NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The City Council in a brief meeting on Monday gave final authorization on the purchase of new software for the city's financial systems. 

 

Mayor Jennifer Macksey also read the annual proclamation in recognition of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. 

 

The council had authorized by roll call vote at the end of August the borrowing of $536,562 to purchase new financial software package, Municipal Uniform Information System, or MUNIS. 

 

The mayor said it will include the treasure/collector, accounts payable, general receipts, the assessing package, compass, as well as a citizen portal to report problems or made requests to departments. 

 

The software will allow for more efficient processing and streamlined reporting to the state for both the city and school department. Future add-ons can include permitting, the mayor said at the August meeting. 

 

"One of my first jobs was to implement our current financial software known as KBS," said Macksey, who joined the city's finance department in 1995. "KBS has been discontinued, in a sense, and it's no longer supported. It's 29 years old ... It has served us well. It has been a good tool, but it is time for us to modernize."

 

The borrowing will cover all of the the setup, the software, the training and one year of annual subscription. The annual fee after that is about $109,000, which is comparable to KBS and the Springbook software that the city has been using as a bridge.