1. Agresso Fixed Asset Module Implementation
City of St. Albert R

2. Ed Kaemingh - Manager of Accounting
Introduction
Ed Kaemingh - Manager of Accounting
Carole Rowe - Manager of Application Services
Caleb Anderson - Business Analyst
Agresso fixed asset module implementation
focus areas: about the City of St. Albert
prior to implementation
module implementation
using the fixed assets module
challenges and lessons learned R

3. About the City of St. AlbertK

4. About the City of St. Albert
located in Alberta, Canada
north west of Edmonton
St. Albert
St. Albert
Edmonton
Edmonton
Calgary
Vancouver
Seattle
Spokane K

5. About the City of St. Albert
over 60,000 residents and 22,000 land parcels
Alberta’s 5th largest city
covers an area of 36 km2 or 14 mile2
median family income of 87,300 per year (2003)
employs up to 600 staff members
32 staff members in Financial Services K

6. About the City of St. Albert
high quality of life for residents
safest community in Western Canada
award winning cultural and recreational programs
attractive and extensive park system K

7. About the City of St. Albert
over 50,000 assets: water meters to buildings
over $ 1,025,000,000 (CAD) worth of assets
13 groups of assets
depreciable asset groups
Building Improvements
Book Collections
Buildings
Land Improvements
Vehicles
Machinery & Equipment
Engineering Structures General
Engineering Structures Utilities
Leasehold Improvements
non-depreciable asset groups
CIP Buildings
CIP Building Improvements
CIP Land Improvements
CIP Machinery & Equipment
CIP Engineering Structures
Land K

8. About the City of St. Albert
Asset Group
 Base Value
 CIPMACHEQUIP
 $              203,644.74
 LSHDIMPR
 $              237,972.59
 CIPBLDG
 $              462,249.05
 BLDGIMPR
 $           1,325,116.47
 CIPLANDIMPR
 $           1,864,456.30
 CIPBLDGIMPR
 $           2,029,062.43
 BOOKCOLL
 $           2,224,404.28
 CIPENGSTR
 $           3,602,766.01
 MACHEQUIP
 $          22,435,174.10
 LANDIMPR
 $          41,885,064.06
 VEHICLES
 $          37,516,787.14
 BUILDINGS
 $        127,228,814.36
 ENGUTILITIES
 $        209,710,224.24
 ENGGENERAL
 $        250,901,590.56
 LAND
 $        323,817,450.41
 $     1,025,444,776.74 K

9. About the City of St. Albert
Using Agresso since October 2000 (11 years)
Current Version: sp0
Database: Oracle
Full Financial Suite including the modules G/L, A/P, A/R, Logistics, Purchasing, web reporting.
Agresso users across 8 main buildings (City Hall, Public Works, Transit, RCMP, two recreation facilities, Library, Human Resources). K

10. Prior to the ImplementationK

11. Prior to the Implementation
assets were tracked using Excel
63 different Excel spreadsheets were used
189 hours spent updating the spreadsheets
one person responsible for tracking and updating K

12. Prior to the Implementation
fixed asset spreadsheet K

13. Prior to the Implementation
example of fixed asset report K

14. Module ImplementationR

15. Module Implementation
fixed assets project team
Mike Dowler, Manager Financial Services
Project Sponsor
Carole Rowe, Manager Application Services
ITS Project Manager
Joel DeBlock, Senior Business Analyst
Technical: data conversion and reporting.
Caleb Anderson, Business Analyst
Technical: Agresso configuration
Mary Grace Lumbab, Capital Asset Accountant
Financial Services Lead
Josh Lieneman, Agresso Consultant
Agresso Consultant R

16. Module Implementation
fixed assets project schedule
Weeks
Tasks
2010 – 14
2010 – 18
2010 – 22
2010 – 26
2010 – 30
2010 – 34
2010 – 38
2010 – 42
2010 – 46
2010 – 50
2011 – 02
2011 – 06
2011 – 10
2011 – 14
2011 – 18
Business Requirements Review
Data Preparation in Excel
Business Requirements Documentation and Feedback
Solution Design Workshops
Solution Design, Documentation and Feedback
Test configuration and Building Test Scripts
Training on Module
Business Requirements/Solution Signoff
Test Data Loading
Testing Solution
Production Configuration
Production Data Loading
Production Go Live
Production Flexi Field Data Loading
Report Development R

