The money that went back in June

The last week of June. The business manager runs the year-end grant report. $380,000 of grant money was never spent, or was coded to the wrong fund and can't be claimed. It goes back. Down the hall, the board has just approved next year's budget. It cuts a teaching position.

Picture a district of 4,000 students with a business office of six. Every purchase began as a paper form that needed five signatures and took two weeks. The office keyed each order again and picked fund codes from memory. Invoices were matched by hand and paid in 45 days, with late fees. Grant reimbursements were built from paper backup each quarter, often months late. The office spent 200 hours a month on paperwork.

What SBK rebuilt

SBK mapped how a dollar moves from request to reimbursement. The rebuild routes each request to the right approver in minutes, and principals approve from their phones. The fund code is checked when the order is placed, so grant spending is always claimable. Invoices match themselves to orders. Reimbursement claims build as the money is spent and go out monthly. Leaders see spending against budget every day.

What moved

The district claimed 99% of its grant dollars, up from 84%. Purchases were approved in a day, not two weeks. Vendors were paid in ten days. Paperwork fell from 200 office hours a month to 60. Nothing went back in June.