Post-Katrina Accounting Support

Project Overview

The Department of Public Works (DPW) in New Orleans, Louisiana, enlisted Hagerty to provide essential accounting support following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Specifically, the DPW required assistance in fixing their QuickBase® financial tracking system and enhancing internal business processes within fiscal operations.

Understanding the Mission

Hagerty’s mission was to provide accounting support by leveraging QuickBase® to accurately capture critical data, including dates, payments, and invoice activity. The goal was to track funding sources, projects, purchase orders, and invoice statuses with sufficient detail. Without a robust database to house this information, any meaningful analysis or future reporting would have been impossible.

The Hagerty Advantage

Hagerty offered comprehensive accounting support through operational and analytical teams dedicated to improving DPW’s financial systems.

• Operational Support: The operational team managed a wide range of tasks, including reviewing invoices, processing payments, creating requisitions for change orders, requesting purchase order conversions, troubleshooting aged invoices, managing document control processes, and overseeing database maintenance.
• Analytical Support: The analytical team provided technical expertise, reporting, and data analysis to track progress, identify bottlenecks, fulfill audit requests, and streamline financial operations. The team also handled Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reimbursement requests, DPW Revolver Cash Flow reports, and acted as the fiscal liaison with state, federal, and local agencies.

Achieving Results

By leveraging QuickBase® data, Hagerty successfully reduced the DPW’s average invoice processing time by 50 percent. Our accounting support established a clear audit trail, linking payment vouchers and purchase orders directly to accounting records for enhanced transparency and accuracy.

Hagerty’s work significantly enhanced the city of New Orleans’ ability to analyze, track, and report on the status of projects, contracts, invoices, payments, and funding for both DPW and Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) initiatives. These improvements played a key role in turning the State Revolving Account from an $11 million deficit into a $10 million surplus, strengthening the city’s fiscal health and operational efficiency.