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Janesville business services reports automation gains, ESSER grant workload and new point-of-sale rollout
Summary
Business services staff summarized nearly 40 process improvements implemented over five years, including automation of invoice processing, management of $26 million in ESSER funding and pilot of card readers for school stores and events.
Business services staff described a series of process improvements and operational accomplishments on Feb. 18, highlighting automation of routine tasks, management of large one-time federal grants and broader use of card readers for school payments.
Meg, representing the district—s business services group, told the Finance, Buildings & Grounds Committee the department has implemented almost 40 improvements in the last five years, among them a semi-automated invoice process that has handled nearly 19,000 invoices since fall 2021.
"We have processed nearly 19,000 invoices via this clicky click method since the fall of 20 21," Meg said, describing a process that parses vendor emails, extracts invoice data and reduces manual entry to a few clicks.
Meg also credited Tanya Carlson, identified in the packet as the district—s financial analyst and grants manager, for administering more than $26 million in one-time federal ESSER funds and coordinating the private-school component and related capital projects. The district has used ESSER funds for capital projects including greenhouses at Craig and Parker and an indoor-air-quality project at Franklin.
Meg described a data-sharing collaboration with other districts to improve compensation benchmarking and said Kristen Ostrander, the district Skyward business specialist, scrubs and normalizes pay data for the collaborative. She also outlined a Google Looker Studio dashboard the district uses to distribute financial views to principals and department leaders.
On payments, Meg said the district piloted a point-of-sale card reader at Craig's school store last fall and has since expanded readers to the Educational Service Center, Parker Arts Academy and Craig's cashier. The readers accept modern payment methods including Apple Pay, Google Pay and Venmo, she said, and have been used for admissions and concessions at some school events.
Committee members asked whether the card readers could be used for other events, such as athletic concessions; Meg said athletic ticketing is handled by a separate athletic department system, but confirmed card readers can be used for admissions and concessions at school performances and certain events.
Committee members also asked whether the district could better link staffing plans to building-level budgeting; staff said they are standardizing general ledger account coding by building and expect that work to enable more granular, building-level financial reporting in the future.
