ERP and Local Government

Local government departments have the task of meeting increased public expectations with restricted funds. During a time of unanticipated budget cuts, project values must be delivered quickly and the outcomes immediately evident, with future strategies planned and documented.

Our team of qualified accountants and business consultants have many years of experience in their fields, combined with extensive ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and Finance systems expertise. Together with a deep understanding of the regulatory and reporting landscape for local authorities, offers a full 360° ability to deliver the required outcomes successfully in even the most complex of local authority organisational structures.

Our cost-effective approach as well as our flexibility has meant that we have become a trusted advisor to both local and central government over the last 30 years.
 

Systems Independent 

As systems-independent experts, our services are brought to you with not only a good understanding of software providers and their products, giving impartial access to the full software market but an ability to advise on the most  suitable solutions.

We have strong, collaborative partnerships with many of the leading software providers in order to achieve the best outcomes for our clients when a decision has been made.  
 

Benefits of Our Expertise from the start of your Finance/ERP Optimisation Journey

Our services include supporting and enabling you in the efficient gathering and analysis of your organisation and requirements in order that you can better understand your “as is” and “to be” situation.

We work with you to help you reach your organisational objectives and transformation aspirations by expertly guiding your strategy and roadmap for a cost-effective, optimised future. Our team will also support the preparation of your business case and your communications with key stakeholders through delivering programme assurance and business change services.  

We have supported many local government clients through their requirements definition, ERP strategy and roadmap through to preparing a business case based on the Value for Money (VFM) model; from small district councils right through to large city councils (see our Case Studies).
 

Making sure your Line Of Business (LOB) systems work efficiently with ERP

With our systems knowledge and deep understanding of local government, we help local authorities make their LOB systems work with ERP more effectively. As an integrated solution, it eradicates many manually conducted processes and as such saves time and resources. Ensuring correctly integrated systems can achieve strategic outputs more quickly.

Our experience eliminates risk associated with:  

• Systems variations - variations in systems cause complexities during integration - systems need to communicate with each other to deliver information.
• Difficulty accessing data - Data needs to be accurate and accessed quickly, essential for quick decisions and accurate reporting. Without a seamless system integration, transferring data, access to information and speed of information retrieval will cause issues.
• Inconsistencies in records management - Reducing manual input by increasing automation decreases the probability of errors, inaccurate and duplicated data and difficulty in keeping data up-to-date, diminishing the waste of resources.

Pre-configured Templates

Our public-sector specific templates are purposefully designed to suit the specific challenges and desired outcomes and solutions of local government.
 

Align Chart of Accounts Design with CODE

We understand the requirement of local authorities in the UK to keep their accounts in accordance with ‘proper practices’ - CoA compliance with the terms of the Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting in the UK.

Our experts know the code specifics and principles, and the practices of accounting required to prepare a Statement of Accounts that gives a true and fair view of the financial position and transactions of a local authority.

We ensure your Chart of Accounts design aligns with the Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting in the UK. The Code is reviewed continually and is usually annually updated.
 

Project Management

All our projects are planned with PRINCE2 methodology. Collaboration and strict risk-mitigation controls are key to all of the projects that we undertake and we roll out Microsoft Project Online across all projects. The shared timelines help to harness the creativity and experience of your team, aiding project visualisation at each stage.

Project objectives are clearly defined, enabling Project Managers to prioritise stakeholder management, all under the guidance of our expert team. All required activities are analysed and logged, creating a detailed plan showing the how, what and when of a project and when it will provide the deliverables defined within the scope of the project.

It encompasses the following process to determine and map out the long and short term financial and organisational goals:

• Planning – this provides a long-term strategic financial objectives structure, with mid-term targets. 
• Budgeting – planning for month-to-month, covering all financial aspects.
• Forecasting – taking historical data and current market conditions to predict the financial forecast for the next few months and years.

Project Accounting

Project accounting captures all project costs and evaluates the project status, avoids runaway costs and ensures a profitable revenue stream into the future, giving you timely information to avoid possible problems. It aids in the fulfilment of different purposes in different phases of a project, allowing accurate calculations of cost levels and expected ROI. Once in receipt of cost approval, it enables budget allocation and during the project phase, it monitors and checks cost variances.
 

Fixed Assets (IFRS 16 Implementation)

For local authorities, IFRS 16 requires a detailed lease-by-lease analysis for the financial reporting process.

Moore Insight experts can assist with the following challenges:

• Giving a full picture. Public sector bodies may have multiple leases in play across a single public sector body. We enable you to store, manage and update information.
• Implementing IFRS 16 in the most suitable and coherent manner. In some areas, reporting officers will have some room to manoeuvre on how to proceed. Our experience in these matters gives the right capabilities to make decisions based on accurate data reporting, expressing the objectives of your organisation.
• Ensuring the ‘Best in Class’ systems and processes are in place to handle the need for increased workload. Public Finance departments need to look carefully at whether their current resources are sufficient to meet a larger workload. We work with you to form a Project Team to establish project governance, undertake information gathering to assess the overall impact on the organisation and understand the options, scope and recognition exemptions.

Assess and Prepare

• Readiness assessment
• Accounting policy
• Data integrity
• Technology strategy
• Stakeholder requirements

Implement

• Data manipulation
• Technology implementation
• Project governance
• Stakeholder communications

Impact and Strategy  

• Managing project impacts  
• Lease and contract strategy
• Training and future-proofing

Outcomes from Moore Insight Local Government Sector Services

• Up-to-date accounts
• Genuine devolved financial responsibility
• Budget managers take ownership with PBF tools
• Real project accounting solutions
• Full use of ERP efficiency. The right system will be expertly integrated to execute all automated functions and requirements.
• Longer-term strategy planning