Accounting
Municipal Accounting

Dated accounting systems ... but its really worse

Burgess COMMENTARY
This is a little bit of interesting trivia, but it is symptomatic of a really big problem. There has been amazing progress in making technology more powerful. and there are emerging ideas around Big Data and Blockchain. but in the end most of the understanding of how the socio-enviro-economic system actually works is still fairly firmly stuck in the 19th century amd it is entirely probably that the FAMIS accounting software does not even embrace accrual accounting. This is a quaint story ... but the underlying lack of understanding about things like the difference betwee performance and progress is really a bigger story!
Peter Burgess

Dated accounting systems

I'm sure some of you working on in-house accounting teams have to deal with older technology. Maybe you're still using Excel 2003. Maybe Windows 95 is your operating system. Maybe your entire office is still working on first generation Macs. If any version of this technology nightmare is true for you, I sympathize with your situation. But just remember -- it could be worse:

Bill Green was mayor when Philadelphia first purchased FAMIS accounting software in 1981. Apple's Macintosh computer was yet to be designed. Microsoft Windows was still four years away.

Thirty-five years later — the equivalent of a geologic era in computing — the Mac is part of history and Windows is in its 10th iteration. Philadelphia still relies on FAMIS: Financial Accounting and Management Information System, to manage the city $4 billion annual expenditures and revenues.

Because FAMIS integrates with nothing, the city of Philadelphia still relies on Excel for its 2,300-page budget. I can't help but wonder if doing the budget on paper ledgers might be more efficient. Anyway, the reason that FAMIS hasn't been replaced, you might've guessed, is 'it is cheap to operate.'