In our latest case study, we talked to Stacie Baines, court clerk of Polk County, Georgia about bookkeeping. Born and raised in Polk County, she was appointed January 2019 to finish out an unexpired term. Stacie has 21 years of experience in office and is running unopposed on their Republican ballot. For now, she is implementing changes in policy and operations. One procedure she helped change is the issuing of debit cards for jurors in the Superior Court of Polk County.
The Superior Court of Polk County dealt with a lot of uncashed checks that led to open accounts. Keeping accounts open is difficult for bookkeepers to know exactly how much money is available and leaves the court open to check fraud or escheatment of funds. Therefore, Stacie Baines was looking for a way to help alleviate the bookkeeping of outstanding jury checks. With a small office of fifteen people and one bookkeeper, it was past due to save time and money.
After implementing CourtFunds, Polk County does not have to handle uncashed checks. The bookkeeper is now able to help process criminal work instead of keeping accounts open and handling the escheatment process. Their office has decided to have three to four people go to the court to handle the CourtFunds card process for the jury. She loves that CourtFunds helped alleviate a lot of bookkeeping that was required with jury disbursements. With bookkeeping under control, Stacie Baines plans to turn that extra time and money into selling passports in the future.