Services that matter
Annual report of the Department of Service & Innovation 2024
Department of Finance & Risk Management
The Department of Finance & Risk Management oversees the City of Reykjavík’s financial control.
The department participates in all aspects of operating Section A – Core Operations of the Reykjavík Municipal Treasury and provides managers with oversight, advice and information that supports informed decision-making.
Policy-making and implementation
The year 2023 was largely spent on policy-making and organizational changes that were introduced at the end of the year. These support the department's new goals:
- To operate efficient financial services
- To pursue robust development
- To support successful decision-making
In 2024, we put these goals into action with a changed organizational structure, new project schedule and greater emphasis on risk management. Our new strategy has sharpened the department's role and brought its operations closer to the City's digital future vision.
Digital development and automation
One of the department's main strategic priorities is digital development and innovation. During the year, we took various steps to streamline processes, better utilize data and increase automation. This included creating new roles in the director's office to support policy-making and change management. The finance technology office also manages our project schedule and project oversight. Moving our project schedule to the new Microsoft Lists interface has given us better visibility.
Mapping processes and automation opportunities has also been a priority, including in accounting and at the Payroll Office. In this context, we implemented Sæborg, a digital worker, to streamline property rates processing. We also set up dashboards in Power BI to improve oversight, including for financial management, budgets and collections. These developments have reduced manual work, increased transparency and improved services.
During the year, we also worked to strengthen our innovation mindset and prepare staff for continued digital development. This included increased focus on workplace culture, teamwork and reassessing our workspaces.
Electronic procurement authorization
During the year, we completed testing of electronic procurement authorization with very good results.
The goal is to streamline the City's procurement procedure overall, support responsible use of funds and improve the experience for staff working with purchasing and approvals.
This was a proof-of-concept project, but with an electronic solution we can increase transparency, shorten communication chains and reduce the risk of errors.
The next step is implementing the solution, which begins in 2025 and will reach all departments of Reykjavík City.
Other 2024 projects
- Needs analysis for financial system and Unit4 phaseout
- SharePoint implementation, preparation for shared drive migration and setup of new quality handbook
- Preparation for new European legislation on sustainable finance
- Comprehensive implementation of Jira work request system
- Working group on forecasting models
- Setup of Power BI dashboards for analysis and follow-up, including for financial management and collections, budget, ISO 37120
Changes and long-term projects
In line with our new strategy, we emphasized better collaboration, clearer responsibility and more focused decision-making. Staff participation in teamwork and discussions about our work environment has been crucial.
We continued work on long-term projects spanning multiple years:
- Centralized incident logging
- Data landscape development
- Jira implementation and service strategy
- Compliance monitoring system
Today the Department of Finance & Risk Management has very good oversight of both digital and other projects that support our new strategy. Extensive preparation has taken place to reach this point, which now makes both project work and collaboration within the department and between departments easier.
Our new policy-making has also succeeded in establishing a clear vision, which simplifies decision-making and ensures it aligns with the department's digital future vision.