Case Study
Shire of Dumbleyung: 12 months on with faster records, clearer approvals, and more connected everyday workflows
One year after go-live, the CouncilFirst platform has made everyday work less manual, less scattered, and easier for the Shire to manage with confidence
Small Shire teams rarely get the luxury of doing one thing at a time. On any given day, the same people are juggling records, approvals, payroll, purchasing, community requests, and the compliance obligations that underpin them all.
And when information is hard to capture, find, or verify, the time cost rises quickly.
Twelve months after going live with CouncilFirst, the Shire of Dumbleyung describes a clear shift away from manual signing, printing, and filing - towards more online, system-driven ways of working.
What began as a move to improve records management quickly expanded to include finance, payroll, and procurement, helping the Shire operate with a more connected approach. Looking back, they are glad they made that decision early.
What success needed to look like for Dumbleyung
From the start, the Shire’s view of success was practical and closely tied to how a small team actually works.
They wanted a smooth transition between systems that would not add complexity to day-to-day operations, while reducing the manual processing and printing that had become part of routine administration.
Just as importantly, they were looking for greater participation and consistency in records filing, so information would be stored in a way that is easy to follow, easy to maintain, and straightforward for future employees to work with.
12 months on: how the system is used across the organisation today
Today, CouncilFirst is used as part of normal operations across the Shire, with depth of use varying by role.
The Shire has 24 employees in total, and Danika Watkins, Director of Corporate Services, estimates that 14 staff mainly interact with the online timesheets and payroll functions as part of their regular work.
Alongside that, a smaller group of around 10 staff use the broader functionality day to day, covering modules such as records, finance, procurement, and front counter payments.
In practice, that difference in use matters because it reflects how a small Shire operates: different teams touch the system in different ways, but the shared benefit comes from having key information, approvals, and supporting documentation managed more consistently across the council.
Records: faster retrieval, stronger uptake, and positive staff feedback
“Records is definitely one of our biggest improvements. Everybody has really bought into the new system and the new way of filing, and we’re more mindful of how we’re doing it, because we all remember how frustrating the old system was. So everyone is very happy with records.”
For Dumbleyung, records has been one of the clearest areas of progress over the past 12 months, both in how information is handled and in how staff feel about the change.
Where records were once scattered across different locations and personal systems, the Shire now has a single, clearer place to capture and find key records, with staff filing more consistently.
The benefit is clearest when staff need to find something quickly.
Danika estimates that in the past it was not unusual to spend 1 to 2 hours searching for a document, depending on where it had ended up, whereas now it’s more often around 10 minutes, when the record has been captured in the system.
“You could probably spend an hour or two looking for something in the past, and now you probably spend 10 minutes, and as long as it’s been filed somewhere in the system, you can generally find it.”
That shift matters in a small Shire because it reduces the time spent hunting for information and makes it easier for staff to respond with confidence when a file is needed for operational work, reporting, or governance purposes.
Email handling has also become more reliable. When an email is filed now, the conversation trail is captured more consistently, which helps keep context together rather than leaving parts of a discussion spread across individual inboxes.
More broadly, Danika says important records are much less likely to be missed now, not just emails, but documents too, because filing is easier and more consistent than it was before.
“We probably were missing the ends of conversations or things in the past that now just automatically get picked up.”
Over time, that reinforces good habits, because staff can see that filing is not an extra administrative task, but rather how information stays accessible to the whole organisation.
And this also makes onboarding easier. New staff typically adapt quickly to the system, with training focused less on learning complex steps and more on understanding the Shire’s filing structure and the small set of actions they need to do every day.
Danika also points out that disposal is one part of the records process that will build over time. When the Shire first looked at disposal in the new system, older migrated records were treated as if they were new, so not much came up straight away.
As more time passes, disposal will become easier to manage as part of normal records work.
Approvals: structured workflows that follow delegations
Another change that has become part of day-to-day work at Dumbleyung is the move to online approvals and structured workflows.
Danika describes this as something the Shire simply didn’t have available before, and the impact is felt well beyond any single process, because approvals sit underneath so much of council administration.
Instead of relying on paper sign-offs and informal handovers, approvals now move through defined workflows in the system, with a clear user and time record attached to each step.
This structure supports stronger traceability and also reinforces how delegations are meant to work in practice because the workflow follows the rules that have been set up rather than relying on ad hoc decisions in the moment.
And in a small council where people often need to cover for each other, this matters.
When approvals are handled through a consistent process, the Shire can maintain continuity without losing visibility of who approved what, when it was approved, and where the supporting information sits.
Over time, those small points of structure reduce ambiguity and make it easier to meet governance expectations as part of normal operations.
“With approvals set as workflows in the system, you can’t really cut corners. You have to follow the delegations and the rules that have been set up. There’s no way around it.”
Payroll: admin time back, with fewer manual steps
Payroll is another area where the Shire has seen clear benefits over the past 12 months, particularly in reducing the manual handling that used to sit around routine processing.
Danika points to two practical changes:
timesheets have moved online,
leave requests that were previously handled through manual forms are now managed through the system, which has helped streamline the cycle from entry through to processing.
The biggest measurable shift has been in payroll administration time. Danika estimates the payroll officer previously spent 2-3 days every two weeks manually entering timesheet data, and that data entry step is now largely removed because timesheets flow through online.
Overall, payroll work has reduced from around 3 full days every two weeks to approximately 1.5 days, which is a meaningful change for a small team where payroll competes with many other responsibilities.
