Benicia Finance Director Karin Schnaider will give the Finance Committee an updated schedule Thursday for changes in the city computer fiscal software.

The panel also will examine the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2014.

The computer system upgrade has been in the works since 2011, when it initially was viewed as a $66,000 overhaul.

However, as various challenges arose, city staff determined that Benicia’s computers and existing programming were incompatible with the vendor’s recommendation.

At the same time, city employees recognized the existing system — which was heavily dependent on paper notes and typing information in by hand — was inefficient.

Meanwhile, according to staff reports given to the Finance Committee over the past two years, computers in the city’s Finance Department and Human Resources Department, which handles payroll and other matters, would not communicate with each other.

Across all operations, the city has been attempting to streamline and conserve costs, and initially the software conversion was seen as a step in that direction.

However, the conversion kept taking longer, while the city dealt with the recession and unexpected staffing and financial upheavals. By the beginning of 2014, staff told the Finance Committee the city was taking a new approach after learning that the project’s anticipated cost could go as high as $400,000 because city computers weren’t able to accept the new system with its current programming.

At its July 2014 meeting, the Finance Committee heard Kevin Anderson, management consultant for NexLevel, Carmichael, say the city’s situation wasn’t critical, and improvements had been made that achieved some operational streamlining. That would give the city time to make sure its computer software upgrade could be done correctly, because the current system needs replacing as it is several versions behind and is nearing the end of its lifespan.

The next phase, Anderson said, would not be an upgrade. “It is a re-implementation,” he said. Since then, the city has moved forward on its decision to request proposals from vendors.

At Thursday’s meeting, Schnaider will review a status report on the project’s pre-implementation schedule.

A draft of system options and recommendations has been made, and multiple other steps are complete — an examination of alternatives, formation of a core project group, development of a project charter, presentation of initial findings to the committee and the Council, and expanding a selection group and choosing an evaluation process.

Already under way are the assembly of Request for Proposals documents and evaluation of current modules for conversion, Schnaider said.

By March, the city expects to solicit vendors for a product development overview. In March and April, the city expects to hear from vendors, and will be evaluating their proposals in May and June.

Contract negotiations are expected to take place in June and July, and preparation for implementation of the new computer programs should take place from July to October. After that, Schnaider wrote in her report, the process will change to implementation, and a new work plan will be developed for that work.

In other matters:

• Katherine Yuen, principal of Maze and Associates, the city’s auditors, will walk the Committee through the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR).

The CAFR is the city’s equivalent of an audit; it serves as a snapshot of Benicia’s fiscal picture as it existed the last day of the 2013-14 fiscal year.

Historically, the city has received awards for its audit report.

• The panel will see third-quarter reports and will look at the city’s investment policy.

• The committee also will review its work plan, which is its guide for activities through the end of the fiscal year.

The plan notes that city employees are developing a comprehensive analysis of the city’s Marina Fund, which will be sent to the Council in February.

The Council and the committee will have a joint meeting Feb. 3 to examine the city’s 10-year General Fund, Water and Wastewater funds forecast, and possibly its internal services funds, as well.

The committee will see the the results of the citywide fee study Feb. 26, and may get a second look March 26, prior to its presentation to the Council June 2.

The committee will see several reports on the drought surcharge in March as well as in mid-autumn.

It will meet with the Council on April 21 to study proposed water and wastewater rates, and two days later will see the city’s third quarter and solar annual accounts.

The midyear and budget presentations will take place in May.

Yet to be scheduled is the committee’s examination of the California Public Employees Retirement Service (CalPERS) Path to Sustainability, which may have financial impacts on the city.

The Finance Committee will meet at 9 a.m. Thursday in the Commission Room of City Hall, 250 East L St.