Checklist for Editors: Digital Budget Book - Getting Started

Before You Begin...

Learn the Process

Go through the ClearGov Academy learning journey: Getting Started with Digital Budget Book

Note: Use your ClearGov login to access ClearGov Academy.

Register for live sessions through our Getting Started Group Training Workshops:

• Document Building - Telling Your Financial Story
• Getting Started with Budget Book - Financial Pages that Actually Work

Gather Relevant Materials

Collect all relevant materials in preparation, including budget books from prior years and the names, email addresses, and departments of any contributors.

Send your financial data to ClearGov to upload into our system. Reach out to your ClearGov Point of Contact with any questions.

5 Steps to Create a Digital Budget Book

Step 1: Create your Digital Budget Book

Create your Digital Budget book with robust, autogenerated content ready for you to modify. 

• Resource: Digital Budget Books - Create a Digital Budget Book 

Create your book using the provided GFOA or ASBO template to create the structure of the book in alignment with GFOA or ASBO criteria. 

• GFOA Checklist: GFOA Criteria Checklist
• ASBO Checklist: ASBO Criteria Checklist

Modify the structure of your Digital Budget Book by dragging and dropping pages to create customized sections of your book. 

• Resource: Document Building - Take Action on Document Sections

Step 2: Create Dynamic Financial Pages  

Create Dynamic Financial Pages to tell the story of how you’ve allocated your budget. Financial Pages are populated full of dynamic graphics that update automatically to represent your latest data. Aggregate multiple dimensions into a single page or create pages for each dimension. Dimensions could be anything in your mapped Chart of Accounts, such as Fund, Department, Object, and more. 

• Resource: Digital Budget Book - Add Financial Pages

Customize your pages by adding and editing sections, pages, and content blocks.

• Resource: Document Building - Utilize Content Blocks

Step 3: Bulk Edit Financial Page Settings

Settings - Navigate to the document Settings to make bulk decisions on your financial pages. 

If a dynamic financial page has been created, then you will see a Settings option for that financial page type. For example: Fund, Department, or Location pages.

In the Settings for each Financial Page Type, you can make universal decisions to hide content blocks.

• Resource: Digital Budget Book - Edit Financial Page Settings

Step 4: Add and Invite Collaborators and Add Narrative  

User Management - Add any users from your organization to the User Management application.

• Resource: User Management - Create a New User

Collaborators - Invite co-editors or department leaders to contribute content. 

• Resource: Document Building - Assign Collaborators

Add Narratives - Add narratives to any relevant textbox in dynamic or static pages. 

Pro Tip: Import from Microsoft Word and utilize dynamic figures to streamline narrative entries. 

• Resource: Create and Manage Content Blocks

Step 5: Publish Your Budget Book  

Customize the design of your Digital Budget Book. Set your cover image. Determine the default colors used for all charts and graphs. Adjust the font to match your organization’s brand. 

• Resource: Budget Book Settings

Publish, Print, and Share your Digital Budget Book! 

• Resource: Preview, Publish and Share your Digital Budget Book

Need Additional Resources?

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