DeSoto County Schools transportation staff shared how moving from paper timesheets to digital payroll and dispatch cut processing time, improved accuracy and freed up employees for other work.

For one of Mississippi’s largest school transportation operations, modernizing payroll started with a basic problem: Too much time went into chasing paper.

DeSoto County Schools operates about 500 buses across 476 square miles, managing 1,344 routes each day with 366 drivers and 72 transportation aides. About 20,000 of the district’s approximately 34,000 total students are registered for transportation.

Yet until a few years ago, transportation employees still recorded their time with paper and pencil.

“We’re the largest school district in the state of Mississippi, right? And we had been operating with paper and pencil for the longest,” said Director of Transportation Levi Williams during a Thursday webinar sponsored by Bytecurve. “We’re going to have to come to the 21st century.”

The district eventually implemented Bytecurve by Transit Technologies for payroll, timekeeping and dispatch. Williams said the change “has revolutionized everything that we’ve done with payroll so far.”

From Several Days to One

The district’s payroll specialist, Conerly Burrell, experienced the outdated system firsthand. School bus drivers spread throughout the large district had to physically submit timesheets, leaving Burrell to track down missing paperwork and decipher handwritten entries before payroll could even begin.

“I was having to call them if they forgot or hunt some down to get their paperwork, and then that puts me behind,” she recalled.

Now, Burrell verifies clock-ins and clock-outs digitally and focuses on records that require attention.

“Now it takes me a day, maybe, to do payroll, to get what I need done to send in. It used to take me several days,” she said. “The time has helped so much because I can take care of other duties, also, and it has been a time saver, big time.”

Payroll Meets Daily Operations

Jonathan Agenten, director of sales for Bytecurve, explained that the system uses an exception-based process. Rather than requiring payroll staff to review every entry, it flags records that need closer attention.

“Our system has been designed to again be efficient and only focus on things that require you to dig a little deeper.” Agenten said.

He noted that transportation payroll can become particularly complicated because employees may complete different assignments with different pay rates and rules during the same day, such a regular bus routes compared to field or activity trips. He confirmed that Bytecurve ties timekeeping to the specific work assigned rather than treating every clocked hour the same.“

Bytecurve is a task-based timekeeping system, not a time-based,” he explained. “People are clocking into the work, and the system knows what that means.”

The change extends beyond payroll. Dispatchers can assign substitute drivers digitally, while route and pay information remains attached to the work rather than relying on staff memory.

“It has saved so much time for us,” Williams said. “Remembering the routes, what we pay for that particular route, we don’t have to do that anymore.”

Burrell said task codes also allow the department to account for work outside a regular route, such as midday assignments or extra duties.

“It’s made my life much easier,” she confirmed.

Saving Time & Money

Agenten’s presentation illustrated the potential impact of even small-time savings. A sample calculation based on 100 buses operating 180 school days estimated that saving five minutes per route could equal 1,500 hours annually and about $30,000 at a $20 hourly rate.

DeSoto County’s own experience produced similar efficiencies. Williams estimated the district saves at least $20,000 to $25,000 annually in staff time previously spent collecting, reviewing and processing timesheets.

The efficiencies also allowed the transportation department to reassign one of its two payroll positions rather than eliminate the job.

“We don’t want anyone losing their jobs,” Williams established. “It gave us an opportunity to reallocate that position to somewhere else in our department.”

Drivers Embrace the Change

Getting hundreds of employees to abandon paper didn’t happen overnight. Williams said DeSoto County took a phase approach to implementing the technology, and he acknowledged that he initially approached the transition cautiously.

“We didn’t get 100-percent buy-in from all of our drivers,” he said. “But you know, right now, our drivers don’t want to go back to paper.”

Burrell helped push the department across the finish line. Williams recalled her insisting that if the district went digital, it shouldn’t continue maintaining two systems at once.

Drivers and aides can now clock in and out using bus tablets or the ByteCurve DriveOn mobile app, which also provides messaging and notifications.

“They do love the app,” Burrell said, noting that drivers can check whether they remembered to clock out without returning to their bus.

She added she can also message one driver, selected employees or the entire group through the system.

Watch the webinar on demand.

Written with the assistance of AI and a live session transcript.

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