Walkthrough Complete - LocalGov IMS
You’ve completed the LocalGov IMS income management system walkthrough
Great! You've deployed the demo
Now let's walk through what you just deployed and see it in action.
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You've just experienced LocalGov IMS — an open-source income management system designed for UK councils. In 20 minutes, you've seen the full income cycle: citizen payments, transaction management, suspense resolution, daily reconciliation, and bank file processing.
What you've learned
💳 GOV.UK Pay integration
LocalGov IMS integrates directly with GOV.UK Pay, the government's shared payment platform. Citizens pay securely through a familiar, accessible interface. Payments flow automatically into the income management system with full audit trails.
Value: Reduced payment processing costs, PCI DSS compliance handled by GOV.UK Pay
🔍 Efficient suspense management
Unallocated payments are flagged immediately and presented in a clear workflow. Finance officers can search, match, and allocate payments quickly, keeping suspense balances low and audit-ready.
Value: Reduced suspense balances, faster resolution, audit compliance
📊 Daily reconciliation
eReturns provide a daily snapshot of all income received, broken down by payment method and fund. This is the foundation of accurate financial reporting and ensures that no income is lost or misallocated.
Value: Accurate financial reporting, daily controls, reduced audit risk
🏦 Bank reconciliation
Automated bank file import and matching means that reconciliation — traditionally one of the most labour-intensive finance tasks — can be completed in minutes rather than hours.
Value: Hours saved per week on reconciliation, fewer manual errors
Production readiness
This demo runs the same codebase that can be used in production. For a full deployment, you'd additionally want:
| Feature | Demo status | Production requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Custom domain | CloudFront URL | payments.yourcouncil.gov.uk |
| GOV.UK Pay | Sandbox API key | Live API key with real payment processing |
| Database | SQL Server Express (RDS) | SQL Server Standard or Enterprise with Multi-AZ |
| Data migration | 200+ sample accounts | Import from existing income management system |
| Backup | RDS automated (24hr sandbox) | Point-in-time recovery, cross-region backup |
| Integrations | GOV.UK Pay only | Council Tax system, NNDR, housing, general ledger |
Good news: The core platform you've just tested handles the essential income management workflows. The production checklist items are about integrating it into your council's existing financial infrastructure and data, not rebuilding the system.
Learn more about LocalGov IMS
- LocalGov IMS — full details on the project website
- GOV.UK Pay — the government's shared payment platform
Questions or feedback?
We'd love to hear about your experience with this walkthrough: