A Guide to Annual Budget Planning for Local Government Agencies
It’s budgeting season! It’s time to plan for all your strategic initiatives for the upcoming fiscal year. We’ve compiled the below tips to help you save time based on 20+ years of experience helping agencies plan and execute on strategic spending initiatives for technology tools designed to increase efficiency, transparency, and performance. Our expert team is ready to lay out your roadmap to success.
Link Your Budget to Strategy
As your agency is planning its annual budget, it's important to link your Department's Budget to a clear, referenceable strategy. If you are budgeting for software, start by developing a strategy designed to solve the problems your Department or Agency is facing.
Is staff efficiency hindered due to outdated technology? Or worse, are they lacking technology altogether?
Is record retention, or responding to public records requests costly and time consuming?
Is reporting on key metrics difficult or impossible?
Whatever problems your team(s) are facing, create and document a strategy that is focused on solving them. This will help you create a strong narrative among your teams and your budget committee and improve the likelihood that funding will be allocated to help you.
Don’t go another year with staff suffering through tedious manual processes, like tracking cases via email and spreadsheets. Say goodbye to compiling manual reports for weeks by hand at the end of each quarter. Spending hours gathering owner information from various databases will be a thing of the past. The time to start scoping software is now and we can help. Comcate’s code enforcement, animal control, and 311/CRM software offerings will improve efficiency, transparency, and overall performance for your agency.
Be Aware of the Process
Every agency has a unique budget process designed to meet the specific needs of their community. The budget process includes the community’s priorities, projected revenue, and is focused on planning for the future. Development of the annual budget is more than just running numbers; the budget reflects a strategic roadmap and it should consider the needs and priorities of all stakeholders. As an agency executive, Department Head, or Supervisor it’s important to understand your agency’s strategic road map, and also the key stakeholders that may be involved in the review of your budget before approval. This could include government administrators, employees, citizens, and even local business leaders.
The city, town, or county manager will identify objectives and aggregate operating budget requests from agency staff. Then budget requests will be submitted to the budget office and/or committee for review. Depending on your agency fiscal year, the timelines for submittals and approvals may vary.
For example:
If your agency is operating in a July fiscal year, requests are typically submitted in March and approved in June. Once the city manager drafts the proposed budget, it goes to the city council or budget committee for approval and funds will be released July 1st.
If your agency is operating in a January fiscal year, requests are typically submitted in September and approved in December. Once the city, town, or county manager drafts the proposed budget, it goes to the city council or budget committee for approval and funds will be released January 1st.
When the proposed budget goes to the committee for review, each member of the committee reviews the budget in detail and hosts a public budget hearing and information session for public input. After community input, the city council will adopt the budget. It’s imperative that during this process you monitor the steps and intervene as needed to provide helpful information to the involved stakeholders
Include Citizens as Stakeholders
Transparency and collaboration is important. Therefore, it is imperative that community members are treated as equal stakeholders, and given the opportunity to provide input throughout the budget planning and approval process. The annual budget directly affects where citizens live and work and therefore they are important and valuable stakeholders to include in the process, whenever possible.
After adoption, your agency may choose to announce the annual budget to the public. The information may be dispersed to citizens through multiple channels including press releases, public presentations, summary sheets, and social media. Communicating the budget meaningfully with citizens is key for operational visibility.
Comcate’s 30 Minute Commitment
Budgeting for Software implementation doesn't need to be stressful and daunting.
Comcate’s team can streamline your software budgeting process. We can take the anxiety away by showing you our software in 30 minutes and help you develop a strategic plan and timeline. Invest 30 minutes and we'll deliver software pricing and even provide a packet to submit to the budget committee. If you've identified a need, we can help you today.
Learn how Comcate can help make government delivery simple, and offer a modern digital experience to help you increase transparency, efficiency, and performance across your departments. If you have any questions about implementing our software, please schedule a meeting with our team, or call us directly at (415) 632-1248.