Testimonials

When I took office for the City of Rochester in January 2012, I quickly realized that we needed to look at some systemic changes to improve the efficiency of our processes.  I began looking at multiple financial software packages and I kept coming back to one…BS&A Software.  I made contact with the referrals and learned that the program was extremely popular.  I scheduled an onsite demonstration for my staff and we were quickly sold on its functionality and versatility.  Having a background in Information Technology as my past career, I am very critical and knowledgeable when it comes to data, design, and implementation.  BS&A met and exceeded my expectations.  The customer service is superb!  I am looking forward to a long working relationship with the company.

The City of Flagler Beach is extremely pleased with our move to BS&A Software. While our town is a slice of old Florida, we really needed software that would bring us into the 21st Century; BS&A fit the bill. We have been up and running since October of 2012 and our staff cannot say enough about the friendly, helpful support staff of BS&A, they are simply the best.

Training sessions were concentrated toward the person/s using each module and trainers made sure we were as comfortable as possible with the new software before they left. Of course, support is available by email or by phone and another great feature is you can also browse the “Online Support Community”. With a click of a button, you can tap into a massive amount of topics using the search feature or you can look at other users’ questions and comments regarding a topic and find clear answers to frequently asked questions.

We love the Purchase Order and Accounts Payable process, since our city does not have a centralized Purchasing Department. Our Department Heads are able to enter PO’s, scan required backup and the whole approval process runs through our email. All Department Heads are able to run expense reports and drill down into their line items to see where the money has been spent. The fact that everyone in the city is a part of the actual software has been great for us as a team builder!! My favorite part is documents are scanned and attached!!! I feel that one day we will become completely paperless thanks to this software.

General Ledger, one of the most valuable tools for me, is being able to scan the backup and attach to the Journal Entry; this will be a big improvement for audit, save the time finding copies, making copies for their files, savings on paper, ink not to mention staff time. From the GL Detail you can drill all the way down to the beginning of the transactions and view the attachments to those entries. We are just getting ready for Budget, so I can’t wait to see how the new software will help us with this task.

We were able to bring our Payroll back in house by purchasing the Payroll Module and are in the process of having our entire city use the Timesheets Module, which will not only speed up the entire payroll process, it will also cut down on keying errors. As with all the modules, the payroll process is very user friendly, and off course if we get stuck, we simply send an email to BS&A directly from the module; their response time is incredibly quick. The savings for our city when we stopped outsourcing payroll helped convince the elected officials to approve the purchase of new software.

Our Finance Staff points out the following while operating Purchase Order, Accounts Payable, Utility Billing and Cash Receipts:

• BS&A is saving us so much time especially in the areas of entering payments and tasks such as adding late fees on accounts and printing door tags. What took hours with our previous software now takes minutes with BS&A.

• We have improved our customer service by accepting Web payments.

• We no longer have to print large reports and use a ton of paper, with BS&A everything can be saved to a computer. This also will be extremely helpful when it comes to audit.

• The ability to easily add comments to accounts is extremely helpful.

• BS&A Software is extremely “user-friendly” and each module is modeled in the same way, so no matter what module you are working in, the look-up feature, tables, drill-down features and reporting are consistent.

• BS&A Representatives are always patient and willing to “walk” us through the process of what we are trying to accomplish. The report type choices are numerous and if a specific report we need is not in the system, they are willing to help us find a way to make it possible.

• The “real-time” feature is great because we always have up to the minute payment and receipting information for our staff and our customers.

We are looking forward to adding Building Permits to our City this month which means for the first time the City of Flagler Beach will be operating one software program, instead of each department doing their own thing.

The Village of Brown Deer is proud to be the first Wisconsin client of BS&A!  We completed extensive research on BS&A and contacted over 25 references and did not receive anything negative from any of those communities.  It was clear at that time and is crystal clear now after having been a client for over a year, that BS&A is a solid organization with great trainers and support staff and a product that is far superior to those in the market currently.