And for staff who move between jobs and locations, online timesheets have taken some getting used to, but the time saved in payroll has been clear.
“The admin processing time for payroll has reduced significantly because we’re not manually inputting timesheet data anymore. It’s all linked through from the online timesheets.”
Beyond saving time, moving timesheets online also reduced avoidable mistakes. With less manual typing and fewer steps, the payroll team can spend more time reviewing hours and ensuring employees are paid correctly, rather than days entering timesheet data.
It also shifts responsibility to the right place. If a timesheet is wrong, it’s usually because it was entered that way, not because someone re-keyed it in payroll. This makes it easier for the payroll team to review and approve with confidence.
Less paper, less printing
“We used to do a lot of manual signing, printing, and filing, and it just feels like we’ve moved into the 21st century. Everything’s a lot more streamlined and online and digital rather than manual.”
Across the Shire’s day-to-day administration, reducing manual handling has also meant relying less on paper-based processes.
As approvals moved online and payroll, leave, and records were handled in the system, the Shire relied less on printing and storing hard-copy paperwork.
That shift reduced friction in routine tasks, kept supporting documents closer to the work they relate to, and made it easier for staff to follow one consistent way of working, without duplicating effort across paper.
Finance and procurement: related documents kept together
In finance and procurement, the most meaningful change for Dumbleyung has been the move from information held in separate places to documentation that’s easier to follow through as a single trail.
Danika describes the previous environment as one where a purchase order, supporting quotes, and the invoice could all exist in different sections or systems, which meant staff often had to move between tools and hard-copy files to reconstruct what happened.
With CouncilFirst, the supporting material is attached alongside the relevant transaction or workflow, making it easier to move from one step to the next without having to piece the story together manually.
This “connected trail” is especially valuable in a small team where the same people are often responsible for processing, reviewing, and answering questions.
It’s also where Danika expects to see a clear benefit during audit preparation.
“Everything used to sit in little silos. Now it’s all linked through, and you can just click and find the whole trail.
Anything procurement-wise was pretty difficult and time-consuming to find before, and it isn’t anymore.”
In the past, pulling together the invoices and related documents requested by auditors could take an entire day, mainly because of the time needed to locate and cross-reference items across systems and files.
Now that the documents are easier to find and follow, Danika expects that task will usually take just a few hours, so the team can spend less time searching and more time answering the auditors’ questions.
Customer follow-up: keeping actions on track
Customer requests in a small Shire can be deceptively simple. Many enquiries are resolved on the spot, but when a request needs action later, it can involve more than one person and be easy to lose track of, so visibility matters.
At Dumbleyung, Danika describes CouncilFirst’s CRMS as being used predominantly for matters that need to be actioned. When something requires follow-up, it is:
captured in the system so it stays visible, can be assigned, and can be checked again later, which reduces the chance of requests being missed.
Over time, Danika says she has heard fewer complaints about people not being responded to, which she links to having a clearer way to track follow-up work when it is needed.
“Fewer people are complaining that they didn’t get a response. Now thanks to having an easy-to-use customer request management system I feel requests are being tracked and responded to more consistently and efficiently”
The Shire also uses CRMS internally within the Shire. Their project manager uses it to track building maintenance requests across Shire rental properties, helping keep a clear record of what has been reported, which trades have been contacted, and what still needs to be progressed.
What made the project work well for a small team
In a small Shire, system rollout has to happen alongside day-to-day work. It works best when support is steady, and the timing can be adjusted to match the team’s capacity.
Danika describes communication throughout the implementation as strong and notes that CouncilFirst was accommodating when the Shire adjusted timelines to suit their internal capacity.
That flexibility was important because the same people responsible for the project were also responsible for keeping the organisation running.
Being able to shift timing without losing momentum helped the team stay focused on getting the setup right, rather than pushing through change faster than the organisation could comfortably absorb.
Danika also describes support as responsive when assistance was needed, which helped the project continue moving forward as the Shire worked through decisions and brought different teams onto the new way of working.
She also points to timing and approach as useful lessons for other councils. Implementing at the beginning of a financial year worked well for Dumbleyung, and while CouncilFirst was positioned as an out-of-the-box solution, the Shire still had the opportunity to choose between standard ways of doing key tasks.
Taking the time to test and select the approach that suited their workflows helped make the system feel natural in daily use once it was live.
“We had really consistent people from the CouncilFirst side helping us, which made a big difference”
12-month impact snapshot
Records retrieval: 1–2 hours to ~10 minutes (when captured/filed in the system)
Manual payroll timesheet data entry: 2–3 days/2 weeks to close to zero
Payroll processing: ~3 days/2 weeks to ~1.5 days/2 weeks
Audit procurement documentation preparation: 1 full day to a few hours (expected)
CRMS maintenance tracking: used to log and follow up maintenance requests across ~various Shire rental properties
Organisation use: ~24 staff overall, with ~14 mainly using timesheets/payroll and ~10 using broader functionality
Efficiency: reduced reliance on manual processing, paper-based handling, and printing
Conclusion
A year after CouncilFirst went live at the Shire of Dumbleyung, the real gain is that good practice is easier to keep up over time. Records are filed consistently, approvals follow clear steps, and supporting documents stay close to the work they support.
That means the organisation spends less effort keeping information together and more effort making decisions and delivering services with confidence.
Take the next step
If your council is looking to strengthen records management and make approvals easier to track, CouncilFirst can help.
Contact us to talk through your current setup and the next steps that would make the biggest difference.