16-Specifications.pdf

SPECIFICATIONS

SCOPE

Harris County is seeking proposals from qualified vendor(s) for a Financial Reporting System for the Harris County Auditor’s Office as described herein. The term shall begin on or about October 1, 2026 and continue until all services ordered prior to the expiration date have been satisfactorily delivered and accepted or performed satisfactorily for the department(s).

PRE-PROPOSAL CONFERENCE

A pre-proposal conference will be held Wednesday, June 3, 2026 at 1:00pm local time, Houston, TX via Microsoft Teams. Attendance is not mandatory; however, all vendor(s) are encouraged to attend in order to have a better understanding of the requirements of this Request for Proposal (RFP).

Persons with disabilities requiring special accommodations should contact Office of the Purchasing Agent at 713-274-4400 at least two (2) days prior to the conference.

Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/231305178770410?p=n8yRxdmXKtlqbeLfMt Meeting ID: 231 305 178 770 410 Passcode: ma6Dp683

Dial in by phone +1 281-985-1862 Find a local number Phone conference ID: 444 914 374#

It is the responsibility of each vendor to examine the entire RFP package, seek clarification in writing, and review their offer for accuracy before submitting. Questions relating to this RFP must be submitted in writing through Bonfire. The deadline for submission of questions relating to this RFP is listed on the Event schedule within Bonfire of this project. All questions submitted in writing prior to the deadline will be compiled and answered in writing. A copy of all questions and answers will be released as a Public Notice within Bonfire to all firms. The County will not be bound by any information conveyed verbally.

RENEWAL OPTIONS

Harris County may consider four (4) one-year renewal options, renewable one (1) year at a time, based upon the same terms, conditions and pricing as the original year. Renewal is subject to approval by the Harris County Commissioners Court. Once renewal options are exhausted, the contract must be rebid.

Harris County reserves the right to rebid at any time as is in its best interest and is not automatically bound to renew.

BACKGROUND

Harris County is the third largest county in our nation. Harris County is governed by Harris County Commissioners Court. The Court is composed of a County Judge and four (4) Commissioners.

Commissioners Court conducts the general business of the County and oversees financial matters. The County Judge is the County’s chief executive and a voting member of Commissioners Court. According to state statute, the County Judge also is the County’s Director of Emergency Management. The Harris County Judge and Commissioners oversee a $4.3 billion budget that helps fund key county services and institutions.

Harris County Auditor’s Office (Auditor’s Office) operates as an independent entity to ensure transparency, accountability, and fiscal oversight across Harris County government operations. Independence helps preserve objectivity in evaluating financial operations, enforcing compliance with applicable laws, and maintaining strong internal controls. The Auditor’s Office maintains financial records for Harris County

Financial Reporting System for the Harris County Auditor’s Office and its related entities, including the Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA), Flood Control District (FCD), Community Supervision and Corrections Department (CSCD), and the Juvenile Probation Department (JPD). Within the Auditor’s Office, lies the Accounting Division which is responsible for managing the County’s financial systems and records. This includes ensuring transactions are accurately recorded, accounts are properly maintained, and financial reporting complies with applicable standards such as those set by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB).

The County’s Commissioners Court and County Auditor are responsible for maintaining transparent, accurate, and compliant financial reporting in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and the standards established by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB).

The County currently utilizes PeopleSoft Financials as its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and relies on multiple supplemental tools and manual processes to prepare its Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) which includes a Compliance Section (Federal and State Awards) and other required financial statements. Financial data from various departments and funds must be reconciled and formatted through labor-intensive spreadsheet and document-editing activities. This process requires extensive staff time and cross-departmental coordination and limits the County’s ability to produce timely, audit-ready financial information.

Modernization of Financial Reporting System The Auditor’s Office identified the need for a modern financial reporting system that streamlines and automates the ACFR creation process, improves data accuracy, and enhances audit readiness. The desired system shall:

Integrate directly with existing PeopleSoft Financials environment and any future approved data sources/ERP;

Automate the compilation of the ACFR and related schedules from verified financial data;

Maintain clear audit trails and reconciliation capabilities between source data and published statements;

Enable secure collaboration, review, and version control across County departments involved in financial reporting; and Support forward-looking analysis and forecasting that complement the County’s financial planning responsibilities.

