RFP– Response Requirements Template Final
Appendix B – Response Requirements Template
The following table should be incorporated into the Proposer’s response as indicated in the RFP – Information Submission Requirements section. Please address each requirement in the columns labeled“Response” and “Vendor Comments / Responses Here”.The document should be completed for each line item based on the following response criteria:
M – Meets/Exceeds, D – Does Not Meet, C – Customization/Workaround, or A – Alternate / 3rd Party Solution.
Proposers are to respond to each line item with a single letter response per line item, and are encouraged to provide written responses to adequately explain each requirement.
RFP Section / Response(M – D – C – A) / Vendor Comments / Responses Here
A. / ERP GeneralRequirements - The District seeks a proven, fully integrated ERP public sector solution. It is seeking to modify existing business processes to accommodate best practices, and will be looking to select a system that drives the implementation of best practices. The future system should provide the following capabilities in terms of its user interface and other general system characteristics:
Simple user screens with useful and pertinent information.
A user interface that is intuitive, consistent both within and across modules,and, preferably, browser-based.
Fully integrated functionality such that data isentered only one-time (single-point of data entry) to eliminate re-keying of information.
Robust search capabilities for data analysis and inquiry with limited input.
Ability to drill-down and drill-across from a transaction view to the supporting source data and documents.
Ability to export information directly to multiple formats (i.e. Excel, CSV, flat file, delimited,PDF, etc.)
Ability to accommodate user-defined fields, screens, reports, hot keys, and business rules/workflows.
Ability to modify system setup/configuration (i.e. table content, setup codes, report parameters, etc.) without the assistance of the software provider.
Inclusion of a rich set of data import capabilities.
Ability to apply access security by individual, role, or group. Ability toset rules for exceptions based on functional/departmental responsibilitiesthat maintain security through reporting.
Comprehensive online help, documentation and training materials provided.
Transactions that are processed in real-time and are immediately available for inquiry and reporting.
Mobile accessibility for participation in workflows.
Ability to use forms and workflow capabilities across all appropriate modules.
Reporting that is user friendly,allows staff to create reports with minimal training, and provides options to print or export report data.
Streamlined processing through mobility opportunities (i.e. workflow approval, batch release, etc.).
Robust audit and transaction logging capabilities.
Protection in terms of support for Disaster Recovery (optional if local and mandatory if hosted).
B. / General Ledger -The General Ledger is an integrated central repository of District financial data and should be capable of managing all of the District’s revenues and expenditures. The system should be capable of automating many manual accounting functions. The General Ledger is the key module in terms of financial reporting and should provide robust, easy to use reporting capabilities to support budget, expense reporting and financial analysis. The General Ledger module should feature a rich set of functionality for centralized cash, journal management and bank reconciliation. The District plans on enhancing its current Chart of Accounts to accommodate greater detail in support of budget and expense tracking across its operational, project and activity dimensions. The future system should allow ample design options to accommodate the anticipated Chart of Accounts enhancement. The General Ledger module should feature a rich set of functionality to support the following:
Ability to produce, integrate and incorporate data from all modules (including capturing appropriate detail from sub-ledgers), and the ability to generate critical reports (i.e. Balance Sheet, Trial Balance, Detailed Activity, etc.).
Rich journal processing capabilities (i.e. one-time, standing, automated recurring, allocations distributions, reversals and corrections, etc.).
Full integration with all subsidiary ledgers.
Complete audit trails for all transactions.
Ability to addnotes / comments to transactions that post to the GL.
Rules for entry validation based on roles at group / user level to prevent incorrect account coding.
System validation of all transactions to ensure that each entry is balanced and that each fund is maintained as a self-balancing entity.
Month-end soft close processes (i.e. prevent new entries to a closed accounting period for specific modules), the ability to allow multiple periods to be open at the same time and a systematic year-end close with the ability to allow multiple closings.
A simple process for month-end reporting within the system.
Automated year-end closing of revenue and expenditure accounts and the automated roll forward balance sheet accounts (as appropriate) to establish subsequent year beginning balances.
Automated year-end accrual / reversal process for both operational activities and multi-year capital projects.
Ability to capture multiple dates (i.e. receiving, transactional, posting, data entry, etc.).
Clear identification of the source of journals (i.e. budget, sub-system, import, etc.).
Cost Accounting for distributed purchases, payments, labor costs, inter-fund,inter-division expenses, activities and projects.
Configuration of workflows and approval options based on District policies and rules (i.e. approve and post journal entries through a paperless workflow process).
Full integration with AP, Purchasing, Assets, Job Costing, Human Resources, Payroll and Budget.
Automated bank reconciliation processes for bank accounts.
User access to transaction level details and drill-down capabilities across modules.
Account look-up within all modules.
Support for multi-year projects.
