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Author:  Tammy Ammann, Finance Director

It is official:  customers may now use any credit or debit card at City Hall for their payments!  As part of our ongoing effort and commitment to offer customers as much convenience and flexibility as possible, every form of credit and debit card is now accepted.  Credit and debit cards are accepted in person at the customer service counter of City Hall, online via the City’s website at www.collinsvilleil.org/billpay.html or by calling this toll free number: 1-877-455-3729.

The 2008 Treasurer’s Report will be published in the Collinsville Herald Journal on Sunday, May 31st.  That’s a full month ahead of schedule!  The Treasurer’s Report includes the Revenue Summary, Compensation Summary, Expenditure Summary and Summary Statement of Condition for the City.

Author:  Tammy Ammann, Finance Director

The Finance Department is ahead of schedule!  Normally, this would be the time that the financial statement auditors would be doing their fieldwork and keeping staff hopping with their research and questions.  This year the firm sent five auditors at the end of February and accomplished most of their on-site testing in four days.  It was a little hectic and crowded in the office that week, but worthwhile.  Of course, electronic communications have helped expedite the process quite a bit.  Each year it seems that the auditors are able to do more and more from their own office.  I’m hopeful that the audited financial statements will be available early in May or about a month sooner than usual.

For those residents who anxiously await the Treasurer’s Report in the newspaper each year, please note that it may also be earlier than usual.  It is required to be published by June 30th, but if the audited financial statements are available sooner, I will publish it sooner!

Author:  Tammy Ammann, Director of Finance

January is crunch-time in the Finance Department!  Staff is working diligently to close the 2008 fiscal year.  Meanwhile, we have to prepare W-2’s for employees, 1099’s for retirees and certain vendors, file year-end reports with various government agencies and anticipate the arrival of our financial statement auditors next month.  It’s quite an endeavor to balance these responsibilities with our regular workload - utility billing, payroll, accounts payable, and ambulance billing.

This year the Finance Department has a couple extra challenges as it continue to settle into the new offices and work through some bugs in the new version of the LOCIS software.  However, everything is progressing on schedule and we intend to be compliant with all of our January 31st deadlines.

Author: Tammy Ammann, Director of Finance

Moving Forward - The Finance Department is now “Beta” testing a highly-anticipated version of its financial software!  The LOCIS program is used to process payroll, accounts payable, utility billing, general ledger, etc.  As of December 12, 2008, the Finance Department is now using version 7.0 of LOCIS, which is the latest and greatest!  Some features of the update include streamlined processing in almost every module, enhanced reporting capabilities, improved identity-theft protection for customers and employees, utility billing via email, and multiple direct deposit options for employees.

Collinsville is privileged to be a Beta sight for LOCIS.  For the next six months, employees of the Finance Department will be communicating frequently with LOCIS representatives to make sure that version 7.0 is ready for general release.

The Finance Department is working diligently to familiarize itself with the new look of the software, identify the functional changes and navigate efficiently.  It’s one more opportunity to continuously improve!