Humboldt County Office of Education (HCOE) supports 37 school districts spread across one of California’s most remote regions, from coastal to redwood mountain ridges. Prior to 2020, each district operated like an island, with its own separate database.  

“Every district had a separate account. If you wanted to check vendors, you had to log in one at a time with different usernames. There was zero visibility across the county.” – Emily Reinhart, Financial Systems Support Specialist, HCOE 

It was inefficient, inconsistent, and time intensive. 

In early 2020, HCOE began implementing Frontline ERP. With ERP, districts still manage their own vendor records, as required, but those records are now accessible and auditable centrally by COE staff. Lockdown unexpectedly gave staff the time to clean up data before go-live.  

“Honestly, lockdown was a bit of a gift,” Emily said, “It cleared my calendar and let me deep-dive into the data, 12 hours a day, seven days a week.”

The challenge

Thirty-seven districts operating independently, with siloed data systems, duplicate vendor records, inconsistent payroll processing, thousands of paper documents circulating each month, and even ACH payments still requiring printed pay stubs – all amid a persistent substitute shortage. In some cases, remote campuses had to close due to lack of classroom coverage.  

The solution. Frontline ERP with centralized, multi-district management, real-time data syncing, vendor and retirement oversight, and a modern employee self-service portal that made ACH fully digital. Paired with Absence Management, Humboldt built a centralized “Sub Hub” to address countywide staffing gaps.   

The results. ~94% less paper, live data across HR, payroll, and retirement, fully digital ACH payments, countywide visibility into vendor records and sub coverage, and the ability to set standards and enforce them.

“If it’s bad data in, it’s bad data forever.”

Emily Reinhart, Financial Systems Support Specialist, HCOE

Data Cleanup & Integrity 

Frontline forced a lot of cleanup. As Emily put it, “It let us say, ‘This data isn’t right.’ We couldn’t do that before.” The ability to audit and enforce data standards countywide meant vendor records could be reviewed centrally, and retirement data updates flowed automatically to payroll and employee management.  

Migrating decades of legacy data revealed inconsistent retirement records, mismatched IDs, and missing vendor documentation. That cleanup eliminated triple entry and missing IDs, which had been a constant burden on staff.  

“When retirement enters an ID, it shows up everywhere without blinking. That was my jumping-for-joy moment.” 

Employee Self-Service that Actually Works 

Before Frontline ERP, there was no way for employees to view their own tax forms online. 

“W-2s, 1099s, 1095s – they weren’t available individually. I had to export the entire  

PDF list for each district, host it somewhere, and then have one designated person dig through it if someone lost their copy.” 

With the launch of Frontline ERP’s Employee Online Portal, employees can now log in and access their own information, anytime. The same portal also transformed how pay stubs were delivered, eliminating thousands of printed pages every month.

From Paper Checks to 24-Hour Payments 

Before the portal, even employees on direct deposit still received printed pay stubs.  

“We were still wasting paper – it wasn’t magnetic ink anymore, just toner, but it  was still 5,000 single sheets for direct deposit stubs, because we legally had to provide proof of payment.” 

When you added in paper paychecks for those not on ACH, the total climbed to nearly 7,000 pages for every payroll run. Staff had to sort, stuff envelopes, and hand-deliver them across 37 districts. 

“With the employee portal, we stopped doing that. A lot more people signed up for ACH once they realized they didn’t’ have to get a paper copy. We went from 7,000 sheets of paper every month for one payroll run to 400 sheets. That was the biggest deal for me.” 

For vendors, the shift was just as dramatic: 

“Before, a vendor might say, ‘If I don’t get that check today, we’re dropping you.’ Now we just say, ‘We’ll ACH it to you. You’ll have it in 24 hours.”

Online Shopping: No More Manual Requisitions 

Payroll wasn’t the only thing slowing down district offices. For several districts, purchasing was just as paper-heavy, since the existing Requisition feature didn’t tie directly to Accounts Payable. The old platform also lacked online shopping, so every Amazon or Staples requisition had to be filled out by hand, routed for signatures, and processed – all while hoping prices didn’t significantly change in the meantime. 

With Frontline ERP, districts can now purchase directly through key high-volume vendors using built-in online shopping – requisitions auto-fill and flow through the system without paper. For all other vendors, every district now uses digital requisitions with approval paths, created in ERP, making the entire process fully electronic, with no paper or couriers.  

“We couldn’t do online shopping before. Now we can, and it’s made things a lot easier for staff and finance teams.”

Solving the Substitute Shortage 

While finance teams were gaining time back, principals were still losing hours every week to one persistent challenge: finding substitutes. In 2021, several districts had reported they were in a ‘crisis mode’. Superintendents were stepping into cover classrooms, and some schools were merging classes due to lack of coverage. Principals were starting their days at 5:30 a.m. just to arrange coverage. Substitutes had to register and complete Department of Justice clearance for every new district they worked in, making the process expensive and daunting. 

That urgency sparked the creation of HCOE’s Sub Consortium, a centralized onboarding and staffing model, that grew into SubHub empowered through Org 999, a silent district entity within Frontline ERP that houses every substitute record in the county. 

“Subs come in once a month. We onboard 40 to 70 at a time. Fingerprinting, TB  tests, credentialing, verification – all in three hours. Then I upload them straight into  ERP and Absence Management.” 

Districts now have shared access to a vetted, countywide sub pool, and coverage is consistent, even in remote districts with entire campuses that once had to close for days.   

“That school that had to close? Now they have too many subs. And that’s exactly how it should be.”

True Countywide Oversight

With 37 districts on one system, HCOE can now audit and manage vendor data centrally. Centralized records uncovered inconsistencies that had been nearly impossible to identify in the old, disconnected system. With Frontline ERP, HCOE can finally see countywide patterns. 

“You all use the same vendor, but half of you don’t have the W-9 on file. Or it’s not marked for 1099s. We can see that now and help clean it up.”

Advice to Other COEs 

Emily attributes Humboldt’s success to the intensive pre-go-live data cleanup.  

“You need someone who can analyze the old data, clean it up, and migrate it clean. You need someone who understands patterns and can spot what’s broken before you go live.” 

Her advice: treat implementation and maintenance as two distinct, critical roles. Plan for both.  

“I’m still doing both. But if you want this to succeed, separate them. It’s two full-time jobs.” 

Looking Ahead 

HCOE has transformed how 37 districts manage payroll, HR, vendor data, and substitute staffing, delivering greater consistency, transparency, and efficiency across the county. Their focus now is to sustain clean data, support district users, and maintain countywide consistency.