These services are provided to all contracted districts and educational cooperatives.  Besides assisting the districts with maintaining their school district records, SW/WC Service Cooperative staff provide advice and assistance with accounting, payroll, HR and bookkeeping procedures. They also serve as a regional liaison between local districts and the Minnesota Department of Education school finances staff and other various state agencies.  Accounting assistance services may be purchased as an alternative to hiring an accountant or contracting from an auditing firm to perform accounting functions.

SMART Systems

SW/WC Service Cooperative staff will provide overall assistance with SMART Systems software which includes Finance, HR, Payroll, and eR Modules.  A few features available in the various modules include:  Fixed Asset, electronic routing/approval processes, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, retirement, direct deposit, time off, benefits, quarterly and year-end tax reports.  The program is also capable of storing and reporting a wide range of human resource information, including workers compensation, COBRA and online recruitment/applicant reporting.  Online requisition process is also available to all districts.  Staff are allowed to enter purchase requests via eR and these requests can be processed into POs for approval.  An online employee self service website is included for employees to view pay detail, leave detail, tax, flex info, emergency contact and licensure information.  Employees can interact and maintain personnel data and can also print direct deposit notices and W-2’s online. 

STAR (Staff Automated Reporting)

STAR reporting consists of reporting licensed and non-licensed school staff data to the Minnesota Department of Education.  The data reported on STAR will be used to determine licensure violations, highly qualified staff, supply and demand studies, and to fulfill state and federal reporting requirements.  STAR reporting is done one time per year.

MARSS (Minnesota Automated Reporting Student System)

MARSS reporting consists of automated reporting of student data to the Minnesota Department of Education.  Data elements are maintained and reported by school districts for each student attending a public school in Minnesota.  The primary focus of MARSS information is the accurate accounting of students resulting in payment of state and federal dollars.

Student Services

SW/WC Service Cooperative staff will provide overall assistance with the TSIS student system.  Staff will also provide informal support in the Attendance, STAR, and Carl Perkins areas for other student services software because of the correlation with MARSS for reporting to the Minnesota Department of Education.

If you have any questions regarding the Regional Management Information Center, contact Darin Jensen at 507/537-2280 or darin.jensen@swsc.org.