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TO: Mayor John Laesch
FROM: Dan Ferguson, Accounting Manager
DATE: October 3, 2025
SUBJECT:
A resolution authorizing the purchase of a 5-year renewal subscription of Debtbook's Lease and Subscription management platform in the total amount of $118,125.00.
PURPOSE:
The Accounting Division requests to renew this subscription to maintain our ongoing compliance with Government Accounting Standards Board ("GASB") statement No.87 and No. 96 regarding the City's Leases and Subscription-Based Information Technology Arrangements ("SBITAs"), which is a required component of our financial reporting obligations reflected in the City's Annual Comprehensive Financial Report.
BACKGROUND:
GASB Statement No. 87 for leases was made effective for the City's fiscal year ended December 31, 2022. Due to the number and complexity of the City's leases, Finance and Accounting staff researched available subscription options that offered solutions specific to this new compliance requirement for governments. We reviewed marketing presentations and demos for a few solutions, but Debtbook offered a unique solution that was designed for government entities and therefore met our operational needs. GASB Statement No. 96 for SBITAs was made effective for the City's fiscal year ended December 31, 2023. Debtbook's platform incorporated solutions for both GASB statements.
The key benefits of Debtbook were as follows:
- A combined solution to ensure compliance with new GASB requirements for SBITAs and Leases, including footnote disclosures
- Intuitive and user-friendly platform
- Premium support to provide quarterly agreement review and analysis
- An incremental borrowing rate feature incorporated in their platform
- Regular training options for changes to SBITAs and Leases compliance
- Vast support resources for user assistance in the platform
- Comprehensive journal entry exports, eliminating the need for massive excel spreadsheets
- Ability to give external access to the cloud-based platform, which increases audit effectiveness and efficiencies for both City staff and our external auditors
The City has successfully worked with Debtbook's Lease management platform since 2022 and SBITA management platform since 2023. Before these management platforms, records were decentralized and maintained by various City Divisions. Now the large volume and complexity of the City's SBITA and Lease contracts are maintained centrally on the Debtbook management platform. Under the new GASB requirements, the City is required to recognize long-term liabilities and intangible right-to-use assets associated with Lease and SBITA contracts, whereas these were mostly reflected as expenditures and revenues in each fiscal year under previous guidance.
DISCUSSION:
The Debtbook platform streamlined the City's GASB compliance for the initial year of implementation but also helps us maintain our compliance each year moving forward.
The current subscription with Debtbook expires November 27th, 2025, and we would need to renew this subscription to continue using the Lease and SBITA management platform. The annual cost breakdown is as shown below:
Year 1: $23,625.00
Year 2: $23,625.00
Year 3: $23,625.00
Year 4: $23,625.00
Year 5: $23,625.00
The annual subscription cost of the current agreement is $22,500.00, for reference. Therefore, the proposed annual subscription cost of $23,625.00 represents a 5% increase, but that one-time increase is then locked in for the remaining 4 years. Staff believes the locked-in cost for years 2 through 5 represents a benefit to the City, rather than the typical 3-5% annual increases we would see in an agreement with a shorter term.
The attached quote includes the pricing as part of the Omnia Partners cooperative program, contract number 14-03.
Funding is available in account 101-2521-415.45-26.
IMPACT STATEMENT:
This renewal will ensure that staff has access to the Debtbook Lease and SBITA management platform, which will continue to streamline our on-going compliance with financial reporting requirements reflected in the City's Annual Comprehensive Financial Report.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
Staff requests the proposed resolution be adopted.
cc: Finance Committee
CITY OF AURORA, ILLINOIS
RESOLUTION NO. _________
DATE OF PASSAGE ________________
title
A Resolution authorizing the purchase of a 5-year renewal subscription of Debtbook's Lease and Subscription management platform in the total amount of $118,125.00.
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WHEREAS, the City of Aurora has a population of more than 25,000 persons and is, therefore, a home rule unit under subsection (a) of Section 6 of Article VII of the Illinois Constitution of 1970; and
WHEREAS, subject to said Section, a home rule unit may exercise any power and perform any function pertaining to its government and affairs for the protection of the public health, safety, morals, and welfare; and
WHEREAS, since 2022 and 2023, respectively, the City has successfully implemented recent requirements per Government Accounting Standards Board ("GASB") Statements No. 87 for Leases and No. 96 for Subscription-based Information Technology Arrangements ("SBITAs"); and
WHEREAS, Debtbook offers a unique solution designed and tailored specifically for government entities and streamlines on-going compliance with financial reporting requirements reflected in the City's Annual Comprehensive Financial Report; and
WHEREAS, this agreement was made available through Omnia Partners Contract Number 14-03; and
WHEREAS, funding is available in account 101-2521-415.45-26.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Aurora, Illinois, as follows: the Director of Purchasing is hereby authorized to purchase a 5-year renewal subscription of Debtbook's Lease and Subscription management platform in the total amount of $118,125.00.