Workflows and Risk Reduction
What is a school district's costliest line item?
Payroll. And, it could be up to 80% of a district’s budget. Often with the most overruns, payroll errors open districts up to substantial financial risk and uncertainty. In our work with over 400 school districts, we’ve identified the top five risks you can avoid by digitizing your payroll workflows. How will you streamline your payroll operations and build your fiscal resilience for this budget cycle?
Risk #1: Miscoded Funds
Manual budget code entry opens the door to fund misallocation, especially when the person submitting the form isn’t familiar with your chart of accounts. These errors complicate reconciliation and create compliance risk, particularly when using restricted funds.
By digitizing your forms, your district can pre-load approved fund codes into dropdowns, ensuring that requests are accurately accounted for before any dollars are moved.
Risk #2: Stipend Calculation Errors
Stipends tied to coaching, extracurriculars, or managerial roles often involve complex, variable-rate calculations. Manual entry introduces a high margin for error, especially when calculations are performed in discrete spreadsheets or on paper.
However, with a digitized form, you can embed formulas that automatically compute these totals. By populating the accurate number from the beginning, your form is ready to send to the next approver. Whether it's pro-rating post-season days or determining a one-time installment payment, automated calculations reduce the need for later corrections, ensuring staff are paid correctly and on time.
Risk #3: Incomplete Onboarding
Missing credentials, TB test results, or ID verification can delay onboarding or worse, result in employees being entered into the payroll system without full clearance. This risk is amplified during high-volume hiring periods like back-to-school or ahead of summer programming.
With online tracking and routing, HR and payroll teams gain full visibility into where each packet stands. Built-in stop gaps prevent submission until every required step is completed. Now, districts can have confidence that new employees have complete onboarding records and are ready for payroll.
Risk #4: Disconnected Data
Effective budget decisions start with oversight. Many districts track budget approvals on paper, in a collection of several binders, or via email threads. Digitizing payroll not only eliminates paper but also allows easy reporting of the data for board review or audit purposes.
Districts no longer scramble to answer basic questions like: What was approved? When? For how much? From what fund? Instead, they can shift to immediate review and decisive action.
Risk #5: Approver Delays
When district staff retire, change schools, or shift roles, your approval route breaks. Stalled or lost forms cause delays and increase the likelihood of missed deadlines or improperly approved payments.
With centralized approver management, every form routes to the correct person, every time. Updates to the approval list propagate across all workflows, maintaining continuity and compliance.
Risk Reduction Starts in the Workflow
District CBOs don’t just need clean financial models; they need clean operational inputs that ensure accuracy and oversight.
Informed K12 provides districts with an easy-to-use workflow automation solution that seamlessly connects HR, payroll, and business teams. Your district can ensure compliance and fiscal resilience before the numbers hit the ledger.
Want to see how others are tightening their payroll workflows? Request a demo, and we'll walk you through sample processes that demonstrate these improvements in action.
