BARNSLEY Council has been a key player to create a new income management system.

The system is a software application the council use to manage income payments and to make sure they are allocated to the right accounts.

It's now moving to stage two of the beta phase, and Barnsley Council is encouraging other councils to get involved.

Coun Alan Gardiner said: "Our teams quickly discovered a gap in the market for a system like the one the (agency dxw) were building.

"Councils were struggling with the costs and lack of choice in the market and often ended up trapped in long contracts with little alternative.

"The system was initially created for use at Barnsley, but to make this IMS something that other councils can use, the team decided to build in other functionality to make it open source.

"That way, we have an IMS created by local government for local government.

"We hope this is an approach that others can follow with different services."