A flexible Chart of Accounts structure with numerous segments available to accommodate multiple attributes (i.e. location, custom roll-ups, etc.), room for growth within each segment and the potential for expanded use of segments in the future (i.e. overtime fund needs supporting segments for more detailed breakdown).
Ability to reclassify the Chart of Accounts as necessary in support of District organizational changes without having to create an entirely new Chart of Accounts.
Segments / components / fields within the Chart of Accounts linked to robust application functionality.
Ability for “what-if” analysis and forecasting (i.e. analysis of revenue / expenditure trends and the ability to develop projections).
Robust on-screen viewing and reporting on all Chart of Accounts string components.
System ability to assist in data collection and export of data for annual Audit reporting.
Ad hoc reporting at the general ledger level.
Inclusion of standard (‘out of the box”) reporting and inquiry capabilities relative to budget vs actual, journal and transactional reporting.
C. / Budget–The District currently follows an annual fiscal year budget cycle (July 1 to June 30). The Administrative Services Division manually develops the District’s annual budget file based on the previous year’s budget data. The entire budget process, including generation of the final budget document, is currently completed through a combination of Excel spreadsheets, Google Docs, and MS Word documents. The District desires to upload the final approved budget to the ERP system. The District is considering a two-year budget in the future; as such, any new ERP system should have the ability to accommodate a multiple year budget and support periodic (quarterly and mid-year) amendments. The system should provide multiple year projections that would allow for extensive revenue and budget projections, with associated variances illustrated through charts, graphs and reports. The future system should include a budgeting module that has the following features:
Allows data imports from Excel spreadsheets.
Provides the option to populatenew year Excel budgetspreadsheets with historical data (i.e. last year’s actuals, current positions) and / or with increasing/ decreasing factors applied to historical data.
Allows for justification / background data to support budgetline items.
Provides the ability to report on justification comments by budget line item.
Allows open contracts / POs to roll into the next year with appropriate adjustments to current year encumbrances and future year’s budgets.
Allows for budget amendments throughout the fiscal year.
Provides the ability to do program / project budgeting.
Applies rules for budget transfers and adjustments during the current budget year.
Projects fund balance details automatically (i.e. reflecting projected reserves, revenues, expenses and inter-fund transfers that would affect ending fund balances).
Processes mass changes to various accounts during budget process, such as a division or organization reorganization.
Provides an override capability relative to transactions that fail budget check.
Allows multiple funding sources to be applied to personnel costs.
Allows allocation of employee costs by percentage or flat amount to multiple account strings.
Offers processes for updating the budget to reflect changes for such things as cost of living adjustments, adjustments to variable benefits, updates to fixed benefits, and other misc. personnel related rates adjustments.
Provides ability to do “what if” scenarios during the year for new positions or reclassifications.
Provides ability to do “what if” scenario by bargaining unit, by fund, by department, etc.
Provides modeling for “what if” scenarios and forecasting tools for multi-year cash flow projections.
Supports drill-down to funding sources.
Offers the ability to see budget-to-actuals in real-time with drill-down capabilities.
Makes use of budget dashboards for high level presentation of information after acceptance.
Provides robust ad hoc reporting capabilities of budget after import.
Allows outputs that are exportable to various file formats (particularly Excel).
Ability to query and print results of real time budget-to-actuals data with drill down capability.
Assists in publishing the annual budget document via direct leveraging of system outputs / forms/reports.
D. / Project Job Costing / CIP (Capital Improvement Program) Projects-The District manages a variety of CIP projects that are considered financially significant and long term (typically over multiple fiscal years) in nature. Staff is currently using Excel for tracking of project expenditures, managing project budgets vs. actuals, maintaining real-time balances, etc. The District desires a system that will provide all the necessary functionality to replace the manual processes, and which features the following capabilities:
Tracks project budgets.
Allows “project type” definitions and user defined fields to assist in managing necessary information.
Provides paperless processing options to streamline the project budget, purchasing, accounts payable and reimbursement processes.
Records expenditure activity against the project budget.
Manages allocations at multiple levels and reconciles to the general ledger.
Provides ability to carry over CIP projects over multiple years - by group or individually.
Integrates with fixed assets module.
Provides ability to break down projects into phases.
Tracks actual, committed and estimated (or budgeted) costs.
Providesreal-time project budget balances with the option to include pending staff time or pending invoices in process.
Provides details for PO balance, invoice lists and reimbursements at project levels.
Runs project reports by invoice date, invoice number, vendor name, funding source, transaction type, accounting period, employee name, and / or tasks.
Produces reports showing details of costs and revenues by job.
Reports on project activity by period and over the life of the project.
