Schools still wait for New World fix on reports snag

School districts around Whitman County are one more month into a four-month delay on seeing their monthly financial statements from the county treasurer’s office.

The county switched to New World software in early April, but a problem with the software system has delayed the treasurer’s office in providing each school district with its monthly finance information.

That delay slowed down each district’s ability to write up its 2011- 2012 budget and school business managers have been unable to provide school boards with end-of-month figures.

“I think everybody in Whitman County is probably in the same boat,” said Frankie Swinney, business manager for Palouse. Swinney last saw up-to-date financial statements for the Palouse/Garfield cooperative in March.

Financial transactions for each school are run through the county treasurer’s office, which provides monthly financial statements to all school districts.

County Information Technology director Chris Nelson told the Gazette in an interview Tuesday the software system could not produce reports in the format required by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Nearly six years and two-thirds of a million dollars after it purchased the New World system, Whitman County put the accounting software into use April 1.

Nelson said they then realized the software could not produce the school reports.

County and New World staff have been working since then to develop a program that would create the reports with accurate data. Nelson said they are currently working on the fifth version of the report.

`“Believe me, New World is very aware this is a top priority. I’ve had several conversations with the managers there about this very topic. It’s not just Whitman County, it’s Pend Oreille and Wahkiakum counties too,” Nelson said.

She predicted the problem could be solved in two to four weeks.