Over the past 12 months, staff at Glamorgan Spring Bay Council, located on the east coast of Tasmania, have been developing a customised accounting database especially designed for the needs of Local Government. The GDAP design concept was used to set up a multi- dimensional general ledger within the accounting software package, Microsoft Navision Edition. The GDAP design recently received a commendation at the National Local Government awards.
The benefits of this accounting solution include the following.
- Superior, flexible and detailed online analysis of financial data in a meaningful Local Government format.
- A level of reporting excellence and flexibility that accommodates the interests and needs of a wide group of stakeholders, including Councillors, Council management, the Grants Commission, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, auditors, ratepayers, creditors and financial staff.
- The potential to automate annual financial statements.
- The potential to automate Government statistical and Key Performance Indicator (PKI) return requirements.
“The solution has enormous potential for future development,” said Council’s General Manager, Alan Daley. “A budget model and a cash flow model will be the focus of the next stage of research.”
He said that the flexible reporting meets the needs of all contemporary Local Government organisations.
“It is relatively simple to check on the expenditure of, say, the roads department, then drill down and see what activity that expenditure was on,” Alan Daley said. “It is then relatively simple to drill down further to the source invoices associated with the project.”
Glamorgan Spring Bay Councilreceived technical assistance in customising the accounting package from Melbourne team, Information Outlook, which is a certified Navision Solution Centre.
For further information contact Chris Peterson, Council’s Manager Business and Customer Service, on (03) 6257 3113, or John Tartaro at Information Outlook, Microsoft Business Solution Partner, on (03) 9526 8478.
