Learn how the capital of the United States overcomes drastic inefficiencies in revenue management with iNovah.
Background
Washington D.C. is home not only to historic national monuments, but also the men and women who govern America. It has become a fast-growing metropolis over the past several years, with a population nearing 700,000 people.
Summary
The DC government strives to meet its responsibility delivering secure, budget, and tax-dollar conscious financial management. To best serve its citizens, the District’s Office of Finance and Treasury requires a cost-effective solution to consolidate payments from multiple departments while improving operational efficiency. System Innovators’ iNovah Enterprise Revenue Management (ERM) solution helped the District reallocate 8 staff, eliminate manual processing, and drastically lower overtime pay.
The Challenges
Before the transition to iNovah, reconciliation was a challenge. The District had no way to automatically consolidate the reconciliation of revenue. They manually processed activity into their System of Accounting and Reporting (SOAR) General Ledger System.
Manually, each department ran the risk of calculation errors with the potential to impact their end-of-day reporting, reconciliation, and audits. The process also involved packaging paper documents to send to the Office of Finance and Treasury. The resulting four to five month delay in SOAR updates weighed heavily of efficiency.
The effects of the District’s outdated system affected day-to-day responsibilities and impeded audit preparation. Employees faced significant pressure to complete assigned duties on time. Fiscal year-end reports required auditors to contribute one to three hours a day; plus four to five additional hours on Saturdays all year to keep up.
A New Solution
With inefficient processes and potential for errors, government administrators knew a change had to come. The District sought a solution to consolidate payments from multiple departments. The new system would also alleviate security issues and save staff members a significant amount of time. That solution is iNovah.
The District deemed System Innovators a trusted leader in the industry. The iNovah ERM system is the optimal system for the size and scope of their project. As a result, System Innovators implemented the solution in 2005 within the Office of Finance and Treasury.
Implementation Success
Implementation was a hands-on experience for the Office of Finance and Treasury. System Innovators’ knowledgeable team was on-site to train the Finance and Treasury staff on all aspects of iNovah. With iNovah, each department within the District is now able to collect payments, make deposits and manage their revenue. They could eliminate the need for sending physical documentation to the Office of Finance and Treasury. With the application of iNovah’s general ledger export and allocation codes, the Office of Finance and Treasury is able to update the general ledger in real-time and benefit from economies of scale in their end-of-day tasks.
Rapid Results
iNovah ERM allows the District to reduce errors by automating the reconciliation process, improving employee workflow, and creating hassle-free preparation of reports. With these efficiencies through iNovah, the District is better able to utilize employees’ skills and decrease the amount of staff to perform tasks. The team of 11 that once endured a cumbersome reconciliation process, is now only three people. This team monitors iNovah’s automatic batch and reconciliation reporting, instead of separating paper piles to manually enter into the GL as done before.
The remaining 8 staff members shifted to understaffed areas within the Office of Finance of Treasury, like debt and grants management. Since the need for overtime is removed, employees’ work/life balance has improved tremendously. They can now take well-deserved vacations without adding additional pressure to their teams.
The most impactful effect is that iNovah helps to streamline processes, enabling staff to update the GL in a single day, erasing the four-month delay previously encountered when updating SOAR.
“iNovah has changed revenue management in D.C. for the better. The efficiencies gained have saved us time and unnecessary spending, as well as provided us with better reporting and reconciliation capabilities. iNovah has decreased errors in our audits, and really simplified management for our cashiers.”
With iNovah as the hub for all revenue, the District of Columbia Office of Finance and Treasury now rests soundly knowing that their financial management is centralized, automated and secure.
