Columbia Fire Department From Paper Time Cards
Columbia Fire Department Columbia Fire Department is modernizing day-to-day staffing and fleet readiness by consolidating scheduling, payroll exports, and apparatus tracking into one platform.
"We have condensed that down now just to using the scheduler inside First Due."
Measurable impact
50
50 –70 calls/day
Paper
Paper time cards to digital payroll exports
Fewer
Streamlined Fleet Management
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The Story
Background
Columbia Fire Department serves a fast-growing community and manages a busy operational tempo. With dozens of calls every day, crews need tools that make administrative work feel lighter—not heavier.
Challenge
Before First Due, scheduling and pay tracking required duplicate work: crews filled out scheduling assignments for staffing, then completed paper time cards so payroll could be re-entered into the City system. At the same time, fleet status and defects lived across multiple Google Sheets and Google Forms—making it difficult to trust that everyone was looking at the same, current information.
Solution
Columbia implemented **First Due Scheduling & Personnel** and connected scheduling outputs to the City’s payroll workflows. Battalion chiefs use the shift board to drag-and-drop daily assignments, and payroll reporting comes out pre-populated for downstream processing.
In parallel, the department began implementing **Assets & Inventory** and **Inspections**, building a foundation to track apparatus status (in/out of service, reserve/primary, station assignment) and move equipment checks and work orders into a consistent workflow.
Results
Scheduling became the single source of truth for assignments *and* pay reporting—eliminating paper time cards and reducing re-entry. As Assets & Inventory expands, Columbia is positioning fleet and station defect tracking to move from “many spreadsheets” to a unified operational picture.
About
Columbia Fire Department
Quick facts
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Make scheduling the source of truth—without adding complexity
First Due Scheduling & Personnel helps agencies unify assignments, trades, overtime, and payroll exports in one workflow—so you can reduce duplicate tracking while keeping crews confident in pay accuracy.
In their own words:
- What First Due modules are you implementing right now?
- We’re implementing the **Assets** module and the **Inspection** module. We’ve also been using **Scheduling**, and we got the **payroll** side working with our City system.
- What changed once payroll moved into Scheduling?
- Before, crews filled out Scheduling for assignments and then still did a separate time card to get paid. Now we’re condensed down to just Scheduling, and the reports come out pre-populated for payroll.
- What does your team use most in Scheduling day to day?
- Battalion chiefs lay out the schedule every day. The drag-and-drop piece is great for moving people around.
- How are you thinking about overtime and constant staffing workflows?
- Today, a lot of overtime is still done through emails and trying to find someone. In our test environment, using call shifts and sending notifications to members’ devices is way more efficient.
- What problems are you solving with Assets & Inventory?
- We want to get rid of the several Google Sheets and Google Forms floating out there—station defects, apparatus defects, and a basic sheet trying to track where the fleet is.
- What are you already doing in Assets before full rollout?
- We’ve built our apparatus into Assets, so we’re already tracking where trucks are, their station, and whether they’re reserve or in/out of service.
- How did configurability feel as you started building assets out?
- It can feel overwhelming at first because there are a lot of choices, but you don’t need to fill in every box. You can document as much as you want—different agencies do things differently.
- How is incident documentation going today?
- Nobody loves documentation, but it’s pretty easy. The workflow flows well, required fields are apparent, and crews don’t have a hard time navigating it.
- Does First Due make crews feel safer in the field today?
- It’s an enhancement to the information we have, but until we have a total solution with CAD integration, it can be one more thing to bounce between. The goal is to keep building it out so it has everything we need.
Ready to see First Due in action?
Get a demo to learn how First Due can help your agency modernize operations, reduce busywork, and respond with better information.
