Controller’s office launches $31M ERP system

Posted by Donovan Quintero | Oct 1, 2026 | News |

WINDOW ROCK

The Navajo Nation Office of the Controller on Thursday launched the finance, budgeting and payroll components of a $31 million Enterprise Resource Planning system that replaces decades-old financial processes with digital ones.

The ERP brings together systems for accounting, human resources and payroll, budgeting and vital records.

“We really implemented four different systems in one, and the good news is they all are part of the same kind of software universe,” Controller Sean McCabe said in an interview after the launch. “They’re all integrated. They all talk to each other.”

Navajo Times | Sharon Chischilly
Cakes and cupcakes mark the launch of the Office of the Controller’s Enterprise Resource Planning system Thursday, Oct. 1. The $31 million system brings together finance, budgeting, human resources and payroll and vital records.

The accounting system, built on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management, replaces a financial management system McCabe said is about 30 years old.

Dayforce handles timekeeping, leave requests, pay stubs and onboarding. Employees began using Dayforce to clock in and out in December 2025, and departments began submitting new hires, change notices and terminations through the system in June.

The BNDN budget module, built on the Budget Intelligence Development System, replaces paper budget binders. The Tribal Platforms Enrollment system handles enrollment records, applications, changes and tribal identification cards.

The Navajo Nation entered into the $31 million contract with Arctic IT, an Alaska Native-owned company, in November 2024. A project kickoff followed in January 2025.

In October 2025, McCabe told the Navajo Nation Council the ERP transition was expected to be completed by mid-December. The rollout continued through 2026. In June, the finance system’s go-live date was extended after a review of employee training needs, state grant deadlines and feedback from departments and programs.

Navajo Times | Sharon Chischilly
Meghan Davis, the vice president of business applications at Arctic IT, and Reycita Toddy, the executive director of the Navajo Division of Human Resources, listen as Controller Sean McCabe addresses the crowd during the Enterprise Resource Planning system launch celebration Thursday afternoon in Window Rock.

McCabe said the digital workflow will allow employees to track where documents are stalled.

“Paper is a very easily manipulated way of doing things,” he said. “And now things will follow through a digital workflow where we can see where things are held up, where documents aren’t being processed.”

Programs will now handle their own requisitions and receiving instead of relying on the Purchasing Department. McCabe said recent changes to the Navajo Nation Procurement Act line up with the new process.

The new system also changes how programs access and manages federal balances.

“The Navajo Nation sits on about $1 billion of unspent federal money that’s non-ARPA related,” McCabe said. “And that’s really because of our own doing. We lock those monies up and we make them not accessible for programs that could utilize that money.”

Those fund balances become available in the system at go-live, he said, and programs must put together plans and budgets to spend them.

Moving off the old financial system also raised questions about system access. McCabe said his office found people with access to the ERP system, but that approach would not work for the controller’s office. Access will now be assigned by role, with divisions determining who needs it.

Navajo Times | Sharon Chischilly
Clark Baker, the director of financial solutions for Arctic IT, addresses the crowd during the Enterprise Resource Planning system launch celebration Thursday afternoon in Window Rock.

The new system is cloud-based and replaces physical servers in Albuquerque. McCabe said the Navajo Nation Department of Justice worked on the contract to protect the Nation’s data sovereignty.

Not everything is going digital.

Travel authorizations remain on paper for now, though McCabe plans a later module that would allow employees to upload receipts by phone. The Navajo Nation’s 110 chapters are not yet on the system. McCabe said many lack the internet speed needed to use it, and he has discussed buying Starlink units for each chapter.

The launch comes about three months before a new president, vice president and 26th Council take office. McCabe said his office will begin working with transition teams after the Nov. 3 election.

“It’s not going to be perfect. It’s not going to solve 100% of our problems,” McCabe said. “It is going to solve some pretty immediate problems.

“Bottom line, it was just our time to get better,” McCabe said. “And this is the first step.”

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