Clewiston Cuts Payroll Hours 75% With Tyler Tutoring

Organization Profile

• Industry: Municipal
• Tyler Client Since: 2013
• Number of Employees: Approx. 100
• Population: 7,300+
• Location: Clewiston, Florida
• Tyler Products Used: ERP Pro

---

Challenges

On the southern edge of Florida’s Lake Okeechobee, the city of Clewiston brought on a new finance director, Randy Maxson, in April 2024. He inherited the ERP Pro system the city had run since 2013, but they hadn’t kept up with system upgrades and operational improvements. “They used it one way and made no changes for a long, long time,” Maxson said.

That left the finance office leaning on manual workarounds for core functions. Reporting to commissioners and directors was done by hand and inconsistently. “Everything was manual and haphazard. Sometimes they would get a report, sometimes they wouldn’t, and the format would be different depending on who ran it,” said Maxson.

Budgeting was also managed manually. Maxson was hired just as budget season opened, and discovered error-prone systems were in place. “I found out that everything they were doing was in spreadsheets — which was scary,” he said.

Underneath the process gaps was a team accustomed to doing things one way. “When I asked about our procedures, the answer I got was that’s how it’s always been,” Maxson said. Resistance to change was undeniable and overcoming it was the only way to meet the challenges ahead. It became clear that the standard Tyler Technologies help desk would not be enough for Maxson to learn how to leverage the ERP Pro functionality they needed. The situation called for specialized, one-on-one support to drive team buy-in and improve processes.

Solution

Working with the city’s Tyler sales representative, Maxson was introduced to Tyler Tutoring and the PACE (Planned Annual Continuing Education) program. PACE covered the basics for his team, but the bulk of Clewiston’s time and training budget went to Tyler Tutoring’s one-on-one sessions, which were tailored to the city’s configuration. The model is built for both new users finding their footing and long-time clients looking to expand their use of the software. For Clewiston, it placed a trusted Tyler expert directly inside their environment. “We got hooked up with our trainer and clicked from the start,” said Maxson.

To map the work ahead, Clewiston completed a business process review. The result was a 16-page report that Maxson treats as a long-term plan. “It’s a blueprint of everything we’re bad at. We don’t see it as a to-do list — it’s our ongoing rebuild plan,” he said. “We’re not going to finish everything in one year, but having that roadmap lets us say, ‘these are the three things we want to work on next year and budget for.’”

The first project tackled the broken reporting process through Output Director, which required moving the ERP Pro system to the cloud. The transition was painless. “We came in Monday morning, the icon was a little different, and the login was a little different, but everything on the inside was exactly the same,” Maxson said. The move also ended their reliance on local backups and hard drives, enhancing security and resiliency.

Results

Once reporting was automated through ERP Pro’s Output Director, a process that had eaten many hours a month dropped to almost none. Reports now go out consistently to the directors and commissioners who need them. For a finance office, Maxson said that visibility is the whole job. “The most important thing we can do in finance is put out good data and good information. Trying to keep that manual is just wasted effort,” he said.

Budgeting saw a similar turnaround. A brief look at the projection scenario management tool reshaped the difficult and lengthy process. “It turned budgeting from a terrible eight-week process into a two-week process,” said Maxson. The payoff reached the commissioners directly. Where they once didn’t see a budget until mid-August — too late to weigh in — they now receive a fully laid-out budget in June, with time to debate cuts and changes.

The largest win was payroll. Previously, they had one full-time clerk dedicated to a manual process. After a complete overhaul with their Tyler trainer, that work now averages about 10 hours a week, distributed across the team — a 75% reduction in working hours. The rebuild also demonstrated the strength of their partnership with Tyler. When the payroll transition hit a wall, their trainer flew to Clewiston for three days to solve the issue and give hands-on guidance. “We accomplished in three days what I thought was going to take four weeks,” Maxson said.

For Maxson, the value of the one-on-one training model comes down to trust and speed of Ashley, their trainer. “She’s not a help ticket, she’s a teammate, and she knows our system better than we do. She knows the mistakes we’re going to make before we make them,” he said. With a standing two-hour training appointment every other week, they can run at full efficiency and quickly pick up where they left off. “It’s not just training, it’s trust, it’s speed, and it’s having somebody who cares whether you look good or not,” said Maxson.

Their investment in Tyler Tutoring is now a fixed priority. “In our budget, the first dollars we set aside are the training dollars from Tyler, right after salaries. That’s how important it is,” Maxson said. Asked what he would tell another public sector leader, he noted the value of training is often easiest to overlook. “Tyler Tutoring is money well spent. It’s like having another employee who just delivers efficiency for you,” he said. “Find a trainer you click with. The faster you bond, the quicker you stop losing time.”