Bay City Public Schools

Bay City Public Schools serves 7,500 students at 12 schools across three communities. Behind every classroom lesson and student activity, the district’s finance and accounting team works to ensure teachers receive the supplies they need to support student success. Yet inefficient purchasing and payment processes were slowing them down. Recognizing the opportunity for digital transformation, the district partnered with Amazon Business and implemented Pay by Invoice to streamline operations and deliver essential resources to teachers faster.

Creating a seamless purchasing experience

Previously, Bay City Public Schools managed purchasing through a traditional system of paper-based approvals and manual data entry. Teachers searched for items on Amazon, printed out their selections, and submitted the paperwork to the central office for approval. Procurement staff then manually recreated each shopping list in the ordering system, often spending up to 30-minutes rebuilding a single shopping cart.

With a goal to improve this process and make purchasing more manageable, the district adopted Amazon Business Pay by Invoice with Punchout integration. Now, buyers can select items on Amazon Business, lock in pricing, submit orders directly through the district’s purchasing system, and trigger a simplified approval process. This integration is configured to adhere to procurement policies and individual school requirements, providing essential oversight while allowing each school to maintain control over its purchasing requirements.

Expediting invoice processing and payments management

Pay by Invoice has also enhanced both the reconciliation process and the district’s overall payments efficiency. Processing invoices and payments once required hours of manual work — like matching individual purchase orders with invoices and investigating discrepancies — and now takes only a fraction of the time to complete.

The shift from paper checks to digital payments through Pay by Invoice brought additional process improvements. Instead of dedicating full days to preparing checks and maintaining tracking spreadsheets, the district now benefits from the speed and security of digital payments and automatic ACH withdrawals. This approach ensures faster, traceable transactions while maintaining robust financial controls.

Pay by Invoice has also enabled Bay City Public Schools to easily manage its multiple funding sources. "We pay out of both a general fund and an activity fund, so we do truly appreciate the fact that we can switch and choose which bank accounts to use,” said Rodabaugh. This flexibility uncomplicates budget management while ensuring compliance with grant and federal program requirements.

Making audits more manageable

Digital transformation has brought new efficiencies to Bay City Public School’s audit preparation process. With Pay by Invoice, the team now manages a comprehensive digital record of all transactions. Each purchase automatically links to its corresponding purchase order, making it easier for the district to reconcile transactions and create a clear audit trail. The shift from paper receipts has eliminated the need to scan and store countless paper slips, further saving time and reducing manual errors. Auditors can also directly access the district's accounting system to retrieve necessary records, eliminating the need for paper files and binders.

Taking back time to focus on what matters

By adopting Amazon Business Pay by Invoice, Bay City Public Schools has fundamentally transformed its purchasing and payments process, creating more time for what matters most: supporting students. Rodabaugh emphasizes that "Amazon Business Pay by Invoice, the ACH, the credit memos — it has saved me so much, and that is very precious right now. Having more time to spend on new ideas is going to help with the education of our students. Even having five minutes is going to make me a better employee.”