​On Wednesday, March 1, 2017 the Newton County Commission executed a contract with Tyler Technologies, Inc. to implement a new financial software system. 
 
The Contract with Tyler came after months of software demonstrations and question & answer sessions with three vendors that responded to a Request for Proposal put out by the Commission in August of 2016.  A software evaluation team was put in place to review the three systems.  This team was made up of the County Auditor, County Clerk, one Associate Commissioner, the County Treasurer and multiple staff that are integral to the systems.  After more in-depth reviews of the systems the evaluation team made the recommendation to pursue a partnership with the Tyler Technologies system.
 
“Implementing these systems will allow Newton County to provide additional services to our employees and vendors as well as provide financial and budgetary analysis access to every department.  This is a major project that will impact everyone in our organization.  I’m very hopeful that once completed we will have a very robust and responsive system that enables all users to make better educated decisions in many aspects of county business.”  Charlotte Ward, County Auditor.
 
Five system goals were drafted by the County Auditor based on issues that were discussed during the software demonstration phase.
 
       Efficiency – Newton County currently utilizes a menu driven system that has many repetitive input points that create opportunity for error.  Many departments still utilize manual reporting of key information.
 
      Accountability to the public – Every function of the system from time-keeping, asset management, budgeting and financial reporting will be enhanced with increased accuracy.
 
      Accessibility of services available to employees – The new system will provide an employee portal where employees can access both personal payroll items as well as information on benefits available to them.
 
       Analysis – Financial analysis is currently done by input into other systems such as Excel.  This system will provide reports and chart analysis that can be automatically delivered to officeholders and departments on a regular and recurring basis.
 
     Meet audit recommendations – Payroll/time & attendance, benefit application, purchase orders and disaster planning improvements have been recurring audit recommendations but without a uniformly applied system, were difficult to resolve.
 
Presiding Commissioner Marilyn Ruestman expresses her appreciation to the software evaluation team for their thorough investigation and recommendation. “This is a step forward for the entire county.”