Budgeting
This practice splits an annual allocation into 12 distinct periods to manage seasonal cash flow and catch spending variances early.
What is phased (or monthly) budgeting?
Divided into Introductory, Financial, and Statistical sections, this audited end-of-year report reflects actual, historical GAAP financial results rather than future spending estimates.
What is an ACFR (Annual Comprehensive Financial Report)?
Recommended by GFOA as an ongoing, two-way process rather than a single required public hearing, this practice actively involves residents in setting spending priorities and shaping municipal policy.
What is community engagement?
Serving as the centralized federal clearinghouse, this online portal allows state, local, and tribal governments to search and apply for thousands of funding opportunities across 26 federal agencies.
What is Grants.gov?
Serving as the structural backbone of a government's general ledger, this master index assigns numerical codes to organize and classify every fund, department, revenue, and expenditure account.
What is the Chart of Accounts (or COA)?
This system ties payroll allocations directly to unique, authorized job slots rather than individual employees to prevent departments from hiring beyond approved headcount.
What is position control (or position-based budgeting)?
Designed for everyday residents, this short, simplified document distills the dense, audited financial report into plain language and reader-friendly graphics.
What is a PAFR (Popular Annual Financial Report)?
Designed to promote open government, these interactive portals give the public searchable, line-item access to municipal vendor payments, payroll, and contracts without requiring a formal public records request.
What is an open checkbook (or Financial Transparency Portal)?
While the entity receiving the funds and executing the project is the grantee, this term refers to the government agency or foundation that awards and oversees the funding.
What is a grantor?
Frequently used by finance and IT departments to securely transmit sensitive batch data—like automated payroll, vendor payments, or general ledger files—between servers over an encrypted SSH tunnel.
What is SFTP (or Secure File Transfer Protocol)?
Unlike municipal bonds that create long-term debt service, these non-repayable financial awards from state or federal agencies allow public entities to fund capital projects without carrying interest or principal obligations.
What are capital grants (or intergovernmental grants)?
Serving as a forward-looking operational plan rather than a historical audit, this primary policy document outlines approved goals, staffing levels, and revenue estimates for the upcoming year.
What is a Budget Book (or Adopted Budget)?
Recommended by GFOA for identifying community values before budget development begins, this structured tool uses sampling or open feedback to measure public satisfaction with services and rank funding priorities.
What is a citizen survey (or community needs assessment)?
Required as part of a Single Audit, this detailed financial schedule lists every federal dollar spent by a public entity during the fiscal year, cataloged by Assistance Listing Number (ALN).
What is the SEFA (or Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards)?
Modeled after FedRAMP and built on NIST 800-53 standards, this nonprofit framework—formerly known as StateRAMP—provides a standardized cloud security vetting process for state, local, and educational public entities.
What is GovRAMP?