THE CHALLENGE
The City of Claremont’s finance team faced a grueling annual ritual. Building their 300-page budget book meant months of tedious manual assembly, with Excel and Word files that never quite stayed in sync.
- Laborious production cycle. Converting spreadsheets and documents into a comprehensive PDF demanded intensive effort across multiple months
- Constant revision headaches. Each adjustment required combing through the entire document again, multiplying the chances for mistakes
- Stretched timeline. Budget development consumed December through Mayโnearly half the year lost to production mechanics
- Data synchronization breakdown. Staff had to manually replicate every update across separate files
THE SOLUTION
The City adopted Gravity to transform their scattered spreadsheet workflow into an integrated, automated platform. The system provided:
THE RESULTS
The City of Claremont shortened budget development from five months to three monthsโcutting their cycle time in half during their inaugural year with Gravity.
Drawing on extensive municipal finance experience, Starkey recognized the opportunity to accelerate their schedule. The Gravity platform provided the assurance needed to execute that vision. This newfound efficiency created capacity for higher-priority initiatives, helping the City continue their remarkable 30-35 year run of GFOA Distinguished Budget Presentation Awardsโand apply for the GFOA Triple Crown for the first time.