Challenge

With thousands of miles of roadway to maintain and multiple projects going on at any given time, the ACHD employs and manages a large number of workers and staff. The organization knew it needed a better way to facilitate time entry between the field and office, as well as streamline other HR-related and workplace processes to add efficiency.

ACHD IT Business Analyst Ken Cooney said the district, a Viewpoint Vista client since 2012, had an in-house system for human resources and a homegrown database. To facilitate time entry, it was necessary to export and upload CSV spreadsheet files and the process required a significant amount of manual data entry.

“We really needed something that would integrate and make time entry easier,” Cooney said. “When you’ve got to hand key all those timesheets, it’s a long day.”

Solution

At Viewpoint’s Collaborate User Conference, Cooney began researching time management solutions.

“I saw all these different timecard programs that would allow you to enter time in, but they still had to be uploaded to Vista,” he said, adding that he considered several vendors but was not 100% sold without complete integration.

Upon seeing the Viewpoint HR Management, Cooney said, “I was like, ‘Wow, that is exactly what I’ve been looking for!’ If I’d been able to design one myself, I couldn’t have done any better. It integrated directly into Vista, it was web-based, had a familiar interface for everybody and was customizable as far as the timecard layout — everything we needed.”

Viewpoint HR Management allowed ACHD to streamline time entry with employees, providing them access to an easy-to-use portal to upload time. Data entered into the portal seamlessly integrates with Vista, allowing employee time to be automatically entered into Vista and routed through the appropriate review and approval processes. Shortly after implementing the time entry solution, ACHD’s accounts payable department discovered that Viewpoint Financial Controls could be used to streamline invoice approval processes.

“I showed it to the treasurer as a possible solution to our unapproved invoice challenges and we bought it that day,” Cooney said. Just recently, ACHD implemented Viewpoint HR Management to manage time-off requests in its IT department as well as Viewpoint Financial Controls to streamline purchase orders between the field and office.

“In the field you can open a purchase order, right there, and give the vendor the number so they don’t have to call back to the office and get a PO number,” Cooney said. “This is a huge time savings and makes operations much smoother.”

Results

The Viewpoint solutions that ACHD implemented have significantly helped the district streamline its processes and save considerable overhead in terms of labor and paperwork.

“We’re saving two full days or 16 hours of accounting time every two weeks,” Cooney said. “All the clerks that were involved are excited. They’ve told me, ‘Now I don’t get behind and spend the next two weeks catching up, just to get behind again.’”

Cooney noted that having time automatically directed into Vista and reviewed by batch has been hugely important to accuracy and consistency. ACHD also leveraged the Viewpoint Field Management to create a safety net, retaining timesheet entries for set amounts of time. That way, if a Vista payroll batch is accidentally deleted or otherwise compromised — something that the district has had to deal with in the past — it can be reimported from the Viewpoint portal. This, Cooney said, provides even more peace of mind.

“The Viewpoint products do it all, whether it’s office or crew, and do a really great job.” Cooney said. “We now have easy, intuitive solutions that are web-based so it’s a familiar interface for users. This really was a dream come true for us.”