether the department can achieve a monthly close. Alderman Thorp praised the recent progress and asked what steps are underway to move from the current approach to a regular monthly close. The presenter described a phased approach: institute weekly meetings across payroll, accounting, billing and AP; focus initially on improving cash-basis month-end reporting; and then build toward a full ("hard") monthly close that books accruals and reversals. "We're first focused on closing cash monthly," the presenter said, adding that reaching a hard monthly close will require a project plan covering chart-of-account revisions, team alignment and filling key vacancies.
On technology and payments, council members asked whether the proposed budget includes funding to expand electronic payment options for incoming and outgoing transactions. Finance staff said no specific enhancements were budgeted yet; they noted the city's current Munis AP module could be implemented more fully and that bank relationships and vendor decisions (for example, Stripe or similar providers) require finance oversight to avoid operational sprawl.
Council members also questioned year-over-year changes in specific lines: an increase in armoured-cash transport costs tied to an added pickup location, the movement of $118,000 in capital outlays (software and laptops) to the IT central services budget as part of consolidation, and a roughly 12% rise in salaries and benefits driven in part by the new payroll manager and benefit-election changes. Finance staff said about half of the salary-and-benefits jump is the payroll-manager-related cost and the other half is higher benefits elections and step/merit increases.
The committee asked for a follow-up from finance staff on several items, including a master schedule and analysis of the FY27 debt-service projection to determine whether the variance between budgeted and projected debt service will mirror FY26; Miss Buckland was asked to report back with tighter figures.
The presenter said the department is producing budget workbooks this year for departments to allow more timely tracking of planned vs. actual spending and expects those tools to give council members greater visibility next budget cycle.
What happens next: finance committed to produce the requested follow-ups (debt-service schedule, further breakdowns of consultant and vacancy assumptions, and a roadmap for the monthly close), and council members signaled willingness to support resource requests once the needs are clarified.
