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SFUSD officials say new payroll system is largely stable but legacy data and training gaps have caused pay errors
Summary
Superintendent Matthew Hsu and operations staff told the board Frontline has produced more stable pay runs but acknowledged outstanding tickets, legacy SAP data reconciliations and the need for more training; staff committed to a 48-hour fix target for Frontline issues and said SAP will not be used for another major payroll after Aug. 29.
Superintendent Matthew Hsu and district operations leaders told the San Francisco Board of Education that the district's recent payroll transition to Frontline (with Red Rover for timekeeping) has already reduced many systemic problems but left a small share of employees with incorrect or delayed pay.
"This is now a month and several days into this transition, and things are holding," Hsu said, noting the district has reached about a 97% accuracy rate for payrolls since the changeover. "We should be at 100% and we will." Hsu and deputy superintendent of business services Chris Mount Benitez credited staff and consultants for responding to outstanding audit requests from the state and for posting several vacant finance positions to strengthen operations.
Marin Trujillo, the district's operations lead on the implementation, said Frontline functions when programmed correctly but that the district must reconcile legacy data in SAP and finish work on system interfaces. Trujillo told the board the district recorded roughly 762 tickets related to Frontline or Red Rover in the early cycles, 628 of which had been fixed by the time of the presentation, with about 152 still open for follow-up.
"When it's within the ecosystem of Frontline and Red Rover, then it's easy to resolve and accomplish," Trujillo said. "Our commitment is 48 hours [to fix issues] if the issue is within the system in front of you." Payroll staff described several scenarios — year-round staff entered as school-term employees, missing extract files for substitute teachers, and leftover data in the prior ERP — that required reconciliation and manual fixes.
Board members pressed staff for a clearer training plan, better ticket auditing and procurement changes that would let schools order needed materials without delay. Trujillo said the team is revising its training strategy after finding slide-deck/video approaches for Red Rover were insufficient and committed to more hands-on demonstrations and pilot trainings at school sites.
On SAP, Trujillo said Aug. 29 is the last planned major payroll out of the legacy ERP; the district will retain view-only access while it extracts data and builds an internal data warehouse. "Never another major payroll cycle with SAP," he said, while noting that occasional manual checks could still be issued from SAP if that is the fastest way to make an employee whole.
The board requested a written report on the plan to reduce consultant support and on the timeline for remaining modules. Staff agreed to provide more-detailed written answers to commissioners' questions and to continue daily case-management after payroll cycles until the remaining tickets are addressed.
