(10/18) At their October 5th meeting, the Thurmont Town Council awarded a contract to Tyler Technologies to provide the town with new accounting software.

Although at $77,982, Tyler was not the least expensive bidder, it was the only option that offered a "cashiering module" that would allow residents to access their information online, according to Linda Joyce, Thurmont’s Chief Financial Officer.

"This is the vehicle that would facilitate customer transactions remotely," she said.

Tyler Technologies offered a requisition/purchase module that the other proposed software’s did not, Joyce said. The module allows requisition requests to be initiated at the user level and sent electronically to the software for purchasing permission, a feature that allows each department manager to manage their budget expenditures instead of having to contact Joyce to determine fund availabilities. As a result, town staff will have the capability to access any of their financial information at any time.

The new accounting software will integrate all town financial functions seamlessly and provides a central database for financial information by providing the general larger, accounts receivable, cashiering, purchase orders, accounts payable, budgeting, and fixed assets in a one stop software application.

The town is currently using four different programs to accomplish this, according to Joyce. Upgrading the current software to today’s standards would cost between $50,000 and $60,000 and would require the town to purchase a new server. This option would leave the town with the current problem of having to manage four different systems that don’t talk to ach other, resulting in a risk of some important financial detail being lost in translation between systems.

The cost of the project includes installation of the fund accounting software, data conversion from the town’s current software, as well as maintenance, support, and necessary training.