EasyREV improves rates modelling for City of Onkaparinga

Published on Friday, 4 June 2021 at 11:07:11 AM

About the Client

The City of Onkaparinga is the largest metropolitan Council in South Australia, located on Adelaide’s southern fringe, with more than 170,000 residents and over 80,000 property rate assessments. The City utilises rates revenue to deliver more than 200 programs and services to the community each year including disability programs, library services and the ON Business Partner Program which supports the local community groups and businesses.

 

To assist Council in calculating and determining future forecasts, the City of Onkaparinga utilises Harbour Software’s rate modelling software EasyREV to analyse multiple models for financial planning.

 

The Challenge

Councils rely on property valuations to predict, optimise and plan their rate models in order to achieve their revenue targets. This process can be incredibly resource hungry and can require extensive data analysis and scenario modelling to determine the ideal rating options for Council.  

 

The City of Onkaparinga needed a rate modelling software that would enhance the efficiency and accuracy of their rates modelling. The Council adopted rate modelling software to evaluate the correlations between rates, rating options, valuations, and socioeconomic factors within the City.

 

EasyREV provides an innovative platform for Finance Managers to conduct comparative analysis with different modelling options and effortlessly extract data to help Council understand the underlying factors in the evaluations.

 

“Council switched to a more advanced technology to determine forecasting of our future rate models instead of using spreadsheet. In Excel, managing with multidimensional data can be laborious and prone to error. EasyREV has helped us eliminate risk by using programming scripts to make determinations for future forecasting and different models.”

 

Justin Rice

Team Leader Revenue – City of Onkaparinga

 

The Brief and Development

The City of Onkaparinga implemented EasyREV to realise the below benefits and advantages:

  • Unlimited models and scenarios
  • Multiple rate calculation and rules options
  • Integration with GIS applications
  • Extensive graphs and data reports
  • Data cleaning and synchronisation
  • Ability to save analysis modelling templates

 

Harbour Software’s EasyREV product is a rate modelling solution built specifically for local government to assist in building effective financial plans, improve revenue management and identify cost saving opportunities.

 

Integrated with Geographic Information System (GIS) application, Microsoft Power BI and Microsoft SQL backend, EasyREV can analyse multiple model results simultaneously and apply various rules to display its impact on the valuations. 

 

Harbour Software has been working closely with the City of Onkaparinga to extend the software beyond its application of rate modelling. Our team are currently working on integrating the software with the City’s corporate system to expand the use of EasyREV to analyse arrears and to model this data with GIS and Power BI.

 

The Outcome

Our local government software solutions aim to empower Council staff and improve their operational productivity and efficiency. Rate modelling software EasyREV is a financial tool that enables Councils to assess rate scenarios and make informed decisions.

 

“EasyREV helps us streamline the process of annual rates setting and rating review to enhance financial and revenue management. We worked with the Harbour Software team to develop some functionality to assist us with some gaps in our own organisation in regard to reporting.”

 

The Council rate modelling platform have made our lives easier as Finance Managers and Rate Officers and the output and its benefits are also realised through the elected members and executive teams.

 

Our experience with Harbour Software has been really positive and effective through a supportive environment. They’re a really responsive team and support is always available. We certainly get good value out of the product and it’s a pleasure working with the friendly team at Harbour Software.”

 

Justin Rice

Team Leader Revenue – City of Onkaparinga

 

To learn more about our property and rate modelling software, contact us on sales@harboursoftware.com.au or call +613 9071 0027

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