Website Posting of Financial Docs

For the sake of your mental and physical health, I hope that many of you never have to enter a financial rebuild situation. The learning path can be amazing, but it can also take a toll on your wellbeing as you dedicate yourself to a turnaround that involves turning a big ship. Such was my experience while working to turnaround a cash poor and poor financial reporting City.

The first three months was literally popping Advil and Tums as we reviewed and dug deeper into the financials of the institution. There were many red flags, including previous management letters that had multiple issues completely disregarded by previous management. In addition to violations of state statutes for various reasons. The poor financial reporting led to lower-than-expected bids on bonds and an overall lack of trust in the financial management of the organization.

I stop to wonder at times, if these documents were publicly shared, the red flags were very apparent, but none of the leadership or the governing body stopped to ensure it was resolved.

When I got there, I constantly repeated the same mantra: timely, accurate and reliable information. To ensure the accuracy of that, it included developing monthly overviews, and quarterly reports and cutting down on the filing times for the annual audit. These were all posted on the website for public review, which in turn helped to identify issues with variances, close out projects faster and more accurately, and identity red flags at the various fund levels to manage them before crisis mode. The additional transparency helped us to live up to the mantra.

GFOA encourages every government to use its website as a primary means of communicating information to citizens and other interested parties. It also recommends that a government comply with several guidelines when presenting official documents on its website. These include suggestions regarding formatting, technological infrastructure, electronic filing language, distribution, information disclaimers, and historical information.

Government finance departments should be able to host a spot on the website that holds their financial information, either at the department level or in an investor relations page. 

These documents are available to ensure:

- Promote accountability and transparency: the available documents can assist in promoting transparency and public accountability.

- Universal Access to Information: central access point for all interested parties that is free of charge.

- Historical document archiving: provide a central point for historical information to interested parties.

- Consistency: as mentioned earlier, you need to be consistent or timely in your financial reporting so that it provides valuable and relevant information to readers.

GFOA also recommends that governments follow these guidelines when publishing documents:

- Formatting: provide legible, paginated, documents in a consistent format with the hardcopy version.

- Technology: utilize secure, software-compatible documents that are well linked, tested for web-based versions and within a downloadable file.

- Distribution: should help to meet the objective of providing timely information that is accessible to the public through the website.

- Historical information: have an accessible area for prior financial data that is appropriately referenced as such.

To enhance ease of access, an entity’s financial website should centralize critical documents, like budgets and audits at a minimum. If produced, quarterly updates whenever possible provide more timely information to interested investors and citizens. Ensuring these documents are consistently accessible enables residents, stakeholders, and investors to stay informed about financial planning and performance. Additionally, housing financial policies on the website can help to inform interested parties of key policies for finances like debt.

Creating an investor relations page is another key improvement, as it consolidates relevant financial information, offering a single destination for potential investors. This could be further enhanced by partnering with platforms like BondLink, a leader in municipal financial disclosure. BondLink provides a dedicated disclosure portal that not only meets legal requirements but also facilitates access to information on bond sales, credit ratings, and financial reports. This strategy would improve investor confidence and potentially attract new capital by establishing a professional, transparent online presence. These enhancements not only align with industry best practices but also underscore the city’s commitment to accessibility, fostering trust and engagement among its stakeholders.