Delivering a modern, accurate and secure payroll solution to professionals who serve the employees of the State of Colorado

Modernizing the Payroll System for the State of Colorado

Project Overview and Mission

We aim to replace the state's legacy mainframe payroll system with a modern cloud-based solution.

Through this effort, the Payroll Implementation Team strives to:

Reduce manual processes and increase task efficiency for payroll, finance, and HR professionals in state agencies
Improve data integrity and increase data security
Standardize business processes across agencies and departments, aligning processes with HR best practices and law statewide
Continue to provide the state's 36,000+ employees with accurate and timely pay

Current Status

The COMPAS journey is moving full speed ahead, and a lot is happening along the way! Here’s your latest update:

Go-Live Timing – The number one question we hear: “When is go-live?” The payroll modernization team is actively working with our vendor and state leadership to align on the right time. While a final date has not been set yet, we’re targeting a go-live in FY27, soon after FY26 year activities. This timing allows for thorough testing and helps avoid peak workload periods for our partners across the state. As soon as we have more details, we’ll share them far and wide—no map reading required!
Training Milestone Reached – The initial round of virtual instructor-led training (VILT) wrapped up on March 27—great progress! If you haven’t completed training yet, there’s still time to get started. Role-based web-based training modules (WBTs) are available anytime and are the first step in your learning journey. You can also continue learning at your own pace by watching the recorded virtual instructor-led training sessions. Visit the COMPAS End User Training page for more information.
User Acceptance (UAT) Beta Testing Kicks Off – A small group of Trailblazers joined us in late March for UAT Beta Testing. These early explorers are helping us test the UAT experience—making sure our “trail maps” (documentation) and “basecamp” (enrollment process) are clear, smooth, and ready for the full group. Their feedback will help ensure our larger UAT group can navigate with confidence when full UAT testing begins in May.
Key Changes Page is Live – We’ve launched a new Key Changes page to highlight what’s changing with COMPAS and Employee Self-Service (ESS). Think of it as your quick guide to what’s new, what’s different, and what’s better. Check it out to get a preview of what’s ahead!

Questions? Reach out to us at corepayroll.help@state.co.us. We're here to help!

Key project meetings are shown here. Meeting audiences range from executive level stakeholders to system administrators and everyone in-between, but typically all are welcome to attend.

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