TANTLY
ORKS AND S OF BEST ZE THE VE AT ITTEE TASBO
some ways to go paperless. Last year, our external auditing firm developed and implemented a secure online portal for the client and the auditing firm to upload and download data back and forth. The online portal is open from the time the auditors are planning the interim audit in the summer until the final audit report is completed. The business office and auditing firm can both add secure users to the portal, so business office staff members have the ability to upload documents.
The online portal process was not fully utilized last year, as documents were still emailed and paper documents were still pulled and scanned by the auditors for their work files. This year, we will fully utilize the online portal by uploading documents that are already scanned directly into the portal for their work files. This will allow the business office to supply requested documents to the auditors faster, plus it eliminates the task of refiling.
Results
The transition to paperless in the business office could be costly with the purchase of individual scanners and the repository and time consuming on the front end, but the savings of time once the processes are implemented are plentiful not only during the stressful audit time periods, but year-round and for historical purposes.
Authored by:
Jeffri Orosco, CTSBS, Director of Finance | Hutto ISD
Better Payroll Reconciliation Process
Challenge
One challenge for the Texas public school system is meeting its obligation to distribute error-free payroll checks to nearly 700,000 employees every month. Accurate processing of employees’ salaries and wages involves complex computations that encompass many factors, including: salary schedules, hourly rates, annualized and non-annualized pay requested by nonexempt staff, extra payments for select non-annualized jobs, stipends, types of paid and unpaid leave, deductions for various types of employee benefits, different pay rates for exempt and nonexempt staff assigned to different functions during their work day, and substitute pay for instructional and non-instructional staff. Because of the numerous moving parts and the need to distribute each payroll on time, certain limited issues are detected but are readily resolved in the next payroll.
The relative sophistication of school districts’ payroll reconciliation processes to ensure accurate payroll distributions vary from relatively high-level scans to very detailed analyzes. However, a high-level scan of reports is not particularly effective because it is likely to overlook various errors in data inputs or calculations involving one or more of the factors mentioned above. Also, relatively small errors in data inputs or calculations can be masked in high-level summary data.
Solution
The solution is take payroll reconciliations to the next level by implementing a workplace collaboration tool to streamline the process for organizing information about personnel-related events so all of the key data and supporting information are accessible in a single spreadsheet, form or report.
A workplace collaboration tool can be setup to organize a multitude of key personnel related events including:
• Date modified
• Employee #
• Last name
• First name
• Position
• Location
• Supervisor
• Original hire date
• Employee classification( classified / nonclassified)
• Contract( yes / not)
• Date recommended
• Old salary
• New salary
• Salary increasedecrease
• Old stipend
• New stipend
• Stipend increasedecrease
• Old allowance
• New allowance
• Allowance increase-decrease
• Effective date
• Remarks
• Reason for change
• Board approval required( yes / no)
• Board meeting date
You do not need to be an expert in payroll administration to appreciate the benefit of using a workplace collaboration tool like smartsheets or WorkZone to streamline a manual process to collect the data elements listed above.
Results
The results achieved in school districts that have implemented a workplace collaboration tool has been to shift their efforts from collecting and massaging data to maximizing the relative amount of time dedicated to testing payroll and benefit calculations for maximum effectiveness in payroll reconciliation processes. A robust and automated process supporting payroll reconciliations lowers administrative costs and ensures accurate payroll distributions.
Authored by:
Tom Canby, Associate Executive Director- Governmental Relations | TASBO
Source: Debbie A. Cabrera, RTSBA, CPA- Retired, Former Associate Superintendent – Business Services | Irving ISD
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