BENTON — The Benton City Council is expected to act on upgrading software used for payroll and bills when it continues this week’s meeting for the payment of bills Friday morning at 9 at City Hall.

The council discussed the item but took no action on it at Monday’s regular meeting.

According to City Clerk Brook Craig, the software is called Financial Edge. The city currently uses a server to store payroll and bill information. But with the upgrade, all that information will move from the server to the Cloud. This means the city has no choice but to upgrade according to Craig.

The cost to upgrade for one year is just over $19,000. The upgrade would also include a time clock, something the city has discussed having in the past but has never done anything about it. The city treasurer suggested to the council Monday that the money budgeted for the time clock in this year’s budget be used to pay for the upgrade. If the council agrees to the upgrade, it will come out of capital improvement funds which totals $50,000.

Craig says if the city were to use another software provider, it would cost anywhere from $40,000 to $50,000.