Financial Services Division
The Department’s Financial Services team is tasked with providing prompt, efficient service with respect to accounts payable, maintaining contracts, managing inmate accounts, procurement of goods and service, financial audits and financial reporting of grants, submitting and balancing the budgets, among a multitude of other responsibilities. The Financial Service Division has implemented a series of improvements over the past years to both the delivery of services and the systems to which they are administered.
One of the significant alterations that have been made by the Division is the implementation of Electronic Purchasing or E Purchasing . The system (formally called Aestive Power Office) has resulted in stronger management of purchasing with an electronic signature chain for each department and person, which eliminates the past potential problems of paper Expenditure Requests (ER’s) being misplaced while allowing for tracking and a clear record of what has been ordered, who ordered it and what’s pending. The Department also embraced E Signatures, Electronic Invoicing and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) to vendors.
Streamlining efforts undertaken by the Financial Services Division have resulted in accounts payable being brought up to date with fewer duplicate invoices and vendor calls have decreased significantly. As a result, vendor relations were also enhanced leading to a higher quality of vendors bidding on service contracts for the Department. The use of QuickBooks accounting software provides the Department with greater accountability with respect to inmate accounts.
The Division also works to achieve the current high level of communication and cooperation with multiple divisions of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on relevant financial issues. The stronger communication between the Department, the State Executive Office of Administration and Finance, the State Comptroller’s Office, House and Senate Committees on Way and Means, the Massachusetts Sheriff’s Association and the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) has been crucial in helping the Department to meet its payroll and purchasing needs while also fulfilling the Sheriff’s Mandates and Initiatives.
