Brittney Burns – Staff Writer
For town residents, paying bills to the town for essentials such as water and sewer has been a point of contention for some time. Checks can be mailed in for the monthly bills or residents can stop in at town hall to pay the bills in person with cash or check. The office has never accepted credit or debit cards and there hasn’t been an online option to pay the bills. That is all about to change.
“The Town of Franklin will be upgrading from their current software provider CSI Accounting-Plus to Tyler Technologies,” said Town Manager Summer Woodard. “The town’s current system is over 17 years old. The new system will allow for online bill pay. It will also allow for the town finance department to post to general ledger daily.”
According to Woodard, the upgraded system will streamline bills and make them easier for customers to read and understand.
“The bills will more like a Duke Energy power bill,” explained Woodard. “Residents will also be able to easily pay their bills online, which is something we have had a lot of requests for.”
Residents can see the first change with online bill pay beginning in October to November. The full software conversion will be complete July 1, 2017.
The town of Franklin budgeted $161,445 for the software upgrades. On Monday night, the Franklin Board of Aldermen unanimously voted to approve the contracts with Tyler Technologies to began the upgrade process.
“The upgrade will benefit town residents because it will allow resident to pay their bills online and it will also provide numerous services to department heads that are not currently available in the town’s current software,” said Woodard. “One example is budget prep. Currently all budget prep is done on excel and word documents.
Tyler Technologies Software specializes in financial management and property taxes to courts and education software. Their focus is to make it easier for local governments and schools to manage their complex, day-to-day business functions.
During the transition process, town residents can expect bill pay and operations to be business as usual. Beginning in October, depending on the transition phase, residents can expect to see a change in their mailbox.
For more information on the software upgrade, contact town hall at (828)524-2516.
