Checklist for Editors: Digital Budget Book - Start Your Next Fiscal Year

Before You Begin...

Refamiliarize Yourself with Digital Budget Book

• Watch this video overview: Video: Digital Budget Book - 5 Steps to Digital Budget Book Success
• Register for live sessions of our Year 2+ Group Training Workshops:
  • Year 2+ of Digital Budget Book - Ctrl + C, But Smarter

4 Steps to Start Your Next Budget Book

Step 1: Clone a Budget Book

You can utilize a previous year’s budget book rather than starting from scratch. Follow the steps below.

1. From the left-hand navigation sidebar, select Digital Budget Book beneath the Report header.
2. Select the three action dots to the left of the budget book you wish to carry forward.
3. Select the Clone action.

4. Name this year’s budget book and decide if you want to clone the page statuses and page comments. 

   

5. Select the Clone button.

Note: When selecting Clone, it will show “cloning in progress” next to the book's name. It may take a minute before you can begin editing.

Resource:

• Document Building - Clone a Document

When to Start from Scratch

• If you do wish to create a Budget Book from scratch, see our article: Digital Budget Books - Create a Digital Budget Book. 
• If your prior year's budget book was built on the Legacy Digital Budget Book platform, you will likely want to create a Budget Book from scratch and select to carry forward the Legacy book's details during the creation process. See this article for instructions: Digital Budget Book - Carry Forward from Legacy

Next: Update, Edit, and Add in the new fiscal year

Now that a new fiscal year has begun, what do you need to update, edit, or add? 

What you need to update and change may vary depending on your organization. Below are a few items that ClearGov recommends users be aware of when starting a new fiscal year. 

Note: The tips below are only relevant if you cloned your Digital Budget Book. If you created a new budget book from scratch, see our articles for additional information: Getting Started with Digital Budget Book

Step 2: Edit your Document Settings

Head to the Settings of your budget book document and update the following:

• In the General Information tab, edit the Fiscal Years. 
  • Resource: Document Building - Edit General Information
• In the Data Sources tab, edit the Data Source settings to ensure you are looking at the appropriate onboarded data version or Operating Budget, Capital Budget and/or Personnel Budget.
  • Resource: Document Building - Edit the Data Source (Digital Budget Book and CIP Documents)
• In the Historical Financial Charts tab, set the fiscal years you want to view and choose between actual figures, budgeted figures, or both for your historical financial charts.
  • Resource: Digital Budget Book - Edit Historical Financial Charts Settings

Step 3: Review your Budget Book Aesthetics

• The following tabs in Settings allow you to manage how your Digital Budget book appears and what content should be included:
  • Financial Pages (Fund Summary Pages, Department Pages, Object Pages, etc.)
    • Review the current settings for the presentation on all financial pages (Universal Settings or Global Table Configurations) or by individual page.
    • Resource: Digital Budget Book - Edit Financial Page Settings
  • Capital Projects
    • Review the information that you'd like to display across the same project type for your Capital Projects pages.
    • Resource: Document Building - Edit Capital Projects Settings (CIP Document and Digital Budget Book)
  • Budget Version Naming
    • Review how your budget column names are displayed in your financial schedule tables and comprehensive summaries throughout your document.
    • Resource: Digital Budget Book - Edit Budget Version Naming Conventions
  • Public Website Presentation
    • Review the settings for how you want your budget book displayed on the public website.
    • Resource: Document Building - Edit Public Website Presentation
  • PDF Presentation
    • Review the settings for how you want the PDF version of your budget book displayed.
    • Resource: Document Building - Edit PDF Presentation Settings

Step 4: Review Collaborators

• Review your current list of collaborators, and the pages they have been assigned.
  • You can Manage Page Assignments by selecting the three dots under Actions.
• Add any new collaborators by selecting + Add New User in the bottom left-hand corner. 
  • Resource: Document Building - Assign Collaborators

Need Additional Resources?

Feel free to search our Support Center or review resources on this specific module: Digital Budget Book