The Auditor’s Office objective is to obtain a financial reporting system that reduces manual effort, eliminates data redundancy, and strengthens compliance with all applicable accounting and audit standards.

The project will serve as a foundation for improved financial transparency and operational efficiency across the County’s accounting and reporting functions.

Existing Environment The primary financial reporting and budgeting system is Prophix (on-premises), originally implemented in approximately 2012. The environment requires ongoing data maintenance managed internally and is no longer aligned with modern cloud, automation, and security standards.

The current system is used primarily for:

ACFR preparation and supporting schedules Budget development and analysis Financial statement compilation Ad hoc and management reporting

The existing Prophix environment is:

On-premises Hosted on Windows-based servers

Backed by a SQL Server database

The Vendor shall identify any additional data elements, templates, mapping logic, or historical Prophix artifacts that may require migration to support continuity of operations.

SPECIFICATIONS

The specifications in this section define the functional and technical capabilities required to support the Auditor’s Office accounting division. These requirements represent the minimum standards that must be met for the Auditor’s Office to achieve its goals of improved accuracy, efficiency, transparency, and audit readiness in the preparation of Harris County’s ACFR and financial related reports.

Harris County currently utilizes the PeopleSoft as its enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform. While this system provides a solid financial foundation, the process for compiling the ACFR relies on manual processes and spreadsheet-based activities.

To address these challenges, the Auditor’s Office seeks a modern financial reporting system that automates ACFR preparation, enhances financial data accuracy, and provides tools to manage the reporting lifecycle from data extraction through final reporting. The financial reporting system must align with the County’s accounting structure, chart fields, and internal controls, while maintaining full compliance with standards such as Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and those established by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). The system must support at least fifteen (15) users, including four

(4) system administrators responsible for user provisioning, access management, troubleshooting, and system oversight.

The requirements described in this section are informed by input from the Auditor’s Office, which documented specific operational needs for financial reporting, data consolidation, and report preparation.

These requirements emphasize the need for configurable report templates, robust validation and reconciliation features, dynamic report layouts, and the ability to adjust classifications or presentation logic as financial data evolves throughout the reporting process.

Each subsection that follows outlines the required capabilities the financial reporting system shall deliver.

These subsections include Key Functional Requirements, Data Presentation and Reporting, Data Sources and Accessibility, Integration and Connectivity, and Data Quality and Governance. Together, they define the expectations for a comprehensive, automated, and audit-ready financial reporting system ready for a local government entity.

1. KEY FUNCTIONALITIES

ACFR STRUCTURE AND REPORT GENERATION

1. Automate the generation of various government-wide and fund financial statements, notes to the financial statements, schedules, tables, and other information required for the County’s ACFR .

2. Notes to the financial statements, schedule, tables, and other information should be linked to financial data and updated automatically with any changes and maintained and reconciled with the financial statements and flagged if there are differences.

3. Support presentation of the County’s financial data consistent with its chart-field structure, including fund, account, department, program, and project levels.

4. Allow configuration of report layouts, including the ability to:

o Add or remove rows and columns;

o Insert, reorder, or rename account groups;

o Hide rows or columns with zero balances; and o Apply custom sorting or formatting consistent with the County’s financial presentation standards.

5. Provide automated roll-ups and consolidations by fund, department, account, function, project or other accounting dimension as defined by the County.

6. Allow for seamless updating of page numbers in the ACFR and other reports.

7. Allow authorized users to define, modify, and save fund and department roll-up structures, including the ability to expand or collapse hierarchical groupings within financial statements and for various reporting requirements not associated with financial statements.

8. Maintain report templates that can be reused or updated annually.

9. The system shall support the automated generation, management, and distribution of the following report types:

o ACFRs o Financial Statements o Schedules generated from verified financial data o Variance analyses for multiple reporting periods o Statistical reporting o Financial Statement Lead Schedules o Ad hoc reporting using validated datasets o Budget development and analysis reports

The Vendor shall describe how each report type is supported within the proposed solution, including templates, configuration options, scheduling capabilities, and customization features.

