The Campton Hills Village Board on Nov. 4 heard a multi-hour technical briefing on expanding the village's existing Cassell municipal software and debated which optional modules to purchase, the size and form of training fees, and whether the village should move payroll into the system or continue using its external payroll vendor.

Bill, representing the tech committee, summarized a year of outreach to the vendor to define module costs and contract terms. Tracy reported the packet figures: a one-time implementation and training cost of $15,900 and an annual total of about $21,006 with the set of currently proposed modules.

Trustees discussed several categories: finance (including ACH/vendor pay), payroll and direct deposit, community portal and mobile field-inspection apps, business-licenses modules (including liquor and gaming license management), code enforcement, and work-order/maintenance modules. Several trustees expressed concern that the vendor was charging per-module training fees and that the payroll module duplicates services already provided by Paychex.

"There are only two payroll companies in the country really, ADP and Paychex," Trustee Burson said, arguing the village should not pay significant sums to replace a functioning Paychex arrangement. Other trustees said the value of consolidating records and enabling field staff to submit inspections from mobile devices could justify the expense if the rollout is properly phased and training is effective.

Trustees asked the tech committee and staff to: verify which current modules the village is actually using; obtain contract clarifications (including whether module licensing is based on simultaneous connections vs. named users and coterminous contract periods); negotiate training and one-time fees; confirm that the vendor's ACH features support a two-step or multi-user approval workflow; and return with a recommended bundle and a two-year contract to consider at or before the Dec. 2 meeting. Helping Hands was identified as the likely project manager for internal implementation and training coordination.

No contract was approved at the Nov. 4 meeting. Trustees asked for a comparative cost analysis (including the marginal cost to replace Paychex functions) and for the vendor master service agreement to be reviewed by counsel and the auditors before a final decision.