Dade County Schools sits tucked between two mountains in Georgia, with two elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school serving around 2,000 students and about 350 staff. Previously for the district, securing a single approval meant manually routing paperwork between schools and tracking down the right person for a signature.
Softdocs first helped the district’s finance team solve that challenge. When Loran Grasham became Dade County’s Business Services Director, overseeing both finance and HR, only the finance team used the Etrieve platform. HR still relied heavily on paper, including a sick leave process that staff had managed manually for over 30 years.
After seeing how Etrieve streamlined finance, Grasham began expanding the Etrieve platform into HR. Over the last five years, the district has expanded Softdocs to support onboarding, routine finance and HR approvals, and, most recently, the sick leave process.
Results at a Glance
- 30 years: How long the district’s sick leave process remained on paper before moving to Softdocs
- 100–200 employees per month: The typical volume of absences the previous process required staff to track manually
- ~300 pages: The amount of sick leave paperwork that could require a principal or supervisor’s signature in a single month
- From days to a few hours: The reduction in cumulative monthly sick leave processing time observed during the new electronic process
- More than half a day saved: Central-office work eliminated by replacing manual data entry and file preparation with a PC Genesis-ready export
- Fully digital: New employee onboarding, including I-9, W-4, and G-4 forms, and sick leave processing now run entirely through Softdocs
Why Finance Adopted Softdocs First
Dade County Schools first introduced the Etrieve platform to streamline finance approvals, particularly purchase orders and purchase requisitions. When an approval required sign-off from another school, staff often faced delays moving the process forward.
Digitizing the processes provided the finance team with more efficient ways to route approvals across the district.
A Platform Woven into Daily Work
Today, Dade County Schools relies on Softdocs throughout its daily finance and HR operations. On the finance side, Grasham described one recent morning where she approved around 50 items in the system, a level of activity she now considers routine.
The Etrieve platform also supports the district during audits. Staff can search Softdocs Content and quickly retrieve approval records and supporting documentation when auditors request them.
The district has followed a similar path in HR. The previous year, the team moved new employee onboarding, including I-9, W-4, and G-4 forms, entirely online. New employee orientation now accepts no paper forms.
That digital process also allows employees to review what they submit. In one instance, an employee contacted the district after noticing they had entered the wrong banking information on a form.
The expansion has come from the full team rather than one person. Staff identify processes that need improvement, and the team evaluates whether Softdocs can support them. Grasham had identified sick leave as a priority from the beginning.
The Next Target: A 30-Year-Old Paper Process
For about 30 years, Dade County Schools managed sick leave with the same paper form. The district no longer had an editable version of the form, only a scanned copy of the document it had used for decades.
Each month, a staff member at every school, usually a bookkeeper, recorded employee absences, tracked down each employee for a signature, and then collected a second signature from the principal or supervisor. Staff also entered the information into a spreadsheet and sent the spreadsheet and supporting paperwork to the central office, where the information was reviewed before being entered into the payroll system.
In a typical month, the process tracked absences for at least 100 to 200 employees. Some principals and supervisors signed nearly 300 pages of paperwork in a single month. The volume of paperwork and the time required to collect signatures left the district consistently one month behind on posting sick leave.
That contrast captured the opportunity clearly: a process that once consumed focused blocks of staff time could become a short, routine task completed throughout the month.
Building a Form That Had to Work with Payroll
Dade County Schools wanted to bring sick leave into Etrieve for more than convenience. Employees already used the platform for onboarding, W-4 updates, and pay stub access, so adding sick leave kept another routine process in a system staff already knew.
The new form also had to work with PC Genesis, the accounting and payroll system Dade County uses to manage leave. Grasham provided the district’s Softdocs client success manager with detailed requirements, including the exact codes and fields PC Genesis needed.
A paid sick day, for example, required the code A11, while a separate T-or-H marker identified whether an entry represented a total or a number of hours. Capturing those details correctly allowed the district to move the data into PC Genesis without reformatting it first.
