This article is intended for: Editors and specific organizations who have opted into our ClearGov Labs platform.
Use this article for: Navigate to the ClearGov Labs Digital Budget Book Evaluator and begin a New Evaluation.
Note: You can click on any image to zoom in.
Navigate to ClearGov Labs
The Budget Book Evaluator micro-application in ClearGov Labs allows you to evaluate the PDF of your budget book based on GFOA criteria.
- In the left-hand navigation sidebar, navigate to ClearGov Labs.
- Select Budget Book Evaluator.
Start New Evaluation
Upload a PDF version of your Digital Budget Book to receive a review. Select “+ Create New Evaluation” to begin.
Pro Tip: Rerun the Budget Book Evaluator to get a new review! Your score may be different.
In the creation screen, enter your email address and select the PDF file from your computer. After the evaluation is complete, you will receive an email with the results document. The results will also be available in the Budget Book Evaluator application.
Review your Evaluation Results
Your evaluation will contain the following elements:
- Overall Percentage
-
Pass/Fail - “Projected to Pass” or “Projected to Fail” based on scores of only mandatory items.
- A pass for each Mandatory requirement is considered a 3 or 4 score.
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Overall Summary - An AI overview of the Budget Book document as a whole.
- Pro Tip: Select the “More” button to expand and view the entire summary.
-
1-4 Score for each criterion
- The Budget Book Evaluator generates a projected score of 1-4 for each criterion based on how well your document met the GFOA's Budget Award criteria in our evaluation. Only projected scores for mandatory criteria contribute to your overall percentage.
Understanding the 1-4 Scores
Scores for each criterion are on a scale from 1-4.
- 1 - Missing required content
- 2 - Does not satisfy requirements
- 3 - Meets requirements well
- 4 - Outstanding - Exceeds requirements
What information is mandatory?
The Mandatory information for the Evaluation is identified in each criterion below with a “Mandatory” label. Not all of the requirements are Mandatory, but only Mandatory scores will be counted toward the overall percentage.
Here are a few examples:
- If you score 1’s or 2’s on a Mandatory requirement, that will count as a fail toward your overall percentage.
- If you get all 3’s and 4’s on every single requirement, you would get an overall “Likely to pass” score.
Note: Given the parameters of a large language model processing your budget book, our results tend to be stricter and more rigidly aligned to the guidelines than human evaluators.
External Links Status
At the very bottom of the results document, there is a section called “External Links Status.” It will say “Pass” or “Fail” depending on whether your external link was functional or not.
Additional Resources
Have more questions or need assistance?
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