Lewisburg, West Virginia
Success Story
An Historic City Needed a Modern Accounting System
CITY OF LEWISBURG, WEST VIRGINIA—The City of Lewisburg, West Virginia, is located amid the Allegheny Mountains in the heart of the Greenbrier Valley. Chartered in 1782, the City serves as the county seat for Greenbrier County and uses a Mayor/City Council form of government. Lewisburg is a city rich in history and natural beauty with many 18th and 19th century buildings, where a steeple clock still tolls the hour and the church bells ring out on Sunday mornings.
A Tradition of Inefficiency Needed to Be Changed
The City of Lewisburg, WV was using an accounting software package that wasn’t Windows-based and required several steps or repeated entries for most accounting tasks.
Financial statements were often out of balance because of the lack of integration between areas of the accounting system. In addition, every time the server for the software went down, the vendor required the City to purchase the system all over again.
“The last time the server went down, it cost around $60,000,” explained Susan Honaker, city treasurer at the City of Lewisburg. “At that point, we put it out to bid, to see if we could find another accounting solution.”
The City wanted to implement an accounting solution that is Windows-based, would be simpler to use and more cost-effective.
AccuFund’s Windows-Based Solution Worked Wonders
The City of Lewisburg turned to Jeff Feamster with Mountaineer Computer Systems, Inc. for help with finding a new accounting system. Jeff’s number one recommendation was the AccuFund Accounting Suite.
“I was familiar with the AccuFund Accounting Suite from using it in my previous employment with other municipalities,” said Honaker. “In addition to being truly Windows-based, it is easy to learn and very easy to use. New employees can just pick up the basics and then hit the ground running. A huge plus was that we were able to purchase AccuFund for less than what our current accounting software vendor wanted for purchasing a new server.”
The City of Lewisburg had already been using AccuFund’s Courts and Fines module when they implemented the entire software suite in 2008. In addition to the Core System of the AccuFund Accounting Suite, the City installed several AccuFund modules: Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Payroll, Human Resources, Utility Billing, Web Pay, Building Permits, Work Orders, Fees, Taxes and Licenses, Budget Development and Purchasing. The City has 10 AccuFund users across various departments, with Honaker the primary user.
“Each module is robust in its own right, but the modules are all connected and work as one unit, so you can make just one entry and it’s calculated across the entire system,” explained Honaker. “We’re saving a significant amount of time—probably an hour each day—with not having to go enter data in the general ledger after we’ve entered it in one of the modules.”
“We experienced noticeable time savings once we switched to AccuFund,” added Bonita Sienkiewicz, assistant to the city administrator.“ AccuFund doesn’t have many of the steps and procedures that had been part of our previous accounting system. It has a smoother, more streamlined process.”
Sienkiewicz handles all aspects of payroll and has found that AccuFund automates many payroll and employee-related processes. For example, when they do their payroll every other week, they close it out on Wednesday at midnight, then have the direct deposit made and the payroll stubs sent to employees by 8:30 Thursday morning. Sienkiewicz estimates they are saving 5-6 hours with their payroll process each pay period.
In addition, with just a few button clicks, Sienkiewicz is able to process the monthly employee retirement reports and automatically download them to the state reporting system. She estimates she’s saving 2-3 hours each on the monthly reports and also on her quarterly reports.
“AccuFund has been a huge time saver for me. I don't have to key in a bunch of things or manually do a lot of reporting like I did before,” said Sienkiewicz. “I used to have to sit and manually write all these reports for monthly reporting to the Retirement Board, and then for the quarterly reporting of the unemployment reports. With AccuFund, I just click a few buttons. It's really easy for me, and I’m not a computer person!”
“We experienced noticeable time savings once we switched to AccuFund,” added Bonita Sienkiewicz, assistant to the city administrator.“ AccuFund doesn’t have many of the steps and procedures that had been part of our previous accounting system. It has a smoother, more streamlined process.”
Service and Support Ensure Continued Growth
“Another benefit of working with AccuFund is that if there’s a function I would like it to do, I can call Jeff or Stacey at Mountaineer Computer Systems and they’ll do a little programming to make it happen, then the capability is there for my ongoing use,” said Sienkiewicz. “They really help to simplify your work. I couldn’t get that kind of service with our previous accounting software.”
“We get great customer support,” concluded Sienkiewicz. “I'm one of those customers who calls because I'm not computer savvy, but once I know how to do something, I know it. AccuFund is very easy to understand. It’s got to be one of the easiest software packages out there.”
“AccuFund is very easy to understand. It’s got to be one of the easiest software packages out there.”
Let's Get Started
AccuFund supports your mission with a full suite of financial management applications for nonprofit and government organizations. To learn more and arrange a demo, contact AccuFund at 877-872-2228 or