County ready to enter New World

After a wait of six years and expenses of nearly two-thirds of a million dollars, Whitman County will turn on its 2005-vintage accounting software Monday.

“We’ve got the oars rowing and the sails blowing and we’re heading right toward that shore,” said Chris Nelson, director of the county’s Information Technology department.

The New World system replaces the existing software, which has been used by the county since 1984.

County employees have been training for the past several weeks in seminars. This week in particular has seen intensive workshops to teach employees how to use the new system.

“We’re taking everybody kicking and screaming along with us to the New World,” said Esther Wilson, systems administrator for Whitman County.

The software runs the general ledger of the county, including claims, payroll, inventory, annual reports, human resources and other financial programs. The old system has been blamed for glitches that have thrown the county’s books out of whack.

Gary Petrovich, the county’s administrative coordinator, said the main benefit of the New World system will be its ability to interpret financial data.

The current system, he said, simply compiles that information. Using the current system to track the county’s finances requires a number of “gymnastics.”

“The reports we will be able to generate from New World are light years ahead of what we have now,” said Petrovich.

Whitman County purchased the software from New World Systems of Troy, Mich., for $331,600 in 2005.

Since that purchase, the county has spent almost a half-million dollars to update the software it never used, pay travel costs for New World trainers and for technical advice.

“It’s been a long hard road,” said Commissioner Greg Partch. “And some of those difficulties we’ve kind of self-inflicted.”

Partch was one of the commissioners who approved then-Finance Director Bev Divine’s request to purchase the software. He was also one of the commissioners who last year fired Divine and dismantled the finance department partly because the New World system was not in use.

“Big things like this never come without some pain,” he said Monday.

Shortly after purchasing the software, the county realized the new system did not meet public accounting standards unique to Washington state. New World made efforts to meet those standards after Prosecutor Denis Tracy threatened the company with litigation in 2007.

Partch expects the new system will save the county hours of staff time and operating expenses over the present system.

“It’s such an unwieldy system, it’s hard to get anything done,” said Partch. “We were spending a fortune in staff time and frustration, and in hardware, to keep the old system going.”

He added year-end financial statements, for which Whitman County has been criticized by the state auditor’s office for years, will be more accurate.

“Finally we’re going to be able to tell the state auditor’s office we’ve got it done,” he said. “I can’t tell you how it feels to have that off our backs.”