The Indianola Board of Aldermen may still entertain the idea of partnering with Sage accounting software after hearing pitches at two consecutive meetings from the company.
Sage is offering a six-month, no-cost extension if the city wishes to be the pilot program for Sage’s first dabbling into municipal accounting.
Eric Hanninen, a representative of Sage, was present by phone to give the board more information about the software.
Hanninen said, “We are offering a six-month, no-money, risk-free assessment to see if our solution will handle all of your utility billing needs and financial software.”
If the board decides to team up with Sage for the utility billing software, they will pay $21,400 up front with a monthly fee of $16,056. The package includes utility billing software, credit card readers, virtual training and lower credit card fees for citizens.
Sage has apparently partnered with another company to bring the city a holistic solution to its accounting and billing issues.
Ward 2 Alderman Darrell Simpson asked if the board would have to pay CUSI during the six-month trial. CUSI is Sage’s partner, and they are attempting to charge the board $41,000.
City Attorney Kimberly Merchant said, “The problem is, given the cost of the contract, it will require additional quotes. I also understood that CUSI was free for the six months.”
The CUSI representative told the board that he could see if he could get the approval to give a six-month free trial along with Sage. After six months, to move forward with the company, the board would have to get a second quote due to the amount.
Merchant said, “Sage is purely an accounting software. It works fine. There was no issue with Sage. The problem was they didn’t factor in the utility billing software, and that became a problem because we have water billing to do.”
Mayor Ken Featherstone said, “But they figured that out and partnered with CUSI for the utility billing.”
No action was taken toward this due to a lack of votes.
The board did approve to pay Cherry Bekaert $16,640.63 – the final payment of four installments. Cherry Bekaert is the accounting firm that implemented Sage.
Ward 1 Alderman Gary Fratesi voted nay.
Ward 4 Marvin Elder abstained.
Ward 5 Sam Brock voted nay.
Ward 3 Alderman Ruben Woods voted yes.
Simpson voted yes.
Featherstone broke the tie and gave an affirmative vote to make the payment.
The board also on Monday night hired Kaitlyn King as the new assistant city inspector.
