How the City of Springfield Simplified Audits by Integrating Laserfiche with PeopleSoft
Laserfiche Solution Contributed By: Paula Guthrie-Scott, PeopleSoft System Administrator and Ying Chen, Database Administrator, City of Springfield, OR
Springfield, OR, which was incorporated in 1885 and borders the larger city of Eugene, has experienced explosive population growth in the last 50 years. In order to manage records, the city has been using Laserfiche since 2004 in the city manager’s office, human resources, finance, public works, fire, and information technology departments.
Although the city stored many documents in Laserfiche, it still had several disparate systems. For example, within the accounting and finance department, vouchers and journal entries were entered into the PeopleSoft enterprise resource planning system but hard copies were still kept in file cabinets. During the annual audit, employees struggled to find the necessary documents for each journal entry. The auditor first had to look up the journal entry number in PeopleSoft, and then find the hard copy in the appropriate file cabinet. Often, these documents would be misplaced or on an employee’s desk and were difficult to find.
Springfield integrated Laserfiche with PeopleSoft to streamline journal entry and voucher processing in the accounting department.
Laserfiche – PeopleSoft Integration
Integrating Laserfiche with PeopleSoft transformed journal entry processing for the city and simplified audits. All journal entry documentation is accessible directly within PeopleSoft at the click of a button.
The integration is created with a SQL database lookup into the Laserfiche database for document with the appropriate Journal ID in the metadata. The query grabs the document’s entry ID and uses it to create a custom URL that is then displayed in the PeopleSoft view. This URL points directly to the journal entry document packet, and when a user clicks on it, the document is opened in the Laserfiche.
The Journal Entry Process
The PeopleSoft integration is part of an automated and digital journal entry process. The process works as follows:
- A member of the finance department generates the journal entry through PeopleSoft and uses Laserfiche Snapshot to print it into their personal Work in Progress folder in Laserfiche. They scan any additional documents as they arrive and appends them to the same journal entry document in Laserfiche to create a journal entry packet.
- When the journal entry document packet is ready for review, the staff member changes the value of the status metadata field from New to Review. They also select the name of one of the four reviewers from a dropdown field.
- Laserfiche Workflow moves the journal entry packet into the appropriate reviewer’s folder and notifies them via email of documents pending review.
- The reviewer reviews the journal entry packet and applies a digital signature to signify approval. . This action causes Laserfiche Workflow to move the journal entry document packet to the final folder in Laserfiche.
- If a reviewer is too busy, they can reassign the journal entry to a different reviewer by selecting their name from a dropdown field.
Occasionally, one of the required supplemental documents is found to be missing after a journal entry packet has been reviewed and signed. An accounting employee scans this document into Laserfiche and appends it onto the journal entry packet. Laserfiche Workflow runs regular checks to see if any of the signed documents have been altered and routes any modified journal entry packets to the appropriate reviewer for another review and signature.
Finalized journal entry document packets can be accessed directly from within PeopleSoft.
Benefits of Laserfiche
Integrating Laserfiche with PeopleSoft resulted in the following benefits for the city of Springfield, OR:
- Audits are now quick and efficient. An auditor can access all journal entry documents directly from within PeopleSoft.
- All journal entry documents can now be accessed by multiple people at the same time from a centralized location.
- All journal entries are reviewed in a timely manner and the whole process is transparent from start to finish.
- No misplaced or missing journal entry documents.
