The business office is one of the most important parts of any school district. It is a central hub for many of the district’s stakeholders including teachers, administrators, vendors, even parents and students. The health of the district business office is integral to the health of the entire school system.
It has been clear over the past couple of decades that school districts have been a bit behind the curve when it comes to modernizing their administrative processes.
Some of the inefficiencies your district’s business office deals with on a day-to-day basis may not seem like a top priority. But, if left unchecked over enough time, they can stack up and cause a negative ripple effect. Inefficiencies that begin in your central office trickle down to your administrators. Those inefficiencies trickle down to their teachers and then to the people who matter most, your students.
But don’t worry! Educating yourself in how to recognize these issues is the first step in making a change, and the solutions are often easier than you would imagine.
1. Your processes are outdated.
District processes often involve several steps, many of which are redundant. (Is it really necessary for 3 people in the same department to approve a purchase order?) Many of our district partners have dealt with bottlenecks caused by redundancies and confusion regarding which steps need to be completed in a process, and who is responsible for what. Outdated processes are often the cause of much confusion that can be felt all across the school system.
With LINQ, central office staff and administrators have the ability to design school processes with automated workflows to eliminate confusion and significantly increase effectiveness. Say goodbye to those bottlenecks and hello to stress-free workflows!
2. You don’t have an answer for everything.
While know-it-alls get a bad reputation in most scenarios, when it comes to your district business office, having an answer for everything is actually a benefit. (Dare we say a must?)
With the extremely important personal information of your teachers, faculty and students flowing in and out of the business office daily, not to mention the thousands or potentially millions of dollars in district finances, administrators should have a clear line of sight into every process.
Want to know if the vice principal approved the rental contract for the auditorium yet? How about the transportation costs of getting the 8th grade class to and from their field trip? Need to compare those to last year’s?
We’d love to be able to tell you that some line of sight can be achieved across your paper processes, but the truth is that implementing a digital administration software is the only way this is possible.
3. You are constantly dealing with paperwork.
This is common knowledge but is worth repeating—schools use a LOT of paperwork. Working with districts around the country, we have seen more stacks of paper than most people will in their lifetime. File cabinets, boxes and even trash cans filled with paper! Edutopia found that schools spend approximately $30,000 to $50,000 each year on paper in classrooms alone. Add administration to the mix and that number gets even higher!
The cost of paper isn’t the only issue, though. Paper processes lay the foundation for all of the issues we’ve listed above, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Without a modern system to keep track of the important information on the paper, it often gets misplaced and forgotten.
Document management systems, such as workflow software, can not only save time and money but can ensure the safety and security of the information needed to make your district run smoothly.
At LINQ, we aim to help districts digitize their forms, automated their workflows, and ultimately make their lives easier. Schedule a tour with us today and we’ll walk you through the solutions we have to offer.