DATA ACCURACY AND RECONCILIATION

1. Maintain a direct link between source data (e.g., PeopleSoft Financials) and generated financial statements to ensure accuracy and traceability. Additionally, the financial reporting system should be capable in integrating with multiple ERP or financial management systems in the future and must not depend on any single platform for its functionality.

2. Provide reconciliation tools that identify differences between trial balances and published reports, including summary variance reporting.

3. Allow authorized users to perform “on-top” adjustments or reclassifications for reporting purposes without altering the underlying source data.

4. The ability to clearly identify all adjustments applied within the reporting environment and retain an audit trail of user, timestamp, and action taken.

WORKFLOW, REVIEW, AND VERSION CONTROL

1. Configurable workflows for data preparation, report generation, review, and approval by designated staff.

2. The ability to maintain full-spoken control of reports, capturing changes made throughout the reporting process.

3. The ability to compare versions and revert to prior versions of reports as needed.

4. Support concurrent access by multiple users while maintaining data integrity and proper locking to prevent overwriting.

TIMING AND REPORTING FREQUENCY

1. Accommodate recurring reporting cycles, including monthly, quarterly, and annual reporting requirements.

2. Reports shall be capable of reflecting real-time data refresh and periodic snapshot reporting as defined by the County’s financial close and reporting schedule.

3. Allow users to define and schedule recurring report-generation jobs aligned with County or user deadlines.

4. Allow county staff to define recurring report packages (“report books”) that include multiple financial statements or schedules. The financial reporting system shall support automated scheduling, generation, and secure distribution of these packages to designated recipients, maintaining version and access control for each release.

AUDIT SUPPORT AND DOCUMENTATION

1. Maintain an immutable audit trail from each reported figure back to its original transaction source.

2. The financial reporting system shall provide transaction-level traceability, allowing authorized users to view the originating ledger or journal entry that supports each reported balance. This functionality shall maintain full audit context without requiring export or manual lookup outside of the system.

3. Produce documentation packages to support audit review, including reconciliations, schedules, and adjustment logs.

4. Provide secure, read-only access for auditors or authorized reviewers to validate reported data.

DATA PRESENTATION AND REPORTING

1. Allow users to create and customize financial statements, schedules, and dashboards using intuitive layout and formatting tools.

2. Report outputs shall be available in Microsoft Office Excel files (e.g., CSV, XLSX), Adobe PDF, and

HTML formats and shall retain consistent formatting for publication

3. Provide variance analysis including budget-to-actual comparisons and trend visualizations with drill-down capability to the transaction level.

4. The financial reporting system shall provide authorized users with self-service capabilities to create and modify ad hoc reports, queries, or visualizations using validated financial data. Such features shall operate within established security and data-governance parameters and shall not require it or vendor intervention.

5. All published reports shall include version history, timestamp, and user identification.

DATA QUALITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. Include data validation rules, error flagging, and exception reporting to ensure accuracy and completeness.

2. Audit logs shall record all data changes, including user, timestamp, and before/after values.

3. Retain historical data and report versions for no less than seven (7) years.

4. Comply with GASB, GAAP, and the Auditor’s Office data management standards.

5. Provide automated reconciliation tools between source data and published financial reports.

6. Identify and flag any accounts, fund codes, or other data elements not mapped to report groupings or classifications, enabling users to correct missing or misclassified information prior to report publication.

7. Configurable controls to provide data integrity to report publication. Exceptions such as unbalanced funds, unmapped accounts, or incomplete certifications will be flagged for user acknowledgment or correction before the report is finalized.

8. Allow for third party applications such as SnowFlake, Power BI, and Microsoft SQL Server to have read only access into the data.

MINIMUM AND PREFERRED CAPABILITIES

Minimum Required Capabilities (Must-Haves) The proposed solution shall, at a minimum, provide the following capabilities:

o End-to-end ACFR preparation and generation o Comprehensive financial reporting functionality o Standard integration capabilities with ERP systems such as PeopleSoft, Oracle, SAP, and

Workday o Tools enabling development and modification of reports by authorized users o Read-only data access for third-party applications, including Snowflake, Power BI, and

Microsoft SQL Server o Dynamic reporting features, including modification of layouts, groupings, and presentation formats o Comprehensive audit logging and traceability of actions o Report version control, including version history and the ability to compare and restore prior versions o User-defined scheduling of automated report generation

Preferred (Nice-to-Have) Capabilities The following capabilities are desirable but not mandatory:

o Forward-looking forecasting and analytical tools o Ability to create and modify standard or template-based reports entirely within the application without requiring Vendor assistance

2. TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

The technical requirements are constructed to correlate to the Harris County Universal Services Reference Architecture (USRA) and to determine vendor’s ability to provide technical capabilities.

