To say the least, it has been a very busy time in the finance department. Since the announcement of our planned merger, the finance departments of both agencies began to meet. Our first objective was to get to know each other and then we set out to define our roles going forward. We have continued to meet regularly and I’m happy to report that this transition has been a very smooth process.

    That’s not to say we haven’t come across some challenges.  The challenges have included developing strategies for integrating our systems, including bringing different payroll procedures together and combining similar but slightly different program and service notes. Our two agencies also have small but important differences in our accounting systems and how we approach our general ledgers. And to make things really interesting we have two separate fiscal years!

    Wildwood’s IT department has begun the transition of managing ALG systems as ALG contracted their IT to an outside vendor. Likewise, our Facilities Services Department has already begun a few ALG projects as well, as this was another contracted service at ALG.

    There is no doubt this is an exciting time and already we can see the potential of bringing two like-minded, fiscally strong institutions together. It may be a busy time but the excitement of the possibilities makes all the work worthwhile!