Fort Smith delayed on reporting of sales tax data, new deadline set for March 23

While most Arkansas cities released updated sales tax reports at the first of the month, the city of Fort Smith has run into delays due in part to implementation of its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software that will integrate the city’s operations across all departments.

Talk Business & Politics reached out to the city’s finance department on March 12 and was initially told the data should be available the following day. Another deadline was Friday (March 16), but the city was unable to make that date as well. On Tuesday (March 20), Fort Smith Finance Director Jennifer Walker said the new deadline would be Friday (March 23), noting that “we are recreating all of the reports in our new system.” She shared an email from City Administrator Carl Geffken to Mayor Sandy Sanders and the Board of Directors.

“The sales tax reports for January and February will (be) distributed this Friday, March 23. Distributing one month of information (January) does not provide any indication of the year’s collections and if it were 5% up or down from the prior year, too much would be read into it,” Geffken said, adding that “work on the ERP system, closing the year, and preparing for the audit were the priorities for the Finance department.”

Geffken continued: “February’s information is expected this Thursday and with hard work by Finance and a quick review by me, the sales tax information will be out on Friday.”

Sales tax revenue for 2017 finished just ahead of 2016 with $42.408 million, culled from a 2% rate that includes 1% for Fort Smith’s streets program, 0.75% for bond issues, and 0.25% divided evenly between the parks and fire departments.

The performance marked an increase of 0.23% over 2016’s $42.313 million tally, setting a record for the city.

An August 2017 updated from the city on implementation of the ERP software noted the planned $5 million project was running around $100,000 under budget. When the software is fully implemented by the end of this year, it will offer features like electronic payments, filing of work orders, and property details on each parcel of land in the city.

Vendors will be able to note which commodities they sell for easier reference whenever a department needs to make a purchase for that product type. They also will be able to submit invoices or requests to be considered as new vendors for city business as well as check on the status of invoices and submit electronic banking information for faster payment.

The project breakdown includes a $1.829 million expense for the software and $199,848 in travel expenses for Salt Lake City, Utah-based Tyler Technologies during the implementation period. Remaining costs are allotted for ongoing maintenance across a five-year period with an ongoing expense of “between $200,000 and $300,000 per year” thereafter. The $200,000-$300,000 expense will replace the approximately $500,000 the city is paying ArcBest annually to handle its resource planning needs.

In previous meetings, it was noted ArcBest did not wish to continue providing the service, thus necessitating the ERP implementation.