LACOE Best Project

What is the LACOE BEST Project?

Cerritos College contracts with Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) for a full range of cost-effective administrative and business services, including fiscal oversight, payroll and human resources services. LACOE is implementing a new comprehensive Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system which affects more than 125 agencies, including school districts, community colleges, and charter schools. LACOE’s Business Enhancement System Transformation (BEST) Advantage System, is a necessary system modernization project which replaces LACOE’s PeopleSoft Financial and Human Resource Systems. 

Representatives from over 50 agencies participated in the procurement process. Implementation of the new BEST System will begin this spring 2019 for fiscal year 2019-2020 for the first “wave” of agencies and conclude by approximately 2022. A wave is a group of agencies that will implement the new BEST System at the same time. There will be four waves during the implementation phase of the BEST Project.

The first wave of agencies to pilot the implementation process includes Cerritos College. Three more waves will follow over the next five years until the system is fully functional for all participating agencies.

Employees who currently use the PeopleSoft Financial System and Human Resources System will receive training and be involve in the testing period.

Why change systems?

The current systems called PeopleSoft Financial System and Human Resource System have been in place for more than 15 and 25 years, respectively, and do not allow for data analysis and much flexibility. LACOE depends on this financial system to oversee $22.6 billion annually for districts in the county concerning their general ledgers, accounts payable, purchasing, inventory, accounts receivable and asset management. These are also the systems that support the issuing of more than 180,000 paychecks per month for educational agencies throughout Los Angeles County.

dBest Project Diagram

What does BEST have to offer?

The new BEST Advantage System is a modern, integrated, intuitive financial and human capital management system, which will improve the operational efficiencies of over 125 educational agencies served by LACOE. The BEST Advantage System, provided and supported by CGI Technologies and Solutions Inc. (CGI), will replace the LACOE PeopleSoft Financial System and Human Resource System (HRS). The BEST Advantage System:

Offers integration of Payroll, Budget Development, Human Resources, Financials, and Business Intelligence with easy navigation;
Supports regulatory updates, such as Affordable Care Act (ACA), as well as Federal Tax Updates;
Provides end-users the ability to quickly access budget information and download directly to Microsoft Excel; and,
Enables employees to view, download, and print their own payroll stubs and W-2 forms.
For more information on the LACOE BEST Project, follow this link:

LACOE BEST Project Videos

LACOE BEST Project Website