About The Customer Resource Center

The Customer Resource Center (CRC) is designed to serve agencies of the commonwealth from three perspectives: daily needs, program specific support, and employee skill development.

You may contact the CRC by e-mail (Finance.CRCgroup@ky.gov) or phone (502-564-9641 or 877-973-HELP). The Help Desk is open Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. EST.

The help desk function serves as the primary point of contact for customers, both agencies and vendors, regarding the financial and procurement processes and the software designed to support them. Agencies that have questions about financial document assistance, procurement, policies and procedures and requests for training services are encouraged to contact the help desk for assistance. Some of the key areas that are supported include:

Financial Document Assistance: The financial advocacy role of the Help Desk greatly enhance the role of the agencies in their daily management and strategic direction for the programs.  Because eMARS operates in real-time rather than in batch processing, the system will not allow documents to be processed with incomplete data or with errors. Thus, the financial assistance function of the Help Desk provides guidance or assistance for the following areas:

• Policies and procedures
• Analysis to move business problems to solution
• Guidance for programs in reporting elements such as program spending, dollars collected, actual expenditures versus budget, actual revenues versus budgeted, and other appropriate metrics involving financial and operational data
• Budget development and maintenance processes
• Steps to integrate financial management into agency operations
• Task specific assistance such as travel vouchers, payment status, electronic funds transfer, fixed assets, year-end close out, and signature authorities.
• On-line document completion assistance
• Establishment of common codes for payables

• Statutory and regulatory basis for the "Best Value" approach
• Incorporating best value criteria into small and large purchases
• Basic procurement policies and procedures
• Use of procurement card and the appropriate hierarchy of cardholders and program administrators
• Total cost factors involved in the procurement process

• Changing credit limits for cards
• Developing appropriate card usage policies
• Identifying transactions prone to risk
• Reconciling transactions
• Using the procard with price contracts
• Capturing and analyzing spending data
• Apply appropriate post-audit techniques
• Facilitating the use of procard for unique areas such as utilities
• Receiving agency activity reports

Vendor Support: This activity provides vendors with general assistance in matters such as vendor registration procedures, payment status, access to bids and other procurement documents, and policies and procedures for conducting business with the commonwealth.

CRC provides training services ranging from the agency policies and procedures to assistance with new procurement and financial practices in the eMARS software. Identification of the training subject matter and audience will be guided by the problems and requests identified by the agencies through their contact with the Help Desk and other CRC functions.

Training schedules and registration are managed by CRC and posted on the internet for agencies to access. eMARS training manuals are also posted and maintained on the internet.

Barbara Aldridge-Montfort 
502-564-9641 ext. 462