How Upland PD Saved 700+ Hours Annually on Payroll Operations

About

When Lieutenant Duran of the Upland Police Department stepped into a new leadership role, he inherited a timekeeping system reliant on paper, manual processes, and overworked staff. Determined to modernize operations, Lt. Duran dove into implementing scheduling software. What used to be a multi-day payroll headache, is now a streamlined, hours-long task. Throughout the implementation Lt. Duran navigated the complexities of California labor laws and varied staff classifications to set the system up how his agency needed. His story highlights not just the software’s flexibility, but the power of local ownership, creative problem-solving, and a commitment to change management that made PowerTime scheduling software an integral tool across the Upland Police Department.

Challenge

Time consuming payroll process

• It would take their budgeting specialist 3-4 days to process payroll. She would have to manually go through over 125 timesheets and key in the data every two weeks. They would also have to physically sign off on timesheets.

Error prone paper scheduling

• Everything from their schedule to time off requests were on paper before. This resulted in some schedule and approval mistakes.

Solution

Reduced payroll processing by over 2 days

• Now it only takes them 4-5 hours to process payroll and they set up a three step verification process in the system so everyone can verify their timesheet from wherever they are.

Visibility from anywhere and decrease in schedule errors

• Now everyone can request time off,
  submit overtime, and check their schedule on their mobile devices. Updates to time banks and timesheets are automated in the system, ensuring accuracy.

Impact

 

Implementing PowerTime had a transformative impact on the Upland Police Department, drastically reducing the time and effort required to manage payroll and scheduling. What once took three to four days to manually process using paper timesheets and Excel spreadsheets now takes just four to five hours— a time savings of over 75%.

 

PowerTime’s flexibility allowed Upland PD to efficiently handle complex California labor requirements, unique pay codes, and diverse employee classifications across sworn and non-sworn staff.

 

Beyond just saving time, the system improved accuracy, reduced errors, simplified compliance, and empowered supervisors and employees alike to manage timekeeping tasks easily from any device, ensuring smoother operations across the department.