Thursday, January 20, 2000

Tully village board will hire company to oversee accounting. A resignation and the crash of the accounting software led to the decision.

The Tully Village Board decided Jan. 4 to hire an outside company to handle its payroll and accounting after a Y2K glitch caused the village system to fail.

The village approved a contract with Paychex of Syracuse, which handles payroll, tax preparation, and human resource situations for small and medium-sized businesses.

Mayor Dan Poellot said the Dec. 31 resignation of the village's Deputy Clerk/Treasurer Jean Barnes, who handled payroll, and the crashing of the village's accounting software contributed to the decision to hire Paychex. The village bought its accounting software from MCS Spectrum Co.

When village officials tried to use the village accounting software this year, the program - which wasn't Y2K compliant - locked up, Poellot said.

"They apparently weren't Y2K ready," Poellot said. "We closed out the month of December, and that was it."

Barnes resigned for health reasons, leaving village officials looking to find a way to get paychecks out to its three weekly paid employees without accumulating a lot of overtime hours for part-time Village Clerk Jane Sickmon.

Julie Witty, a Paychex sales representative, said the cost of the payroll service will vary weekly depending on the number of checks distributed . Some employees are paid weekly, while others, like village trustees, are paid quarterly. Paychex also will prepare tax forms at year's end.

Trustee Bill Murphy estimated Paychex's service will cost the village about $2,000 a year.

"It's going to be cheaper than what we've been doing," Poellot said. The village had been paying software maintenance upgrades to MCS, but Poellot said he was unsure how much they cost. He said between the hours spent doing the work and upgrade costs, the village expects to pay Paychex about the same or less than its former system costs. He said the village is investigating if MCS will compensate it for the failed software.

--- Story by Nancy Buczek, Syracuse Online, Syracuse, New York (Onondaga Headlines)

http://www.syracuse.com/news/onondagaedition.ssf?/newsstories/east/20000120_neaccou.html

-- Lee Maloney (leemaloney@hotmail.com), January 21, 2000