City Opens Books with Launch of New Financial Transparency Tool

Post Date:09/22/2016 1:00 PM

GREENVILLE, N.C. — Residents, elected officials, and staff now have unprecedented access to the City of Greenville’s finances following the launch of a new budget application powered by OpenGov. The powerful, Web-based platform transforms complex financial data into an interactive, digital format that enables better analysis and understanding of the City’s finances.CowinOpenGov

City leaders unveiled the Financial Transparency Tool on Thursday, demonstrating the ways that taxpayers can now explore how their money is collected and spent. The tool can be accessed here.

“As a steward of taxpayer dollars, the City of Greenville has an obligation to the members of this community to be fiscally responsible in the utilization of financial resources for the benefit of all citizens of Greenville,” Assistant City Manager Michael Cowin said. “This responsibility includes transparency in how taxpayer dollars are being spent so as to meet the needs of this growing community.  In partnership with OpenGov, the City of Greenville is providing a financial transparency web based tool that will allow members of this community to better understand where their taxpayer dollars are going.  This tool is designed to bring visibility and openness to our operations in a graphical, easy to understand format.  It is our hope that this tool will serve to heighten our accountability to the community while providing our citizens a better understanding of how the City’s funding is being utilized to enhance public safety, improve our streets, maintain our infrastructure, and provide the cultural and recreational services that makes Greenville a great place to live, work, and raise a family.”

The OpenGov Financial Transparency Tool displays government spending and revenue detail in a user-friendly portal. Users can view historical revenue and expenditure trends and explore multiple views of financial data, including by fund, department, expense, or revenue type.

“By making its financial data easily accessible in an intuitive, digital format, the City is demonstrating its commitment to efficient, data-driven and open government,” OpenGov CEO and co-founder Zac Bookman said.

Beyond sharing information with the public, the City of Greenville can also use the Financial Transparency Tool internally to create custom reports, manage operations to budget, and keep administrators informed.