The district piloted the form for approximately three months near the end of the school year, gathering feedback and making adjustments before the districtwide rollout.
How the New Sick Leave Process Works
The sick leave process begins with the same person who already tracks attendance at each school, typically a bookkeeper. Rather than asking employees to initiate the form after an absence, the district places that responsibility with the staff member who already knows who was out and when.
After the bookkeeper submits the form, the employee signs it, the principal approves it, and the bookkeeper closes it out. Softdocs then files the completed form in Content along with its full workflow history.
The form draws from pre-populated employee and contact lists, automatically filling in information such as employee names, IDs, email addresses, and principal information. It captures additional details, including whether a substitute covered the absence, how many hours the district paid the substitute, and which school the absence applies to.
For 30 years, Dade County Schools tracked sick leave on a scanned paper form. Staff at each school handwrote entries, hunted employees down for signatures, and compiled everything at the end of the month. Join Loran Grasham from Dade County Schools for a 30-minute Demo Day where she'll walk you through her district's sick leave workflow and show you exactly what changed. Duration: 30 minutes.
At the end of each month, staff review the monitor view in Etrieve for any forms still in progress. Once they confirm that nothing is missing, they export a report already formatted for PC Genesis and upload it directly, eliminating the need to re-enter the same information.
What Changed for Staff and Administrators
In Georgia, employees can apply unused sick leave toward service credit through the Teachers Retirement System. That makes an accurate leave balance more than just an administrative detail. It can directly affect when an employee becomes eligible to retire.
Under the previous process, employees could not reliably see an up-to-date record of their own sick leave. Now, each submitted form gives them a clearer view of the time they have used instead of asking them to wait for the next month’s paperwork to catch up.
That visibility has already changed behavior. One teacher told the district that, without the electronic forms coming through, she probably would have taken additional time off because she had not realized how often she had already been absent.
Principals and supervisors also gain more flexibility and visibility. Instead of requiring in-person signatures, the workflow allows them to approve forms from home. They may also identify absence patterns earlier, creating an opportunity to check in before the end-of-month process.
Rolling the Etrieve Platform Out Districtwide
Dade County Schools tested the sick leave form during a three-month pilot, using that time to gather feedback and refine the process. The district is now starting the new school year with sick leave fully electronic and paper forms eliminated.
Staff responded positively overall, though adoption has varied by role. Employees who spend less time working on computers needed more guidance at first, but many found the process straightforward once someone showed them how it worked. Teachers adopted it quickly because they already used Softdocs for other tasks and no longer had to track down paper forms and signatures.
For departments such as transportation, employees often help coworkers who feel less comfortable with the new process. Early issues often stem from unfamiliar habits, such as overlooking an email notification or submitting a form before completing every required field.
To support the districtwide rollout even further, Dade County is creating short instructional videos, similar to the quick how-to videos it has used for other new processes.
Expanding One Platform Instead of Adding New Ones
With sick leave and onboarding now in place, Dade County Schools is focused on driving adoption and getting the most from both processes before building something new. The district also expects the added visibility to help employees recognize absence patterns earlier, instead of waiting until the end of the month to see how much leave they have used.
As new legislative and compliance requirements emerge, the district increasingly looks to Softdocs first. Because K-12 districts often receive new requirements with little notice, Dade County’s goal is to build those processes into Softdocs rather than create more paper-based work.
This approach also helps the district avoid unnecessary costs. Grasham noted that other programs promise to handle many of the same tasks Softdocs already supports. Instead of buying another tool, the team can expand the platform it already uses.
The district now views each new requirement as an opportunity to simplify another process. After five years of steadily moving finance and HR work into one platform, Dade County has learned that meaningful transformation does not always require a new system. Sometimes, the best next step is making fuller use of the one already in place.
Location
Trenton, GA
Size of organization
~2,000 students and about 350 staff across two elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school
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