01-26-1994 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mayor & City Council January 21, 1994 Page 3 * The new system allows several printing options not currently available. One may choose to print to several different printers, print to the screen, print to a word processing spreadsheet, or print to a Lotus spreadsheet. * The current system requires manual year end journal entries to close the cumulative revenue and expense accounts into the prior year earnings /losses account (retained earnings). With forty plus funds this means forty plus journal entries just to close the revenue and expense summary funds. These funds should automatically close into retained earnings at year end and will do so with the new accounting software. * The computer in the accounting clerk's office is approximately ten years old and has broken down three times in the last three weeks which is a good indicator that it will permanently expire in the near future. It also processes very slowly, due in large part to the fact that the computer has an old microprocessor which dictates it's speed. If I ask the computer six months into the year, "How much has the water department spent on telephone expenses this year ?" The system will take about forty minutes to generate this information and about five minutes to print it. Some of this slowness is also attributable to the software. With the new computer and accounting software it should take less than twenty minutes for the same report! * Another serious problem with this computer is that because of its older technology, it is not able to access Lotus 123. I would estimate that I spend at least thirty percent of my total time on Lotus. There is only one workstation in the office that is able to access Lotus. For almost all of the work I do on Lotus, I need to use many books, files, papers, and computer printouts that are stored in my office. This means carrying all of this equipment up to the Lotus station and then back again when I am through. In addition, many of the reports and most of the budget data is generated on Lotus by myself, Kathy, Kris, and Joel. Many times delays are encountered due to someone else using the station. With the new computer system all workstations will be able to access Lotus. * There are numerous reasons to upgrade the current word processing system from Multimate to Word Perfect 6.0 mostly having to do with how well the system operates and how easy, efficient and enjoyable it is to use. The current system Multimate is slow. This is due in part to the software and in part to the hardware. Creating the document requires moving through three different screens that ask for information before arriving at the word processing screen. Moving around in, and manipulating the document itself is cumbersome. When paging up or down in the document if one crosses a "page break" the system locks up and "processes" for five to fifteen seconds until one is allowed to start working again. Page 99