Village of Loami Village of St. Elmo

4000 W Jefferson St. Joliet, IL 60431

Ph: (815) 744-0011 Fax: (815) 744-8182

AFTER-HOURS SUPPORT LINE (815) 200-9110

Monday – Friday 5 PM – 9PM

Weekends & Holidays 9 AM – 5PM

When calling the after-hours support

line, please leave an alternate contact number in your voicemail

message in the event we are unable to get through your after -hours automated answering system.

MAY’S EVENTS

Memorial Day May 25, 2020—Office Closed

UPCOMING JUNE’S EVENTS

IMTA CONFERENCE (CANCELLED)

The Local Government Computer and Information Service (LOCiS) was established in 1987 to meet the automation

needs of all local governments. Today, LOCiS continues to provide support to more than 250 of the most amazing

Communities, Park and Fire Protection Districts.

LOCiS COVID-19 Update

I would like to express how impressed I am by the stories I have been hearing about the dedication and sacrifices being made by our users and all municipal workers during the pandemic. It may be a firefighter down in St Clair County, meter readers on the Chicago south side or even a Village Treasurer down near El Dorado – all are making sacrifices and seem to be getting the job done. As an outsider, I sometimes take what you do for your communities for granted and it’s a shame it takes moments like this to see how truly dedicated Illinois municipal workers are. I would also like to thank the LOCiS staff for their flexibility, loyalty, understanding and devotion. Without them, our product can’t exist.

My staff is taking this time to reach out to each and every customer to see what we can be doing better and to see what software enhancements would benefit you the most. We are wanting honest feedback, no enhancement request or annoyance is too small for you to mention. Each and every line of programming code exists because of someone like you making suggestions to make the product better.

I would also like to announce that Will in our office has decided to leave our team to pursue other opportunities and continue his education. This is why you may be hearing a different voice when you call the office. Will played an integral role in LOCiS 8 development and customer support and he will be difficult to replace.

Thanks for your devotion!

Frank McKay

President and CEO

May 2020

MAY 2020 Newsletter

LOCiS 7 Payroll Deductions Options Improvements

In preparing for new IMRF reporting requirements, some changes needed to happen to the way IMRF and other Deductions are calculated in LOCiS. Deduction Setup(PDS) has been changed to not use the word ‘Tax Exempt’ as that didn’t really describe what the option does. The option/area is now called ‘This Deduction is Calculated on (Gross Pay - Wages which are Subject to)...'. • The ‘IMRF Resolution’ behind the scenes option does not exist anymore.

It should have been able to be done in Deduction Setup(PDS) – just as any deduction should be able to be adjusted in Deduction Setup(PDS).

IMRF Voluntary is now programmed to be subject to the SAME earnings as IMRF, it’s just the percentage withheld or Amount can be adjusted for each Employee. Unemployment Comp will always appear and be calculated last in an employee’s list of deductions, this is because for all these years, one could get different Calculated results depending on if Unemployment Comp was before or after Cafeteria Plan deductions. If you need IMRF calculated on the remaining Earnings after your Cafeteria Plan Deductions (Gross – Cafeteria Plan), you will need to double click on all Cafeteria Plan deductions and tell Deduction Setup(PDS) to be Exempt from IMRF. If you need Unemployment Comp calculated on the remaining Earnings after your Cafeteria Plan Deductions (Gross – Cafeteria Plan), you will need to double click on all Cafeteria Plan deductions and tell Deduction Setup(PDS) to be Exempt from State U/C.

MAY 2020 Newsletter

Employee Maintenance Social Security Number Change

Due to customer requests, we are hiding the Social Security Number on the Employee Maintenance Screen (PEM). You can enter the Social Security as usual, but to view it, you must hit the button labeled ‘View’.

Training We are gladly able to accommodate any remote training requests customized to your needs. As always, if you have any questions or need assistance, please contact us at (815) 744-0011 or email support@locis.com.

MAY 2020 Newsletter

This year’s Fiscal Year End Review is available online!

Due to your feedback, logistics, and the current pandemic, we are making a free Fiscal Year End review available on our YouTube channel which can be found here:

YouTube Channel Link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCltguh_Jd9KTmsfQEciV2dQ

We are still available for personalized or group training facilitated either at your site or remotely. Any questions on how to watch the video or the content of the video, please contact us at support@locis.com.

MAY 2020 Newsletter

UTILITY BILLING

Question: After running our Municipality’s regular bill run and penalty run, I noticed that the penalties were assessed to the local school district. How can I prevent penalties from accruing on non-profit customers? Answer: In Account Maint. Setup (UM) put in the account number and in the bottom right hand corner of the page displayed is a small box titled Special Pay. Just left click the box with your mouse arrow to place a check mark in that box and they will not be penalized or receive a collection letter. Question: Are there reports that should be run at month end? Answer: Yes, this is what is recommended—UBTB, UATB, UPDL to balance utility billing to general ledger. At least one of them if not all of them should be run after all utility postings are done for the month but before any postings are done for the following month.

MAY 2020 Newsletter

PAYROLL

Question: In PPR (manual accrual update) is it possible to ignore (not accrue) one or more types of fringes? Answer: Yes, PPR (manual accrual update) screen has check boxes so you can ignore one or more of 5 types of fringes.

GENERAL LEDGER Question: All of a sudden when I run GME, it tells me I am out of balance, the only thing I have done is entered the audit adjustments, what happened? Answer: More than likely after you entered the adjustments, you did not go to GZM and roll the GBS date back . Rerun the balance sheets so the system can incorporate the adjustments into fund balance.

If you have any unanswered questions, suggestions for the newsletter, useful information to share, or wish to subscribe/unsubscribe to this newsletter, please email marketing@locis.com.

MAY 2020 Newsletter

If you have any unanswered questions, suggestions for the newsletter, useful information to share, or wish to subscribe/unsubscribe to this newsletter, please email marketing@locis.com.

UTILITY BILLING Question: How do I create appointments & schedule items?

Answer: Click ‘Schedule’ in the upper right hand corner. Then click ‘Create an Appointment Item’ toward the top of the scheduling screen.

All the appointment information such as attendees, location, start/end dates and times, and optional earning code should be entered in the appointment pop up box.

Once you have created your appointment, you can edit or delete it directly from the calendar entry by clicking ‘Edit”. There is a ‘Delete’ button at the bottom of the edit screen as well. Question: How do I customize work orders? Answer: You can set up your work orders with categories and labels on your user defined fields. This can not only aid in clarifying what a work order is actually for, but it can also help when searching for specific work orders. In the settings page of the website, there is a section specifically for work order settings. Under ’Problem Categories’, users can create categories for types of work orders and specific user defined fields for each work order category.

An additional benefit to using Problem Categories is that the advanced search feature can be used to create search profiles so that work orders are easy to group together and find.