Walworth County reports payroll and time‑and‑attendance rollout, estimates staffing time savings

Andy Lamping, the county’s financial systems administrator, told the Walworth County Human Resources Committee on March 19 that the county has completed rollout of a new Tyler Technologies time‑and‑attendance module and made payroll process changes that are expected to reduce staff workload and software costs.

The update summarized selection, implementation and next steps for three linked systems—payroll, timekeeping and HRIS—and outlined remaining training, reporting and interface work ahead of a separate HRIS procurement.

Lamping said county staff began the project in early 2022 and evaluated vendors including Tyler Technologies, UKG/Kronos and NeoGov. The committee was told the county elected to remain on Tyler for payroll and to adopt Tyler’s time‑and‑attendance module because of cost, integration with the county’s financial system and lower implementation time. "We are nearing the end of our project here on the payroll and time and attend update," Lamping said.

Officials told the committee the five‑year cost of the chosen Tyler timekeeping option was roughly $350,000 compared with an estimated $700,000 for the alternative Kronos/UKG option; the presentation characterized that difference as a significant cost savings over five years. The committee packet lists a revised project budget of $585,000, with portions already spent for implementation, time clocks and document‑scanning work.

The presentation listed several operational changes implemented with the new systems: eliminating double approvals and duplicate payroll processing at year end, automating direct‑deposit changes that had been manually processed on paper, and automating the weighted‑average regular‑rate calculation used for overtime. Lamping said automated overtime calculations will save payroll staff “roughly 200 hours per year” previously spent doing manual calculations. He said switching business‑expense reimbursements from paper to an electronic approval and entry workflow—an added Tyler feature—will save an estimated 100 staff hours per year.

The implementation timeline began with a contract award for the timekeeping module in January 2023, preplanning in spring 2023, vendor implementation starting in June 2023 and phased go‑lives in 2024 and early 2025. Most county departments went live in May–June 2024; the schools were added at the start of the school year and the county’s final department went live in January 2025. Lamping told the committee some planned go‑live dates slipped because of system performance bugs and the need to retire an older Kronos system that had a 2025 end‑of‑life notice.

Lamping described limits carried forward from legacy Kronos customizations: "The new cloud based systems aren't really structured that way. It's in the system or it's not," he said, adding that some previously‑customized reports and interfaces must be reworked or rebuilt. For reporting and reconciliation tasks previously performed with customized Kronos reports, county staff said they are developing new reports and reconciliation processes.

The presentation also described new user features available under the timekeeping module—mobile app access, geofencing and standard badge or fingerprint clock options at facilities where fingerprint readers remain in use. Lamping said supervisors were offered in‑person training and the county created a SharePoint site with documentation and short videos for employees and supervisors.

Committee members were told the next phase is procurement and implementation of an HRIS (human resources information system) that will handle applicant tracking, onboarding, performance management and learning management. Human resources staff have retained a consultant to begin the HRIS review and will work with the newly hired IT director to leverage prior HRIS experience. The project also includes scanning legacy HR paper files.

Committee discussion included requests for additional training and clearer documentation for occasional users who do not regularly submit expense reimbursements or use new features. Lamping acknowledged the training materials and SharePoint site were released shortly before the first go‑live, which limited time for parallel testing and broader user exposure.

The committee received the update; no formal vote on the payroll/timekeeping implementation was required at the meeting.