The payroll process at an educational or K-12 institution is anything but simple. Most school systems must process timesheets for exempt and non-exempt staff, temporary staff, and a number of different types of support staff, often on a schedule that is different from the typical business schedule due to the school year, in-service days, and school breaks.
Paper timesheets may have served adequately when there was no alternative, but they were rife with inaccuracies, corrections, and bottlenecks. It doesn’t have to be that way anymore because of affordable workflow software solutions that allow school systems to create time-sheets and processes that are fast, accurate, and easy for staff members and payroll to use.
School System Pay Rules Can Be Remarkably Complicated
A typical school district may have numerous pay rules that must be applied accurately and consistently. Some full-time employees may work 300 days per year, while part-time workers may work 180 days per year for varying numbers of hours. Teachers, who may work 200 days per year, can be paid over the course of 12 months. Trying to take care of time-sheets manually in such a complex environment can be tremendously time-consuming, particularly when identifying and correcting errors must be done manually. Automated timesheets can make a world of positive difference.
With Automated Time-Sheets, Errors Are Easier to Spot
Not only do automated timesheets save time for all personnel, but they also won’t get lost, become illegible when something is spilled, or lead to careless errors. Customizable workflow software lets school systems create employee self-service portals that let them enter their timesheet data confident that all pay rules (including overtime rules) are being implemented properly and that the data goes into the system accurately. What’s more, if an error is suspected, the automated workflow for timesheets can be traced backward to determine exactly what went wrong and when, so errors are far easier and quicker to correct.
Add Mobility to Make Timekeeping Even More Convenient
With automated workflows for timesheets, your teachers can log in from their classroom computers, but what about bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and others? When you select workflow software that incorporates mobility, these workers can easily log their time using a mobile app, and be confident their payroll is calculated correctly and on time. Mobility can also make things easier for teachers who must log time while they’re working, but not in their classroom (such as while chaperoning an event outside school hours). With a mobile-friendly solution for completing, entering, and processing timesheets, employees experience significantly greater convenience keeping track of their hours.
Free Payroll Clerks from Manual Data Entry
Paper timesheets required payroll staff to manually enter time and attendance information, and even the most dedicated and conscientious personnel made the occasional mistake. Plus, there was the uncertainty associated with hand-written time information, complicated by multiple pay rules. Automated workflow software that does away with paper timesheets can pull the information entered by employees directly into the payroll software, so transcription errors are no longer an issue. Employees can check their time-sheets and verify their pay at any time, and because of lower error rates, payroll employees can follow up on timekeeping questions more quickly.
Make School District Dollars Work as Hard as Possible
School systems face constant pressure to spend their resources wisely, and payroll mistakes due to cumbersome, slow, paper-based timesheets waste precious time and resources. Automated timesheets are no longer reserved for school districts with big budgets because workflow software is more available and affordable than ever. More importantly, today’s workflow software allows end-users to create custom workflows without having to know how to program, so designing the perfect workflow to handle timesheets – even when a number of pay rules apply – is within the capabilities of the non-technical user.
ProcessMaker is open source workflow automation software that puts the power of custom workflows into users’ hands. You don’t have to know how to program, and the software comes with a range of pre-built templates that can be used and customized for users that don’t want to start from scratch. There’s also an active user community to share solutions and tips for every imaginable automated workflow. Better still, you can try out the ProcessMaker Enterprise Edition for free, or download the ProcessMaker Community Edition for free. Make your school system dollars work as hard as your personnel does. A great way to start is by revolutionizing time-sheets through automated workflows.