The benefits that BS&A offers will improve your operation tenfold!  The software is very cost friendly and is well worth every dollar paid and then some.  In most situations you dread software conversions, but BS&A and their staff take the extra time and effort to walk you through every step of the way and will ensure that things are done right.  I am more than pleased with how the system is set up and running.  We experienced a very smooth conversion even working with the programmers to design reports and features that are specific to the State of Wisconsin.  My favorite parts of the software are the budget feature in general ledger and ease of exporting reports into excel.

I would recommend BS&A to every community looking for software.  The product, support, and sales team is more than I could have ever asked for!

I would like to take this opportunity to let you know how happy the City of Crystal River is with the decision to move to BS&A software.

We were considering changing software providers for our financial, payroll, utility billing, and building operations. We decided to issue an RFP to see what was available and to determine if we could find some cost savings in the process. I was contacted by Steve Rennell from BS&A about the bid requests. I was not familiar with this software, but told him we would be happy to look at his bid.

We decided to allow BS&A to come give us a demonstration of the software. All of the Finance Dept. employees attended the demonstration and we were all impressed with what we saw. The modules were all user friendly and easy to understand. It appeared that this software offered everything we were looking for, at the price which would save the City money in the budget.

After looking at a couple of other software packages, we decided to proceed with BS&A. I was provided a timeline for the implementation process. The items on the timeline were followed precisely. When the dates for specific items on the timeline came up, the work was done.

We did the actual implementation in January, 2012, and it was the most seamless implementation I have ever seen. The work was done on time and without problems. The costs quoted were exactly what we were billed. I was extremely impressed, as was our City Manager.

One of the greatest strengths of BS&A is their customer service. Everyone we had contact with from the onset of this process has been very helpful and friendly. The trainers have been superior. When we have had questions, we contact the customer service representatives, and they have an answer for us right away.

We have never waited more than 15 minutes for a response. Most of the time, the resolution of our problem is handled immediately. If there is additional research to be done to help us, we get a response back as soon as they have an answer for us. If it is going to take longer than what they feel is normal, we get either a phone call or an email explaining what is going on. We are never left wondering if our concerns are being addressed.

Overall, this has been the best move we could have made. We use ten of the BS&A modules, all of which are wonderful. I would strongly encourage anyone who is looking for a new software package to take a serious look at this company. You will not be sorry!

Software transitions can be time consuming and amazingly detailed and Grand Haven’s was no exception. Advance planning with BS&A staff was both comprehensive and process oriented. Splitting our processes between what was “setup work” and what became “ongoing operations” helped us to keep proper focus on the tasks at hand. Data transition went very smoothly and retained all of the data we requested. On-site setup and training was timely and matched the ongoing process as much as possible. BS&A staff was cognizant of the pressure on City staff in the learning environment and timeframes and capably assisted City staff in every aspect of the software installation.

BS&A’s staff was well-prepared from the outset, knew their software, the training process timeframes and matched our operational needs exactly. Where more training and review was needed, we already had built in additional time to get that accomplished. Task shifts, when they occurred, were easily managed. Every BS&A staffer we met was highly trained, professional and very approachable. Follow up questions were regularly asked, confirmations of completion were made and everything was tracked closely.

Most of our “basic setup” completed, we are just beginning to review the additional “bells and whistles” that the software has made available to us.

1. In General Ledger, we look forward to adding GASB & F-65 report setups, long range forecasting, timely cash and investment reporting and other features to our growing capabilities.

2. In Payroll, we used BS&A for W-2’s in January, a process that was not seamless at all, but guided very well by BS&A staff.

3. In Human Resources, we will attain new management abilities as we transition paper-bound data into the system.

4. In Accounts Payable and Purchase Orders, we achieved paperless approvals by proper individuals of almost all invoices and PO’s, a process that speeds up the time from initial input to full approval documentation.