When proposing a response to this RFP, the vendor shall address all subsections of the technical requirements for the proposed solutions and services supporting the Auditor’s Office needs. Vendors shall respond to each of the statements in the detailed USRA Checklist.

HCUS Reference Architecture (USRA) The USRA is a compact, comprehensive, abstract illustration of the technology components and business processes supporting County operations and has been developed to provide guidance on how solutions shall deploy and operate within the County’s Technology (IT) environment. The USRA serves as a reference for the specific architectures the vendor shall implement to solve County business objectives.

The USRA is composed of six (6) interrelated domains and provides the foundation for the delivery of service to the County as illustrated in the attachment titled Harris County Universal Services Reference Architecture (USRA).

The USRA Six (6) Interrelated Domains:

Vendor shall respond to technical requirements pertaining to the domains of:

1. Data Services

2. Digital Services

3. Enterprise Technology Infrastructure Services

4. Information Security Services

5. IT Service Management

6. Technology Optimization

USRA Questionnaire, Checklist (Q-38AL) Vendors shall complete the questionnaire as part of vendor’s proposal response. "Complete” is defined as responding to all questions. A response is still required for non-applicable questions. The questionnaire will assist the County in understanding the scope, capabilities, technical implementation, and deployment features of the proposed solution.

Methods of Delivery Vendor shall present the County with details on at least one (1) of the following delivery options for the proposed solution, along with any alternative delivery methods that may be available:

Premise-based Premise-based solution; all servers will be provided by the vendor, installed at County location(s), and maintained as part of the enterprise. The solution (all hardware and software) is owned by County and is often viewed as a capital expense. County maintains control of the servers and maintains their security.

SaaS (Software as a Service) SaaS, an on-demand, and a hosted model; in this case the provider licenses an application that is hosted at a remote location (i.e., Network Operations Center) to customers through a subscription model, generally a monthly or yearly fee. This approach can also take into consideration a “cloud computing” model where all the technology is in the “cloud” and accessed over the Internet as a service.

Hybrid Model Hybrid model in which the solution (hardware / software) is hosted at the County location and the provider will perform the day-to-day responsibility of managing (maintain and support) the software/hardware for the County. The managing of the solution could be either through onsite presence or remote. The provider’s expertise and experience in this subject area is important for more efficient operations.

The County requires vendors to propose at least one (1) approach that provides an efficient solution while meeting both the County’s functional requirements and its technical standards, including the data-centric architecture approach. At all points, the County will have ownership of its data and shall be able to access or be provided the required data to support the proposed service or other services deemed necessary to access the information. If otherwise, the vendor shall state the reasons (functional and technical), as to why they cannot meet the County’s requirements.

Platform Administration/ Professional Service Vendor shall provide the County with platform administration (maintain & run). System administration and maintenance of implemented platform, as well as the addition of new software components if needed, is expected to be provided by the vendor based on the method of delivery adopted.

Data Management Vendor is expected to provide the County with details on their approach to the following data management areas:

1. Data Governance

2. Data Quality

3. Data Security

4. Data Operations

3. ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA

Vendor shall comply with the following acceptance criteria:

3.1 Product delivery, configuration, and training, which successfully meet all requirements outlined in the RFP shall be provided by the specified dates. Any changes to delivery dates must have prior approval (in writing) from the County.

3.2 The County has the sole responsibility of determining the completeness of vendor’s work. The County will complete a review of delivered products, configuration, and training within ten (10) business days from the date of receipt.

3.3 In the event the County does not approve a product or service provided herein, vendor will be notified in writing with the specific reasons. Vendor will have fifteen (15) business days to correct the unaccepted product or service.

