Springland City Schools
How Springland City Schools eliminates departmental silos, prioritizes compliance, and achieves nimble financial decision-making
Read on
Meet the employees of Springland City Schools, a fictional district that resembles many real districts that rely on Frontline ERP to bring order and efficiency to the business of providing an education:
- Michelle, a new hire who is looking forward to her first day as teacher in Springland City schools
- Cindy, who keeps the district finance office running smoothly
- Craig, who works in procurement and purchasing
Their disparate daily experiences are united by a common goal: to accomplish their work as efficiently as possible in support of the great education Springland City provides its students.
How do they do it?
Springland City Schools knows that paper-based processes, siloed departmental information, and small daily inefficiencies can waste time and money. What would it look like to streamline the business of running their school district using Frontline ERP?
First Day of School
A smooth start
New teacher Michelle has a great first day of school. She’s focused on learning her students’ names, which she’s able to do because the number of onboarding forms she has to fill out on her first day is exactly zero.
With Frontline ERP, your new hire’s onboarding paperwork is completed long before the first day of school. In fact, it’s just one step in a seamless, paperless recruiting and hiring process that includes applications, interview scheduling, contract signing, and onboarding completion.
In the finance office, since Cindy won’t need to manually enter Michelle’s data into the system, she has time for a short stroll outside on her lunch break.
New hire information is transferred from application and onboarding paperwork to the employee account. With position management in Frontline ERP, even the budget updates automatically to account for the expense of a new hire’s salary and benefits, and role-based permissions in the Frontline ERP system are automatically populated.
Michelle needs classroom supplies, and immediately enters her requisition for a science kit for each student. She has the correct permissions to make the purchase, and the request makes its way through the approval workflow. Once it’s submitted, she doesn’t need to follow up with Craig to ask about the status — she can track the request through the process. When the kits arrive, they’re thrilled with the ability to dive into their learning, and Craig doesn’t need to worry whether anyone is submitting purchases for items they don’t have permission for.
With the ability to electronically track every purchase from requisition to receipt, there’s no shuffle for requests to get lost in!
Fall
No silos means no bottlenecks
The first payroll of the new year is a breeze for Cindy. After all, running payroll is simple for her team. Every department is able to handle what they need to for accurate pay: supervisors approve timecards and leave requests, HR verifies assignment/position setup and benefits, and the payroll team has everything they need to run payroll and ensure it’s accurate.
Because employee positions are automatically associated with the correct pay structures — even the unique pay situations that are inevitable in K-12 — there’s no need for the finance office to spend time intervening manually.
Michelle’s first paycheck of the school year is on time and accurate.
Since Michelle entered all her own personal information (such as direct deposit info and W-4) during the application and onboarding process and then it automatically carried over to her employee account in Frontline ERP, no errors are introduced before payroll is run. Additionally, items impacting payroll such as stipends are automatically factored in.
As Craig receives purchasing requisitions, he relies on built-in compliance rules and budget account numbers to ensure that funds are being spent equitably and on budget. He knows designated approvers are also reviewing purchases that require approval, based on the school district’s policies. Because Cindy has already built account deficit rules into the system, she can have confidence the needed funds will be available when the district is invoiced.
For approvals, a simple click on either “approve” or “deny” is all it takes to keep lines of communication clear between finance and procurement. The approval workflows ensure that no purchase slips through unapproved, which means every penny will be accounted for.
When regulatory reporting deadlines roll around, the information from Cindy and the Finance team already lives in one united system — whether it’s up-to-the-minute data on staffing changes, expenditures, enrollment, or employee demographics and pay for regulatory agencies such as TRS, TEA, and the IRS.
Because ongoing data validations and daily operations are built in with Frontline ERP, there's no need to waste time sifting through historical data. State and federal reporting are completed easily and accurately.
Winter
When everyday details are streamlined, there's time to focus on more important things
Michelle has moved to be closer to her new job. In the few minutes before class begins, she easily accesses her benefits information online and changes her address. And when her students arrive, they find that they have her full attention.
Employees can choose benefits packages, access personal plan information, and update contact information or qualifying life events through their own personal login — no need to trade emails with HR.
As tax season nears, Cindy can identify which vendors need to be sent 1099s, based on invoices that have been paid this year. Craig has time to review spending with each vendor and pinpoint areas where next year’s purchasing could be adjusted for greater efficiency and smarter use of district funds.
Frontline ERP’ vendor profiles make it easy to see exactly how much money has been spent with each vendor, enabling the Finance and Purchasing departments to make data-driven decisions.
As Cindy looks ahead to the new school year’s budget, she can easily run “what-if” scenarios for the next year’s position inventory as well as non-personnel budgeting. She confidently begins working on next year’s budget, knowing that the numbers she sends to the school board for approval are well thought through.
Thanks to tools like a K-12 specific chart of accounts, simulated budget scenarios, funding and expense forecasting, and accessible reports for enrollment (from Frontline SIS) and vacancies, the budgeting process is as headache-free as budgeting can be!
When the volleyball coach retires, Michelle is happy to take over coaching. The HR department easily adds her coaching stipend to Michelle’s employment records. Michelle double-checks her change in pay right away.
Frontline ERP supports total pay transparency, allowing staff to access their precise payment details for the full school year. And managing additional pay rules, like a coaching stipend, is easy for finance office staff in a system custom-built for K-12.
In January, Michelle comes down with the flu. Thankfully, it’s not too serious, but she takes a few days off work. Even during the peak weeks of substitute needs and their irregular hours, automatic pay validations keep payroll simple.
Because the system automatically checks hours worked against hours paid with electronic timecards, there’s no need to spend time untangling the mess of paper timesheets or other manual interference.
Spring
Looking ahead to next year with clarity and confidence
Michelle receives, signs, and submits her contract for another school year, without the clutter of a single piece of paper, and her years of experience are tracked in the system. Craig signs his new contract, too — accepting a promotion to Director of Purchasing for the district. Per the new position Craig is going to hold, his pay and system permissions will be updated automatically on his first day of the new position. This makes it easy for Cindy to keep up with ever-evolving position inventory.
Contracts are easily and confidentially sent and signed via the Employee Service Center — another savings in time, office supplies, and elbow room! And because permissions are role-based, there’s no concern that a contract or other confidential information will accidentally be accessible to the wrong person.
Due to Cindy's hard work and access to united data, the budget for the upcoming school year is easily approved. HR can start to recruit and hire, and Michelle can begin planning for necessary requisitions. Craig begins to finalize his purchasing and procurement contracts.
Summer
Straddling two school years, with every detail accounted for
When Craig learns the procurement department is being audited, he’s not concerned. He can produce an easily accessible, audit-proof digital record of every purchase, and demonstrate that district funds have been used wisely. Cindy gives the auditors custom system permissions to drill into anything needed electronically — no huge stacks of paper necessary!
Between built-in regulatory controls and the ability to attach documents like order forms, vendor quotes, invoices, receipts, and notes, Frontline ERP makes it easy to maintain a paperless audit trail, giving you proof of compliance that doesn’t rely on file cabinets or stacks of binders.
As the current fiscal year is about to wrap up, Cindy and Craig open up the budget for the upcoming year, allowing Michelle to begin entering her requisitions for supplies she will need in the fall.
Frontline ERP is effective-dated, and multiple fiscal years and position inventory for both the current and next year can be operational at the same time, so there's no need to wait until the fiscal year closes out to begin to work with next year’s budget and position transfers.
Whether it’s end-of-year reporting, starting a new fiscal year, or the flurry of purchasing and deliveries that come with preparing for a new school year, Frontline ERP ensures you have the data you need every step of the way.
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