Victor Elementary School District Simplifies Payroll Operations with Helios Ed
Summary
Victor Elementary School District (VESD) has eighteen schools, serving over 12,000 students, and employing over 1,554 employees. Each campus within VESD features its own unique focus, ensuring every family can find the perfect match for their student’s needs.
Challenge
Before using Helios, their system was fairly minimal and served mostly as a data entry program. Their team was looking for a most robust solution to streamline their payroll and timesheet processes to help save time for their employees.
The Helios Solution for Victor Elementary School District
VESD utilizes the Helios Core, Workflows, Time Reporting, and the Employee Portal modules, in addition to an ongoing interface with their county financial system.
Payroll and Reporting
In the years before partnering with Helios, payroll deadlines could often be stressful. With the help of Helios, the VESD payroll group has greater flexibility and time allowance, even during tight timelines. Erica Madrid, Secretary of Fiscal Services at VESD, has been with the Fiscal Services team for over 18 years. Madrid notes that their payroll team has been given significant time back in part because of the built-in payroll reports from Helios, as well as their own customized reports. “It’s really nice because it streamlines the data and it comes directly from the payroll system,” says Madrid. Adding, “Our group is able to expedite the information. It’s fantastic.”
Timesheets
Madrid says that another noticeable improvement is their timesheet process. Approvers can now use the timesheet review feature and are able to see it on an individual basis or in mass detail. With Helios, approvers can determine their view based on their preference. VESD appreciates the ease of review and the ability of moving between records more seamlessly than ever.
Extra Duty
VESD has found great benefits when it comes to tracking and staying on top of extra duty with the help of Helios. When speaking about their process, Madrid notes that the employees are responsible for entering their extra duty time and their overtime. Since the employee has the full understanding of the time they are expecting on their paycheck, this has been a valuable practice for their team. This also saves precious time for the school site secretaries because the employees can enter their own extra duty time. “It has helped so many people. All of our sites, as well as our payroll group,” says Madrid. “It’s been a great program.”
County System Interface
Like many districts, VESD works in collaboration with their county financial system. Helios has an ongoing interface with Financial 2000, in which they are able to draw information from their county system, and drive the necessary data into Helios. The ongoing interface allows all of the employees to be assigned instantly to the location that they are working at based on their county records. This is not only more efficient, but it also helps to prevent duplicate pay or paying the incorrect employee, even if they have a similar name. The interface helps to keep things up to date, especially at the beginning of the year when there can be significant change and movement. Madrid notes that their team appreciates “how quickly it updates and how seamless it is.”
Implementation and Customer Service
When it comes to implementation, VESD has had a wonderful experience from the very beginning. “Implementation was laid out in a way and monitored in a way that made it so much easier,” says Madrid. “You get totally walked through the process for what your district needs.” VESD has been thrilled with the customer support from Helios and is also looking forward to the future. “It’s seamless and it just keeps getting smarter as well,” says Madrid. Madrid continues by saying she appreciates that Helios continues in adding new functionality that further streamlines their processes. “It’s greatly appreciated,” says Madrid.
Impact and Savings
Helios has made many positive impacts in terms of processes and user experience for VESD, but the biggest impact has been time savings. “We don’t have to spend just an inordinate amount of hours deciphering the payroll,” says Madrid. Since partnering with Helios, VESD has streamlined their payroll experience from all angles. This includes account code strings, ensuring personnel are in the right place, and more. The Helios functionality has been helpful to the VESD team to minimize human errors that can easily occur within other systems.
Why Victor Elementary School District Chose Helios Ed
Madrid said “I could instantly see the value of Helios.” When exploring a platform to meet the needs of their district, they looked at multiple vendors. The VESD team found that Helios was the most expansive system that also offered the most flexibility. “Helios has always been really great with allowing us to determine what our payroll should look like,” says Madrid. She continues, “Helios is a very robust program and they’re willing work with you.” Madrid emphasizes that their team appreciates that Helios gets things set up to meet their specificities. In closing, Madrid says, “you will not go wrong if you go with Helios.”