It seems that the city’s annual financial report will be a bit late this year, thanks to SAP. Four months late, to be precise. Emphasis added below.

Departmental delays caused by the city’s unexpectedly difficult transition to a new financial system will postpone the release of this year’s financial report until at least April 30, City Controller Annise Parker has announced.

The FY07 CAFR (Comprehensive Annual Financial Report) was due December 31. Departments enter data on an ongoing basis then produce annual reconciliations, which are then routed through the Controller’s Office for analysis and consolidation before going to Deloitte, the city’s audit firm.

“I am both personally frustrated and professionally concerned by the problems. While the city’s underlying financial situation is strong, our inability to make a smooth transition from the old legacy financial system to the new SAP system definitely has had an impact, particularly during a time of volatile financial markets,” the controller said.

The FY06 report was produced during the transition to the new SAP system. Many employees put in double duty during this trying time, resulting in delays in that CAFR as well.

The FY07 CAFR is the first produced entirely on the new system. The controller said departments were overly optimistic in projecting how long it would take to train employees in the system and to scrub the converted data.

I’m not even going to comment on “scrub the data” because even in the old system, there would have to be some scrubbing. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned, Garbage In, Garbage Out is true. Of course, these days, I tend to say “Garbage In, Dynamo Out” but then, I’m biased against folks that “don’t want to be fools.”

And now for the scary part.

SAP PROMOTES HOUSTON

“Ironically, SAP has touted the city’s conversion as one of its smoothest. The SAP system has performed as intended, but not always as anticipated. It has been a steep learning curve, . which has escalated costs,” she said.SAP, the an (fixed that for you –ubu) industry standard, can be modified up-front for clients or clients can change processes to customize the software. The city’s transition team opted to change city processes. This involved about 2,000 employees who interact with the system. The controller noted that creating additional reports and data extraction has proven to be difficult and time-consuming.

Because SAP is such a PITA that it’s easier to retrain your workforce than customize the software. It amuses me to think of that as a caricature of corporate facism. “Your business vill operate per our model, or ve vill not zupport chu! You von’t like it eef ve do not zupport chu!”

“The biggest problem is converting data from the old system to SAP. This has resulted in significant delays as departments attempt to report accurate fixed assets. Data due last fall still has not been received,” she said.

Four months late, eh? And counting… Well, no, I’m still not a fan of SAP. I’m sure that Mayor White has no objection to foes’ inability to look at the record and deconstruct his paper shuffle after gutting Proposition 2. Where is that $90 million over cap for police protection, anyway?

Oh, silly me, he didn’t say $90 million in additional police spending, did he? Well, maybe Controller Parker will get it figured out by the end of June, when the 2008 fiscal year ends….