Cucamonga School District

Pay warrants and copies of your W2 can be accessed through BestNet, sometimes referred to as Employee Self Service. BestNet is a secure portal provided by Cucamonga School District through SBCSS.

How to Access Your Account:

1. Go to Employee Self Service Site - BESTNET.
2. If this is your first visit, you’ll need to register by providing:
   • Your first and last name
   • Your Social Security number
   • The net pay from your most recent earnings statement

(If you don’t know your net pay, please contact Payroll.)

3. An activation link will be sent to the email address provided. We recommend choosing a personal email address.
4. After clicking the activation link, you will need to complete the registration by providing a password
   • Passwords must meet the following criteria:
     • Be at least 8 characters long
     • Cannot include your first, last, login name or the word ‘password’
     • Must contain at least one lowercase letter
     • Must contain at least one uppercase letter
     • Must contain at least one number
     • Cannot have been used in the last 400 days
5. Provide a password hint is (optional)
6. Lastly, you will be required to provide 3 security questions

Once registered, you can:

• Earnings: View and download your pay warrants from the start of your employment
• Taxes: Access copies of your W-2 forms since the start of your employment
• Leave Balances: Check your most up-to-date leave balances
• Attendance: Certify your absence affidavit(s)

You can reset your BestNet password yourself if you set up security questions during registration. Here’s how:

1. Go to the Employee Self Service Site - BESTNET and click “Forgot your login/password?”
2. Enter your first and last name and Social Security number.
3. Answer one of your security questions.
4. Validate your identity again by entering your Social Security number.
5. Choose a new password that meets the following criteria:
   • At least 8 characters long
   • Cannot include your first name, last name, login name, or the word “password”
   • Contains at least one lowercase letter
   • Contains at least one uppercase letter
   • Contains at least one number
   • Has not been used in the last 400 days

If you no longer have access to the email address your activation link was sent to or typed your email address wrong, you can re-register for a BestNet account.  Contact the Payroll Department to do a user reset.  Once complete, you will be able to register again with the correct email address using the steps above.

Earnings are grouped by type and can be aggregated when the type and rate match.

Below is a key for some commonly seen types to help determine what it’s for:

Stipends are issued either monthly or annually.  To receive a stipend:

1. Your principal or Personnel Services must generate a stipend form.
2. Personnel collects all required signatures and submits the form to the Board for approval.
3. Once approved by the board, Payroll issues the stipend on the scheduled payment date(s).

To check if a stipend has been submitted: Contact Personnel Services for district stipends or your principal for school-site stipends.

To check if a stipend has been approved: Review the Board agendas by clicking this link..  Meetings are listed with the most recent at the top. Click the meeting title, scroll to PERSONNEL, and open the Personnel Report.

Tax withholdings can be updated at any time by filling out the corresponding tax withholding form and submitting it to the Payroll Department.  To update your federal income tax withholdings, fill out a W4 from the IRS.  To update your California state income tax withholdings, fill out a DE4 form from EDD.  Both forms are available for download on their respective websites or in the section below titled Forms.

IRS.gov and EDD.ca.gov have resources available to assist in filling out these forms.  If you need further assistance, please contact a tax professional for guidance, the Payroll Department is unable to assist.

To set up or update your direct deposit, follow these steps:

1. Complete the Direct Deposit Form:

The form is available in the section below titled Forms.

2. Submit Required Documents:

Send the completed form to the Payroll Department along with:

• A voided check, or
• A preprinted bank-issued direct deposit form.

To cancel your direct deposit, complete the direct deposit form available in the section below titled Forms.

Important Notes:

• The Payroll Department may reject your request if:
  • The routing and/or account numbers on your documents do not match
  • The form is incomplete or missing a signature
  • The bank-issued form is handwritten
• Accepted direct deposits take at least one pay cycle to establish. During this time, San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools will process a pre-note test, which may appear as a $0.00 entry on your bank statement.
• Until your direct deposit is active, your pay will be issued as a physical check and mailed to the address on file—even if you previously had direct deposit.
• Direct deposits are issued on or before the pay date listed on the Payroll Calendar, depending on your bank’s EFT processing schedule.
• Direct deposit can be set up for one account at a time.  At this time, SBCSS does not offer a second option for direct deposit.  Please see How do I update my Summer Saver for questions on deferring earnings to a Summer Saver account through SchoolsFirst.
• If your account is closed, notify the Payroll Department immediately.

Deferred net pay, commonly known as DNP, allows employees to stretch their income over 12 payments if they currently hold a contract for 10 or 11-months. Employees with a 10-month contract will have 16.67% of their net pay deferred each month.  Employees with an 11-month contract will have 8.33% of their net pay deferred each month. 

Eligible employees can elect to enroll or cancel their DNP at the beginning of each fiscal year.  To enroll or cancel, you must fill out and submit a DNP form found in the section below titled Forms.  You do not need to enroll each year, your DNP status will carryover from fiscal year to fiscal year unless you change it.  DNP cannot start or end mid-year, you will need to wait until the end or beginning of the fiscal year to make changes.

You can locate your running DNP balance in the Year-to-Date section at the bottom of your pay warrant.  The total listed on the last regular pay warrant of the school year will be the total DNP payout amount. 

For 11-month employees, the amount will be issued in one payment.  For 10-month employees, the amount will be issued in two payments. 

When DNP payout occurs during a cycle with no other earnings, you will receive a pay warrant with a net pay amount only. If there are regular earnings during the same pay cycle, only the regular earnings will be subject to taxes and deductions and the net earnings will be combined with the DNP payout amount.

Employees who have a Summer Saver account through SchoolsFirst Credit Union and wish to update their deferral amount, can request a payroll deduction form from the Payroll Department.

Completed forms must be submitted directly to SchoolsFirst before it can be processed by Cucamonga School District.  Once SchoolsFirst has verified the information and confirmed the form meets their requirements, they will submit authorization for to the Payroll Department to process. 

Deferred amounts to your SchoolsFirst Summer Saver account will be listed as SchoolsFirst FCU in the Employee Deductions section of your pay warrant.  If you’ve already submitted the change to SchoolsFirst but haven’t seen it updated on your pay, please notify the Payroll Department.

The balances on your pay warrant are not always the most accurate.  If an affidavit approval has been missed, it’s possible that the absence never transferred over to your pay warrant.  The most accurate sick and vacation balances can be found by going to BestNet and selecting ‘Leave Balances’ from the main menu.

All timesheets require initials to the right of an assignment and an employee signature at the bottom.  Contracted employees must also obtain an administrator signature on every timesheet.  Substitutes are only required to obtain an administrator signature if all the assignments on the timesheet are for the same location.

The following are authorized to initial as “supervisor”:

• Office Assistant
• Office Manager
• Assistant Principal
• Principal

The following are authorized to sign as an administrator:

• Assistant Principal
• Principal
• Director
• Assistant Superintendent
• Superintendent

It is the employee’s responsibility to obtain all required signatures and initials before submitting the final timesheet to the Payroll Department.  Timesheets missing required signatures or initials are not considered complete and may result in a delay in pay.

It’s important to update your address to ensure your W2 and pay warrants are mailed to you seamlessly.  Please contact Personnel Services if you need to update your address with the district.