New UQ accounting system saves time, money and tonnes of paper

A new Departmental Accountant System, designed by staff in the University of Queensland's Business Services Systems Section, is saving time, money and literally tonnes of paper.

The system, developed for the Windows environment, has already been taken up by 39 departments since its August release.

The amount of paper saved includes a drop in accounts payable vouchers from 10304 in September 1996 to 4013 in September 1997.

Bursar Jim Tolhurst said while the old system had 'served well', it had become apparent in 1995 through Departmental User Group meetings that it was time to 'rewrite'.

'The system carries out a number of administrative duties including payment of casual salaries, invoicing, accounts payable and orders, and provides us with electronic files as all of these transactions are being carried out,' he said.

'While in the past the old system has worked well, we realised it was no longer meeting all of the needs of our users and there was a requirement to produce more flexible management reports.

'The Departmental Accountant System has addressed all of those issues, in a Windows environment, and judging by the take-up rate of departments, is certainly a success.'

Mr Tolhurst said the Division was committed to the new system, providing training, support and Web-based help.

The system is available for download installation from the Departmental Accountant home page on the World Wide Web.

'We chose the Web to give administration officers the best access to the System and to give ourselves the flexibility of updating new releases at any stage and providing the most up-to-date Help service,' he said.

Mr Tolhurst said training courses had been booked solidly for the past three months with demand resulting in the Division creating its own training room.

Future enhancements of the System would be carried out after consultation with the User Group, chaired by Peter Lye, he said.

'Mr Lye has been of great assistance during the development process and the user group will be playing a major role in any enhancements, to ensure we are meeting the requirements of the departments,' Mr Tolhurst said.

For more information contact Mr Jim Tolhurst (telephone 07 3365 2225)