3.4 Vendor shall correct any latent defects identified after the acceptance of a product or service (where appropriate) at no additional charge to the County.

4. MAINTENCE/SUPPORT/WARRANTY

Upon Final System Acceptance (FSA) and training, the maintenance/support/warranty of the system shall commence on the first day of the official operation of the system as designated by Harris County.

At a minimum, the system shall include twelve (12) months of maintenance/support/warranty to include upgrades, patches, fixes and support via phone, web, and email. Pricing shall also reflect annual renewal, and maintenance or license fees for subsequent and continued use of the system.

Vendor shall describe each SLA associated for each applicable service offering. Vendor shall meet all SLA requirements to include but not be limited to the delivery of service offerings, maintaining service offerings, measuring Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), reporting compliance and issuance of credits when performance fails to meet performance objectives. Vendor shall disclose its methodology for measuring each of its SLAs, including but not limited to the formulas for calculating those measurements. Vendor shall disclose how vendor shall address failures to perform to SLA levels and any billing adjustments, credits or other compensation offered. SLA provided shall not be less than what is commercially available.

5. TRAINING AND KNOWLEDE TRANSFER

The Vendor shall provide a comprehensive training and knowledge transfer program to ensure that County personnel are fully capable of using, maintaining, and administering the financial reporting system upon implementation. The training program shall be designed to meet the needs of both technical and non-technical users, emphasizing the County’s objective of minimizing reliance on IT resources and vendor intervention.

Training Program Requirements

1. The Vendor shall deliver structured training sessions covering all functional and administrative components of the financial reporting system, including but not limited to ACFR preparation, financial reports, revenue accounting, forecasting, and workflow management.

2. Training shall be provided in multiple formats either as classroom instruction, remote sessions, and self-paced materials to accommodate user preferences and scheduling.

3. Training content shall include hands-on exercises using County-specific data, examples, and reporting templates to ensure direct applicability to day-to-day operations.

4. Training shall be role-based, addressing the needs of the following user groups:

o Financial Accounting o Revenue Accounting o Grant Accounting o IT and System Administration staff; and o Auditors and reviewers requiring read-only or validation access.

5. All training materials, manuals, and recordings shall be the property of Harris County and shall be maintained in editable formats for future updates.

6. The Vendor shall provide a comprehensive Training Plan within thirty (30) calendar days of contract award, detailing course outlines, schedules, delivery methods, and performance metrics to evaluate training effectiveness.

Knowledge Transfer

1. The Vendor shall ensure that Auditor’s Office staff acquire sufficient knowledge to operate, configure, and maintain the financial reporting system independently after implementation.

2. Knowledge transfer shall include walkthroughs of system configuration, report design, workflow setup, and data integration processes.

3. The Vendor shall deliver administrative documentation, configuration notes, and troubleshooting guides to support ongoing operations.

4. The Vendor shall help identify and ensure that the Auditor’s Office “super-users” receive advanced-level instruction that enables them to train future staff and support the system.

5. All knowledge-transfer activities shall be documented and verified through completion.

6. PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN

Vendor shall provide a comprehensive Project Management Plan (PMP) for Harris County Auditor’s Office for primary reviewing and approving authority, within ten (10) days of contract award.

The Vendor’s PMP shall outline the methodology and strategies to develop, test, implement, and provide go-live support of the Financial Reporting system including, but not limited to, the following:

6.1 Detail all phases of the project lifecycle, from project initiation through end-of-term transition.

This will include also the go-live training to users identified by the Auditor’s Office, and availability to materials and provide guidance of any areas to be trained on.

6.2 Approach for transitioning to go-live including support of operations in parallel with existing systems, tools, or providers. This will detail how data, reports, and outputs will be reconciled during parallel operations and the criteria’s used to determine readiness to no longer require parallel processing of existing systems.

6.3 Assignment of a dedicated project manager responsible for overall project execution, coordination, and communication.

6.4 An organizational chart identifying all project personnel, their roles and responsibilities, and reporting relationships, including resources assigned to key related activities (e.g., integration, testing, training).

6.5 Development and maintenance of a milestone schedule as part of the project management plan, detailing all major tasks, deliverables, and key decision points. The schedule will include review and approval of milestones involving Harris County/Harris County Auditor’s Office.

