#CITY OF CORONA LOGO MANUAL#
#CITY OF CORONA LOGO SOFTWARE#

IT prepared their budget in Questica for FY 2020-21 so they could work through some of the kinks first, while everyone else still prepared their budget in the historical spreadsheets. IT had volunteered to be the “guinea pig department” and prepare their budget in Questica first.

All the budget team and several people from IT were involved to kick off the project.

How did you go about implementing the software?

We were able to piggyback off other agencies who had recently done an RFP for budgeting software.

We went to our City Council and asked for an exception to bid.

#CITY OF CORONA LOGO SOFTWARE#

We had Questica come out and do several demos of the software and consult with our IT Department to make sure it was compatible with our current financial system. We had heard of Questica through a customer reference at the City of Riverside. However, Workiva was primarily a software to build the budget document itself.

We had looked at a few products before like Workiva.

How did you go about finding vendors, and ultimately choosing a vendor? We used that historical feedback to shape our wish list and goals.

We did not get together with other departments as such however, we kept comments we had received throughout the years from internal and external departments regarding the budget process.

Was a user panel put together to gather information regarding your processes- pros and cons of the existing system(s), department wish lists etc.? In addition to the operating budget and personnel, we were also looking for enhancements to our capital budget process.

We also needed software that could handle detailed payroll allocations across multiple functions and complicated special pays for our public safety departments.

We wanted a workflow to push the budget through the department review levels so all the numbers would be in the system, and we could cut out reconciling “finance” numbers to department numbers. We started out by focusing on the operating and personnel budget and looking for software that provided an interactive process, including workflows. Was an internal assessment of systems done prior to searching? Putting the budget together was becoming more and more challenging. However, with some transition and new staff, we needed an easier process to cut down on the time it took to bring new staff up to speed. When we had consistent staffing in departments, it was easier to prepare the budget because the staff was familiar with the process and nuances. We also needed to review our budget processes with new staff.Our budget team would reach key milestones but have to take time reconciling and correcting variances between the budget team spreadsheets and department spreadsheets. We realized we had too many different software and we were also encountering version control issues.

#CITY OF CORONA LOGO MANUAL#

The desire to look for budget software was initiated through detailed discussions about our manual budget processes.

What caused the organization to search for budget software?

Whether you are looking at implementing a new budget software, transparency software, or even an ERP, Kim’s answers provide some insight and helpful tips for approaching any software implementation. Kim Sitton, Finance Director at the City of Corona, answered a few questions about the implementation of Questica in the City.

The City of Corona implemented a budget software, Questica, to help improve its budget process.

City of corona logo