17. Module Implementation
data came from multiple information systems & departments
Capital Asset Accountant reviewed and organized financial information from an accounting perspective
Senior Business Analyst reviewed and organized information from a data management perspective R

18. Module Implementation
57,327 assets loaded into Agresso
objective: to organize data so that information can be used efficiently
- balance data file to accountant’s total
- upload into Agresso
- balance data file to Agresso totals K

19. Module Implementation
an efficient data structure was key to minimizing potential problems
in particular, the GL being out-of-balance in some way
the accounting values for the 57,327 assets were constantly changing
- values were being revised or corrected
- assets were being added or deleted K

20. Module Implementation
Basic Asset Info
49 AT09
GL Information
11 BIF
Flexi-Field Information
17 files (30 worksheets)  One Access Table  104 Upload Files With 55 Tables Not a Normalized Table R

21. Module Implementation
- Basic Asset Information
- GL Information
AT09
- Original capitalization amount
- Current accumulated depreciation
BIF Files for Flexi-Fields
- Sundry information we identified R

22. Module Implementation
Basic Asset Information (AT08) R

23. Module Implementation
GL Information (AT08) R

24. Module Implementation
Capitalization and Depreciation (AT09) R

25. Module Implementation
BIF #1
BIF #2
BIF #3
BIF #4
Sundry Information for each Asset. R

26. Module Implementation
batch inputting was done using BIF
BIF is able to convert excel files into flat files
imported into Agresso via importing routines R

27. Module Implementation
test script templates provided by Agresso
testing done by many users during the project
multiple issues found during the testing R

28. Using the Fixed Assets Module

29. Using the Fixed Assets Module
demo
fixed assets menu
used to access the fixed asset functions A

30. Using the Fixed Assets Module
demo
creating a new asset
asset the asset master file to create assets A

31. Using the Fixed Assets Module
demo
capitalizing an asset
create a proposal and confirmation A

32. Using the Fixed Assets Module
demo
depreciating an asset
create a proposal and confirmation A

33. Using the Fixed Assets Module
demo
searching for asset transactions
use master file, browser enquiry, or reports A

34. Using the Fixed Assets Module
demo
using other fixed asset functions
create from invoice, sales/disposal, reversals A

35. Using the Fixed Assets Module
Excelerator is used for most reports
summary of assets by:
- activity & asset group
- GL account & asset group
list of assets by:
- asset group and sub-category
- account type and asset group
- net book value by asset ID for auditors
- additions, sales , depreciation, reversals, regroupings A

36. Using the Fixed Assets Module
Excelerator report example: A

37. Using the Fixed Assets Module
browser reports created
- general searches
- simple lists of assets A

38. Using the Fixed Assets Module
demo
browser reports created
browser report added as a flexi-field A

39. Challenges and Lessons Learned

40. - reports take a long time to run
Challenges
too many records
- reports take a long time to run
- reporting on 57,000 assets can cause errors
small asset values
rounding errors during depreciation
some assets are valued at $0.15 A

41. reduce the number of records
Solutions
reduce the number of records
- Agresso had difficulty with 57,327 records and assets with very small values
- reduce the number of assets significantly by either grouping the smaller assets, or not recording them
- assets with a replacement value of less than $10,000 account for 63% of the records, but only 3.5% of the total replacement value A

42. Solutions
63%
3.5% A

43. Solutions
only 279 records are required to maintain the integrity of the calculation of depreciation
406 records are required if we want to categorize by Major Asset Category
1,078 records are required if we want to categorize by Minor Asset Category A

44. we are currently maintaining information on 57,327 separate assets
Solutions
1,078 records are required if we want to categorize by Minor Asset Category
we are currently maintaining information on 57,327 separate assets
location information would see the number of required assets increase to ~20,000 A

45. use Agresso version 5.5.3 or above
Lessons Learned
use Agresso version or above
understand that software will not solve all issues
engage Agresso experts early
plan for things to not go according to plan
perform training on actual historical data
do not turn a financial system into an asset inventory system
effective use of asset grouping is important K

46. spend time organizing asset information
Lessons Learned
spend time organizing asset information
spend time thinking about business requirements
spend time thinking about system design
ensure proper resources are allocated to project K

47. Agresso Fixed Asset Module Implementation
Questions? R