Behind every city service is a series of everyday processes, from approving invoices to reviewing forms and managing records accurately and securely.

For the City of Acworth, Georgia, many of these routine tasks once took longer than they should. Staff across departments spent valuable time entering data, routing documents manually and searching for records stored across filing rooms, USB drives and multiple digital systems. It was difficult to locate records quickly or track approvals, which often had to be done in person, let alone maintain consistency across departments. These inefficiencies created unnecessary delays for both employees and the residents and businesses they serve.

City leaders saw an opportunity to simplify operations, create more efficient systems and modernize the way information was managed across departments. By implementing Laserfiche, the city began transforming paper-based workflows into automated digital processes.

Today, those improvements support faster services and more efficient operations for a community of more than 22,000 residents.

One of the city’s first priorities was improving financial operations. Previously, invoice submissions for vendors like Amazon required staff to manually enter information in the financial system that routes documents to the finance department for approval and payment. The process was time-consuming and prone to errors.

Using Laserfiche Forms and Smart Fields, the city developed an automated invoice submission process that intelligently extracts structured data directly from invoices. The system also cross-references invoice data with purchase orders stored in the city’s financial system. This allows staff to instantly verify invoice details and confirm that purchases match approved orders.

“We needed a way to automate the process and reduce errors,” said Mike Brooks, senior systems administrator for the City of Acworth. “Laserfiche pulls the data directly from the invoice and compares it with what was already approved in our system, saving the finance team five to 10 minutes per invoice.”

The finance department also digitized its check request process, which staff use to request payments that fall outside the city’s standard purchase order workflow. In the past, these requests were handled through paper forms and manual approvals. With Laserfiche, employees now submit requests through a digital form that automatically routes the request for review and approval while capturing the information in the city’s records system.

With automated workflows in place, the city:

By digitizing these financial processes, the City of Acworth reduced manual data entry, improved accuracy and enabled staff to process requests faster across departments.

“Once we started automating processes with Laserfiche, staff quickly began identifying new ways to streamline their work,” said Brooks. “It’s become a platform for improving how the city operates.”

Due to the high demand for new forms, the city has formed a “power users” group to empower team members to create their own forms that will work best for their department. With the help of the IT team to ensure uniform training, team members can help each other and grow their skills. This approach will significantly reduce the amount of IT involvement required throughout the process.

Beyond internal operations, Laserfiche helped the City of Acworth improve engagement with residents and visitors.

Digital tourism surveys that residents and visitors can complete online or through QR codes are posted throughout the community. These surveys collect information about where visitors come from, how they discovered Acworth and what activities bring them to the city.

City leaders now use this data to guide tourism and economic development initiatives. Survey insights revealed opportunities to expand tourism programming, ultimately leading the city to hire an additional staff member dedicated to supporting tourism initiatives.

Laserfiche has also helped boost participation in civic events. After the city launched a digital registration form for its annual State of the City address, responses increased from 84 the previous year to 144, which represents a 71% increase in engagement. Before adopting Laserfiche, headcounts were gathered manually through email and phone calls. This approach was very labor intensive and relied entirely on a single staff member to collect and consolidate the information.

“Before Laserfiche, collecting and analyzing citizen feedback would have taken much longer,” Brooks said. “Now we can gather information quickly and make better decisions based on the data.”

Automation also reduced manual work for the city clerk’s office. Clerks responsible for preparing meeting summaries used to spend about four hours after each meeting reviewing recordings and compiling notes. With Laserfiche’s AI-powered Document Summarization, that now takes just five to 10 minutes. This saves roughly a month of staff time over the course of a year.

Across the organization, additional automated workflows save thousands of hours in staff time and tens of thousands of dollars by eliminating paper handling, manual routing and redundant tasks. Departments including the police department, parks and recreation and IT use digital forms and workflows to streamline internal processes. City leadership, including the mayor and board of aldermen, benefit from improved access to records and information.

At the same time, Laserfiche provides a centralized repository for city records, making it easier to locate documents, maintain compliance and support auditing requirements.

“We can open a folder in the repository and immediately see everything that’s happened with a document,” said Brooks. “You have the timestamp, the workflow history and all the information in one place.”

“From the outset, the City of Acworth’s leadership recognized that modernizing their infrastructure wasn’t just about going paperless — it was about reclaiming thousands of hours for staff and creating a more responsive, data-driven experience for their residents,” said Zaheer Master, president at Accelerated Information Systems. “It is an honor to partner with the entire city team as they continue to find creative ways to use technology to better serve their community.”

From financial operations to citizen engagement initiatives, Laserfiche helps teams rethink how work gets done and identify new efficiencies across city government. With a strong foundation for automation in place, the City of Acworth plans to continue expanding its use of digital workflows and data-driven processes. These efforts also provide departments with a consistent framework for managing information and approvals across the organization.

For Brooks, the biggest benefit is the consistency the platform brings to everyday work.

“Laserfiche is the Cadillac of the data world,” he said. “It takes the guesswork out of our day-to-day processes.”