The Challenge
Working in a small town government, you have many priorities and responsibilities to balance but never enough time. Finding ways to streamline your processes allows you to meet the needs of your government, while also meeting the expectations of your citizens and community. However, manual work and outdated processes often get in the way. This is the challenge the City of Miller, SD faced. Before partnering with gWorks, Finance Officer, Sheila Coss, and Deputy Finance Officer, Cindy Deuter, devoted hours of extra time to manual work they wished could be automated. They had several spreadsheets because their software would not talk to each other, and they had to check and double-check to make sure spreadsheets were right before they could move on in their month. When human error showed up, it was difficult for them to track down where it was located.
The gWorks Solution
After discussions with Sheila and Cindy to identify their vision for what the City of Miller needed, they determined that gWorks was the ideal solution for their city, as gWorks offered the integration they needed as well as world-class customer support. Working with Miller’s staff, gWorks transferred their necessary data and configured the software to meet the city's needs.
Benefits Realized
The result is a simple, integrated solution that has cut hours of manual work from their day by streamlining staff processes, while also reducing the risk of human error.
One of the most significant benefits Miller has experienced since implementing gWorks has been speedier reporting in a format that has been better received by auditors, council, and department heads. On their prior system, it used to take up to a day to find an answer, but with gWorks, they can find answers in minutes. When it comes time for council meetings, Sheila can pull up her reports and show council members answers to questions immediately right there.
gWorks reporting has also saved staff time on their audit.“The auditors love our reporting! Our audit time has cut down dramatically. Before the auditors come, we just email them our reports, and they've got a good chunk of our audit done before they even show up in our office. That has probably taken off at least a month of time for the auditors to do our audit.” – Sheila Coss, Miller Finance Officer
Miller has experienced several other benefits since partnering with gWorks:
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Reducing manual and duplicate entry has saved staff hours of time to process payroll.
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The time needed to balance the bank statement has been reduced by over 75% to just two hours, with individual statements taking only a few minutes each.
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Automated receipt management has cut down on human error and time devoted to utility billing due to payments automatically posting to the appropriate utility accounts.
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Staff has been able to provide convenience and time-savings for citizens by offering ACH and e-Bill payment options through FrontDesk
"Our ACH and e-Bill payment options have been really well received by our customers. They love the ACH because they know it’s going to come out of their account on the tenth of every month, and they don’t have to worry about it. That has been a huge time saver for us and cut our shut-offs down dramatically." -Sheila Coss, Miller Finance Officer
When asked about the impact gWorks has had on the City of Miller, here is what Cindy had to say:
"The capabilities of this software are amazing. Everything talks to each other, it updates automatically, and we can run our cash report to make sure everything’s in line. We’re learning something new every day because there is that much to it that’s available. Our main reason for switching to gWorks was value placed on customer support, and believe it when they say that gWorks is committed to their clients' success. On our prior software, we had to fix our issues on our own, but with gWorks, we don’t have to do that. We switched back in 2013 and haven’t regretted it. It’s definitely for the better." - Cindy Deuter, Miller Deputy Finance Officer