Polk County finance reports payroll system live; moves toward CIP, fund‑balance policy and ERP review

Polk County’s finance director told commissioners the county’s new payroll system is running and can now produce detailed, drill‑down reporting for roughly 350 employees. The system maps multiple pay codes (regular, overtime, night shift, holiday, comp time, benefits) to pay statements, enables exportable check registers and improves the county’s ability to reconcile liabilities and analyze overtime and benefit costs.

The director described that the payroll implementation is effectively 99% complete and that ongoing work will be training and reconciliation. He noted the system’s capability to export detailed reports that can be used for collective‑bargaining analyses, budget forecasting, and per‑program payroll accounting — a marked improvement over the county’s prior, largely manual process.

With payroll functioning, finance said it will resume work on a five‑year capital improvement plan (CIP), a capital fund for project accounting and a fund‑balance policy (recommendation to raise the capital asset threshold toward $10,000 for depreciation/tracking). Staff also described an ongoing ERP/vendor evaluation (Questica mentioned as budgeting software) aimed at improving general‑ledger project tracking, asset management, purchasing and accounts‑receivable workflows so the county can better project audited fund balances sooner in the budget cycle.

Commissioners were briefed on timing: budget preparation for 2027 will begin in June, and the auditors will produce audited 2025 fund balances later in the summer; staff said changes to capital and fund‑balance policies will be returned for board consideration next month.