6.6 Change order requests not relating to the project schedule or monetary changes shall be documented and are subject to review and approval by the Auditor’s Office prior to implementation.

6.7 Define communication procedures, along with points of contact for meeting cadence, escalation paths, and documentation requirements to promote clear auditable communication throughout the project.

6.8 Weekly project status progress reports or updates will be performed to communicate completed activities, upcoming tasks and any items requiring the Auditor’s Office input or decisions.

6.9 Define methodology for identifying, documenting, prioritizing, and resolving issues and risks, including escalation procedures and coordination with the Auditor’s Office.

6.10 For evaluation purposes, a sample of a comparable project plan demonstrating the vendor’s standard project plan format and content. The sample may be redacted to protect confidentiality.

7. USER ACCEPTANCE TESTING (UAT)

Vendor shall develop a comprehensive testing plan that includes clearly defined acceptance criteria for validating system functionality, system integrations, and financial reporting outputs. Vendor shall not proceed to subsequent project phases, including go-live, without documented confirmation and approval from the Auditor’s office that UAT requirements have been satisfactorily met. The testing plan shall include but not limit to the following:

o Define and execute test scenarios and use cases based on documented functional requirements, business processes, and needs gathered from the Auditor’s Office.

o Identify required test data, expected results, and success criteria for each test scenario.

o Clearly document roles and responsibilities for test execution, defect tracking, and resolution.

o UAT completion will be met when:

1. All required test scenarios have been executed

2. All acceptance criteria have been met or formally confirmed by the Auditor’s Office

3. All identified defects have been resolved or otherwise dispositioned and approved by the Auditor’s Office

8. CAPACITY AND RESOURCES

Vendor shall maintain and assign a sufficient number of competent, qualified, and experienced professionals to meet the Harris County Auditor’s Office requirements for the implementation of the financial reporting system. The vendor shall provide Harris County with a staffing plan that identifies proposed staffing levels, roles, areas of responsibility, and required skill sets necessary to meet the requirements of this RFP. The staffing plan shall clearly identify resources assigned to project management, system configuration, data integration, reporting, testing, and training. Any workspace, technology, security, or telecommunications requirements needed to support on-site or hybrid project activities need to be clearly identified and agreed upon.

Project Manager (PM)

1. Vendor shall dedicate a PM for the duration of the project to act as the vendor’s primary representative for all project-related communication and activities with the Auditor’s Office. The PM shall serve as the single point of contact for project execution and shall be responsible for maintaining a detailed, accurate, and current project schedule.

2. The percentage of the PM’s time dedicated to this project shall be clearly defined. The PM shall have overall responsibility for day-to-day project management, coordination of vendor resources, and schedule adherence.

3. Vendor shall submit a resume for the proposed PM for the Auditor’s Office review and approval.

At a minimum, the PM candidate shall possess the following qualifications:

o Project management experience, including leading the implementation of the financial reporting system within government entities at the federal, state, or local county level.

o Knowledge of financial systems and financial reporting, or comparable experience with local county operations and the financial reporting requirements of government entities.

o Demonstrates experience developing and managing dependency-driven implementation schedules, including coordination of integrations, data validation, testing, and parallel operations.

o Demonstrates experience facilitating and supporting formal review sessions with executive, finance, and audit stakeholders, including status reporting, risk discussions, and decision-making forums.

Key Staff Resumes for all key staff must be provided for Harris County review and approval. Key staff include all Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and other personnel directly involved in the implementation, configuration, integration, testing, training, or support of the proposed financial planning, analysis, and financial reporting system. Resumes should clearly identify each individual’s relevant background, years of experience, and skill sets, including experience with local county financial systems, financial reporting, or statutory reporting environments (such as ACFR preparation), where applicable.

9. OPTIONAL/VALUE-ADDED SERVICES

Vendor may propose optional or value-added products and/or services related to the scope of goods and/or services described in the specifications and/or listed on the BidTable(s) of this RFP by identifying other items and/or brands not identified by Harris County in this RFP. At a minimum, discuss product/service capabilities and reasons why it would be valuable for this project.