Calleguas Municipal Water District
Improving Processes with Laserfiche Forms and Workflow
Calleguas Municipal Water District provides water to nearly 75% of the residents in the Ventura County area. The District imports and distributes water to several water suppliers who in turn sell it to Ventura County consumers.
Calleguas MWD has been using Laserfiche for 13 years. They sought out ECS Imaging in 2021 looking for a new strategic Solutions Provider. They soon realized ECS’s expertise and positive references and enlisted them to help expand their usage of the on-premises Laserfiche System.
Prior to Laserfiche, the District was using document storage that did not allow integration with their New World financial system, and it was only being used for accounts payable. They were also using a shared drive to store documents and there was no real way to track any of the document’s retention timeframes.
With Forms and Workflow in place and assistance from ECS Imaging, the District has been able to implement several time-saving processes and improved functionality.
- Retention Management
“The retention workflow has made our document storage consistent,” said Sue Taylor, Accounting Supervisor for the District, “the Metadata is also more uniform and makes finding a file much easier.”
The retention workflow was created for three departments: Accounting, Human Resources, and the General Manager, and includes two custom searches, one searches the repository for documents eligible for destruction and another for documents nearing destruction. A report is generated displaying the results of each.
2. Expense Reimbursements via Laserfiche Forms
The use of Forms for expense reimbursements has saved on frustration at all levels. Prior to the Laserfiche solution, expenses were scanned in and received in different formats with some employees printing and handwriting in the information. With Laserfiche Forms, the reimbursement process has become much more user friendly than what was previously in place. Most of the District employees work offsite and not in front of a computer, so it was important for the new reimbursement process to be easy to use. They were able to customize the reimbursement form with various criteria, which has allowed the Finance Department to get all the required information without a lot of “back and forth” emails.
The form includes a dropdown menu where submitters can choose which type of reimbursement form to fill out such as Boot Allowance (work boots for employees), Expenses, Personal Mileage, Travel, Tuition, etc. Additional dynamic fields will appear based on the form type selected.
Boot Allowance and Personal Mileage Reimbursement Forms
3. Accounts Payable Enhancements
Another area that was improved with Laserfiche was in Accounts Payable. “We have primarily been using Laserfiche cross-departmentally with the Accounts Payable workflow,” according to Rachelle Gin, Accounting Technician with the District. “Submitting the invoices into a workflow has significantly streamlined the approval process, where our employees can review/approve digitally, and it is much more efficient in tracking the approval status of an invoice.”
The District has cut down on the amount of paperwork and lost invoices since they moved the process to Laserfiche. They have also integrated Laserfiche with their New World ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) System, so accessing the backup documentation is easy with the click of a button.
For organizations just starting out with Laserfiche, “I highly recommend attending a ‘General Overview’ type of webinar so that you can really see Laserfiche in action”, said Rachelle. “Even if you’re attending a specific topic webinar, you’ll quickly learn that Laserfiche is more than just a digital storage vessel. There are many automated workflow features available, integration options with existing software, and pre-made templates for endless possibilities. You’ll also get a chance to hear from other Laserfiche users who can offer insight into problems and solutions they have encountered. If you have Forms, you can visit the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace as there may be something that already exists to meet your needs.”
In the future, they want to add an additional Form to the Reimbursement Workflow as well as connect with other departments to assess their needs and potentially provide solutions via Forms templates. They also want to have additional departments utilize the Retention Workflow.
Rachelle stated that she “appreciated ECS Imaging’s Project Team’s organization, analysis and ability to pinpoint issues with ease. It was very clear they know the software inside and out gave me full confidence that we would find a workable solution to our needs.”
Travel and Tuition Reimbursement Forms
Workflow Diagrams
