Why Local Authorities Choose Tali

The history of financial administration is a lot more dynamic and changing than one might think. From the invention of double bookkeeping to the marvel of computerised spreadsheets, administrators are eager to take up new technology where it makes their job faster and more efficient. Local authorities, which still play a huge administrative role in running public services, are no different.

The City of Edinburgh Council uses Pebble’s all-in-one bookkeeping platform, Tali, with exceptional results. We have also started working with other neighbouring local authorities.

In this blog, you can find a run-down of the innovations that make Tali so appealing to local authorities like Edinburgh Council amongst many others..

Built for the Complexity of Local Authority Responsibilities

Originally designed for schools and education umbrellas, Tali has been built with the adaptability needed to manage organisations with multiple sites, varied needs, and to be easy to use by staff with differing levels of expertise.

LAs, like schools, are obligated to manage incomings and outgoings for a wide range of sites and business areas, meaning that Tali’s design is already well-suited.

As a technological innovation, Tali maintains the simplicity of the computerised spreadsheet, while significantly reducing the workload and human error involved in managing them for complex systems. Some examples of this include

• The synchronisation of all accounts across all teams and sites, avoiding the need to juggle countless spreadsheets.
• Flexibility in processing transactions, avoiding the needless repetition inherent to non-specialised systems.
• Integrations between Tali and management information systems (MIS) mean that users don’t have to input data into each different application.

Audit Ready and Compliant

Like schools, Local Authorities are subject to strict financial regulations, making compliance and the ability to simply pass an audit crucial.

Unlike other accounting systems, which must be awkwardly adapted to be readable to auditors, Tali is specifically designed to make producing reports and evidencing compliance incredibly simple.

Tali can generate reports from data at any moment, customisable to suit whatever requirement the user has at any given time. Tali also produces financial reports in line with the format required by auditors, meaning that local authorities don’t need to worry about the task of converting documents, or extensive consultation every time an audit approaches.

As for the ongoing task of self-monitoring compliance, Tali’s user interface is built to supersede even the most beautifully designed spreadsheet. This makes monitoring accounts and reconciling and cross-referencing bank statements simple to users with even the most basic training.

Adaptability and Training

At Pebble, we are well-practised in adapting our products and service to the ever-changing needs of our varied clients. When working with The City of Edinburgh Council, the need for this support was particularly acute, as we were adjusting our school-based system to a sector where no-such system or software existed before.

Through strong, two-way communication and the prioritisation of potential compliance differences and issues, we were able to adapt Tali to suit the council’s service users, and undergo an exceptionally quick roll out. This has had immediate benefits for Edinburgh Council’s social care teams, who now use Tali to process and manage accounts across four business areas and 34 licences (sites), each with varying numbers of clients, processing around 30 transactions per day per team.

The quick rollout was possible by Pebble’s delivery of remote training, minimising disruption to the council’s already busy teams.

Since then, Tali has been adopted by a number of neighbouring local authorities who have seen significant financial savings. If you want to learn more about our work with councils, please read our case study.

Transforming Local Authority Financial Management

Following the success of Tali’s introduction to The City of Edinburgh Council, as well as to neighbouring local authorities where they also made significant financial savings, we believe that local authorities around the country could dramatically benefit from updating the way they process transitions and manage their finances.

Despite their many limitations, computerised spreadsheets marked a step forward in how organisations manage their finances. Take the next step with Tali.

For more information about how Pebble and Tali can help you update your financial management, speak to a member of the team today.