E. / Procurement (Purchasing/Contract Management)-The District procurement and purchasing processes follow the guidelines defined in the District Administrative Services Division Financial Procedures Manual. All Divisions have the ability to purchase goods and services necessary to support their operations. The District is interested in electronically automating the manual processes to complete the purchase requisition approval, and the generation of the electronic purchase order (PO) through the future system forms and workflow processes. The defined purchasing rules will direct the workflow for encumbering goods and services. The District seeks a fully integrated “procure-to-pay” solution that incorporates best business practices and will provide significant savings in data entry, tracking of purchase ownership, analysis, and reporting. The District currently stores its contracts in Laserfiche, and would like to accesscontracts within the ERP system as well to track and manage the associated insurance certificates expirations in the future. The District seeks a system that has the following characteristics:
Enforces the District purchasing policy rules for procurement of goods and services.
Allows purchase requisitions to be entered directly (via an electronic form) into the system, and for related information to flow through the entire process (including payment and quotes) without having to be re-entered.
Supports District-defined electronic requisition and PO approval processes (defined according to policies and procedures, some of which require multiple levels of approvals).
Provides the flexibility to set purchase rules and workflow approvals based on dollar amounts and purchase types.
Provides vendor management
Supports multiple vendor address fields.
Provides the ability to administer a detailed vendor list.
Prevents a purchase order from being issued to an inactive vendor.
Offers an online vendor portal where vendors can inquire on the status of invoices and payments.
Supports the maintenance of open PO’s and blanket PO’s over multiple years.
Performs budget checking during requisition, purchase order creation and invoice processing.
Supports document scanning and attachment, makes documents accessible throughout the procurement process, and allows approvers and auditors the ability to review them at any time.
Makes use of multiple PO types (i.e. annual, blanket, multi-division, etc.).
Allows configurable (percentage/dollar-based) alerts automatically sent to identified users, when an invoice (or combination of invoices) is near the limit of exceeding the approved PO amount or fund budget.
Ability to track the original blanket PO amount, the estimated charges against the blanket PO, and the actual charges invoiced against the blanket PO for real time balance.
Provides near real-time expense tracking on all PO’s.
Tracks PO amendments, including audit record of all changes to original PO.
Allows payments which can be scheduled over a time period along with associated tracking of payment terms.
Provides robust PO and payment status tracking (i.e. active, closed, blanket, etc.).
Manages vendor invoice credits with associated adjustments to encumbrances and PO balances (allows credits to be placed on PO’s).
Enables user-defined fields and incorporates them in staff-generated custom / ad-hoc reports.
Provides the ability to pre-encumber/encumber requisitions and purchases and the ability to override transactions that fail budget check.
Automatically reverses pre-encumbrance and encumbrance transactions when a PO is closed or cancelled.
Emails/notifies requester when PO’s and / or contracts are reaching a certain expenditure level.
Supports managing District Cal Card usage and related payment processing in coordination with bank.
Tracks required insurance requirements and related certificates associated with contracts and services associated with a PO.
Associates contracts with PO’s and capture deliverables, expiration dates, and contract values.
Manages contract encumbrances and balances.
Ties contracts to specific projects.
Supports the purchase of recurring services by automatically generating a requisition/purchase order based on pre-established criteria.
Captures internal or external justifications, notes, or comments on purchase orders.
Attaches files / images to requisition, purchase order, invoice, etc.
Tracks requestor informationand / or on behalf of information on the purchase requisition.
Limits which users are authorized to override established PO limits.
Defines close and roll-over dates at system and module level.
Provides real-time access to PO information related to encumbrances, balances, adjustments and postings.
Automates PO rollover / carryover processes.
Provides the ability to have a single PO be associated with multiple divisions and/or funding sources.
Supports electronic distributionof purchase orders to vendors in PDF format.
Leverages security setup by providing ability to restrict users to specific general ledger accounts as part of the purchasing process.
Provides the ability to encumber into one account, pay with a different account and release encumbrances while depleting amount of the PO.
Supports year-end activities such as conditional PO closure and the ability to roll purchase orders to the new fiscal year.
Allows users to enter POs for the new fiscal year prior to the start of that fiscal year.
Offers extensive reporting in support of the above listed purchasing related functions.
F. / Accounts Payable -The Accounts Payable processes currently in place at the District rely entirely on manual approval processing and procedures. The new system must support a fully integrated requisition-to-invoice payment solution without the need to re-enter data at any stage in the process. System controlled budget validations should occur at the initiation of a purchase requisition, approval and payment steps. The District is interested in intelligent electronic workflow and approval processing for payment, and a system that provides for attachment options and / or access to Laserfiche images.It is expected the above objectives would be achieved through an Accounts Payable module with the following characteristics:
Communicates with the Purchasing module, relating requisitions, purchase orders and available balances to invoice transactions.
Ability to receive and process electronic invoices.
Processes invoices through electronic means with holds when relevant back-up is not provided.
Tracks the status of all open / pending invoices.
Provides staff with the ability to reject an invoice and to add comments as to why they are requesting a new invoice be submitted.