Kings Canyon Unified School District

Overview

With more than 23 schools servicing over 10,000 students, Kings Canyon Unified School District (KCUSD) has several departments and programs making purchases across the organization. From school supplies to technology purchases, the district prioritizes cost efficiency and delivery turnaround — equipping buyers across schools and programs with the supplies they need, when they need them. While the district values savings and delivery efficiency, buyers appreciate flexible payment options. As a result, Kings Canyon Unified School District leverages Amazon Business Shared Wallet — with two sides to their account: purchasing cards (or p-cards) and Pay by Invoice, a digital invoicing program that gives eligible Amazon Business customers access to net payment terms, consolidated invoicing, and more. By offering payment flexibility, KCUSD allows buyers to choose whether they gather purchasing approvals up front with Pay by Invoice, or audit purchases on the backend with p-cards for smart business buying.

Offering payments flexibility for buyers

With Amazon Business shared wallet, KCUSD buyers are able to choose the payment type that best meets their purchasing needs and approval process preferences. The district is running approximately 100 credit cards, using them to support a range of departments and programs — from the Future Farmers of America (FFA) to early childhood learning centers. Whether the district’s buyers choose p-cards or Pay by Invoice at checkout comes down to personal preference, and buyers need to ensure they have documenting support for every p-card purchase, which includes detailed supporting documentation specified by their audit policies. Depending on the number of transactions, the process can be complex and time-consuming.

Streamlining manual reconciliation and auditing processes

While offering payment choices gives buyers improved flexibility, implementing Pay by Invoice has helped KCUSD simplify their auditing and reconciliation processes — giving them access to capabilities such as consolidated invoicing and built-in analytics.

With Pay by Invoice, the district’s buyers gather approvals prior to purchasing, by creating a cart and purchase order, which is routed to an approver before being sent to accounts payable. Once approved, the order is released. The process to purchase with their credit cards or Pay by Invoice requires the same amount of time and effort for buyers. But for the accounts payable team, Pay by Invoice drives significant time savings by streamlining reconciliation and simplifying confirmation of receipt of goods. 

Saving time and improving cash flow during busy buying seasons

When the district had transitioned from their previous payments platform to Pay by Invoice, the accounts payable team saw an opportunity to optimize the district’s procurement processes.

With their previous payments platform, the accounts payable team received one monthly statement. But when they transitioned to Pay by Invoice, the team reimagined their previous processes — opting to receive invoices every week to better manage credit fluctuations during busy purchasing seasons, such as Back to School.

By paying invoices on a weekly basis, the district keeps their credit consistent while saving time. Previously, the accounts payable team tackled p-card statement reconciliation and approvals once per month, which was very time-consuming to handle in bulk. Once they implemented Pay by Invoice, the team was able to customize their invoice frequency and optimize their processes. As a result, they now choose to receive their invoices every Thursday, which helps them manage reconciliation consistently throughout the entire month. “For us, the biggest change that has saved us time is updating how frequently we pay our invoices — switching from receiving monthly invoices to receiving them weekly. For our district, we have to input every single invoice that we receive. Inputting them on a weekly basis has saved us a lot of time,“ says Janet Linscheid, Accounts Payable, Kings Canyon Unified School District.

In addition to implementing Pay by Invoice, the organization maximizes their Amazon Business account by taking advantage of innovative features like 3-Way Match, helping them unite orders, receipts, and invoices to reconcile purchases faster. “3-Way Match is a serious time saver for us,” says Linscheid. “Previously, we were sending more than 50 emails at a time, trying to confirm receipt of merchandise. Now, we’re saving days and even weeks tracking down orders.”

Implementing new procurement processes and procedures

With support from their customer advisor and Amazon Business professional services, KCUSD implemented effective processes and controls that fit their district’s specific needs. But as they rolled out these new processes and procedures, how did they ensure their buyers were armed with education and resources to successfully adopt them?

To make it easy for their buyers to navigate Pay by Invoice, KCUSD’s Amazon Business team created centralized training resources and step-by-step guides with visual references and videos. Housed on their internal website, those resources can be revisited by current users while offering onboarding support to new buyers.

Increasing purchasing visibility with Amazon Business Analytics

With Amazon Business Analytics, users get a bird’s eye view of spend across departments and requisitioners, empowering them to stay compliant with their purchasing policies and budgets. While providing powerful insights and visibility, the district also uses analytics to quickly drill down into the data.

“Before we adopted Pay by Invoice, looking for the purchasing information we needed could be a very manual process. Now, when we go into our analytics, we can filter by order or invoice number and easily find the data we’re looking for,” says Prendez.

As Kings Canyon Unified School District continues to drive efficiencies and take advantage of evolving Amazon Business features, they’re focused on sharing their successes with leadership while supporting their colleagues and buyers with effective processes and resources. By diving deeper into their spending patterns, the accounts payable team has a wealth of learnings and results to showcase — from boosting cash flow during high-buying seasons to curbing rogue spend and ensuring compliance. Learn more about how other educational organizations and school districts are transforming procurement and making smart business buying decisions.