New tool to digitize outdated budget books as a modern web-based experience

ClearGov, a financial operations and communications modernization tool, has a new Digital Budget Book SaaS solution to help with some of local government’s most challenging and tedious annual communication tasks by delivering a web-based budget book that can also be exported to a printed document.

Every year, local governments are required to produce a document that details the strategic budgetary decisions they’ve made and that serves as an official report on its financial priorities. Traditional budget books are extensive printed documents that are labor-intensive to produce and difficult for most residents to digest.

Now local governments can use this digital tool to present their budget book as an interactive online experience rather than a paper document, saving them time and money and resulting in a budget presentation that’s far easier and more engaging for every resident to consume.

Using a government’s raw budget data, the digital budget book allows finance directors to create a completely structured document — pre-populated with interactive charts, graphs and tables. They can customize the web-based, mobile-friendly “book” with commentary, new pages and the graphics or other styling elements needed to keep the budget book “on brand” for their government.

As the budget numbers change and evolve — as they inevitably do throughout the budgeting process — the software will automatically update the charts, graphs and figures in the budget presentation.

Governments save money by not having to invest in printing hard copies, and by not having to allocate as many resources to the project overall.

“ClearGov’s core expertise is in modernizing antiquated processes and making complex government data easy for residents to understand,” says CEO and co-founder Chris Bullock. “Leveraging that expertise is a big part of what makes Digital Budget Book so effective.”

And, like all ClearGov solutions, digital budget books are optimized for accessibility, according to standards set by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

ClearGov is offering free public walkthroughs of the software every Thursday afternoon through the end of June. Click here to learn more.