5. We have taken a paperbound accounts receivable process and placed it all on computer with BS&A’s Miscellaneous Receivables.

6. In Utility Billing, we now use electronic work orders for DPW staff and add comments to accounts which can be reviewed as needed. We also shifted from printing large reports to storing them as pdf files for later audit reviews.

7. And the best news, those with appropriate access can review their information on our secure systems 24-7 and not have to wait for Finance Office hours or paging through paper files! (I just received a compliment from another City department head, thanking me for choosing BS&A Software. They were doing a report that “took hours” last year, but took “only minutes” this year.)

Are we happy with the software, service, training, support and staff of BS&A? Oh, yes we are!

When you partner with BS&A, you get software that works great now, and helps communities move to the next level. Their software allowed us to easily move into a paperless environment. Now when auditors come, we don’t spend hours pulling invoices and journal entries only to re-file them again later. If we want to see the invoice or journal entry support, it’s all available in our system. I already got rid of an entire filing cabinet because I just don’t have the paper anymore!

One of my favorite parts of BS&A is simply the ease of use of the software. Everything is intuitive and easy. I can see all of the transactions in an account just by clicking on the amount from a report. Before I had to close the report, move out of the report writing section, get into the chart of accounts section, look up the account number, then run another report just to see the transaction history. Now it’s one click, and the best part is—when I’m done, I am still in the report.

The software was not oversold; everything that we were told during the demonstrations was 100% true! At some companies once the sale is done, you never talk to the sales teams again. At BS&A, the sales team made sure our implementation went smoothly and even continued to check in later to make sure we were happy.

BS&A has also helped us improve our customer service by providing online payment options and ACH debit and e-billing for utility bills. Our customers have been asking for this for years!

They look at each client as a partner, and truly listen to us if we have an idea on how to make our processes better. Rather than just saying, “this is how the software works”, they work with us to continuously make improvements on how the system works and adding functionality.

They are big enough to provide us with great support, (i.e. talented programmers, implementation and support teams), but small enough that they still care about every client’s experience.

The Village of Libertyville transitioned to BS&A Financials in late 2011, and we are very happy with the software and support we’re receiving. I had been through a software conversion before and was dreading having to do this, but I can say that this was the easiest software conversion I have been through. Prior to the installation, BS&A met with the Village to discuss our operations, and when our software was installed, they had configured it to meet our needs.  Once the training began, we spent minimal time going through the set up; leaving more than sufficient time for training staff members on the use of the software.

The Village of Burr Ridge, Illinois has replaced its 15-year-old legacy financial software with new systems from BS&A Software.  After researching numerous software vendors and conducting on-site vendor demonstrations, the Village staff, hands down, selected BS&A as the new financial systems provider for the Village.

In addition to great functionality, the systems work seamlessly together, have a streamline and easy-to- follow interfaces, were very easy to implement in a short time frame, and are constantly updated for the customers.

One of the key points that BS&A stressed during the vendor demonstration was their great customer service and support.  Any vendor, during the sales portion of a system selection process, can boast about their support.  However, until you are a BS&A customer and are on the other end of a support call, you do not know how great their support really is.  The entire Village staff loves the software and the customer support they receive from BS&A.  We look forward to many years of service with their systems.

Falls Township purchased the Building Permit version of BS&A. Compared with the program we had before, this one is so much more user-friendly, from the permits to the reports you can do.

When we first received this program a man came in and gave us some training, but it was easy enough to learn on our own. Anything I had trouble with, Bob and Lori were right there to help fix the problem and didn’t hang up until the problem was fixed. The tech support is fabulous.

The Dept. of Building Safety & Zoning purchased BS&A’s software several years ago. I am pleased with the permitting program and all its additional workings and record keeping options. These many options have saved a great deal of office time and provide a great method of obtaining information needed daily. I appreciate the good support and pleasant staff that helps with resolving all this department’s concerns.