OVERVIEW
The City of Columbus, the 14th largest city in the United States, is a hub of innovation and efficiency, managing a $1.2 billion annual general fund budget. Beyond its population of nearly 1 million, Columbus extends essential services, such as water and sewer systems, to a wider area of over 2 million residents. Recognized for its financial leadership, Columbus has maintained an impressive AAA/Aaa/AAA bond rating since the mid-1990s, highlighting its commitment to fiscal responsibility and operational excellence.
The Cityโs Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) is prepared by the City Auditorโs Office. Megan Kilgore is the elected Auditor for the City of Columbus. Per the City Charter, the City Auditor serves as the cityโs chief accounting officer responsible for maintaining high-quality fiscal processing, tax collection and auditing, debt management, record keeping, and reporting to residents, the business community, city departments and divisions, and other interested parties.
With a strong focus on transparency and timeliness, Columbus consistently delivers its ACFR within an ambitious 90-day timeline, setting it apart as a leader among municipalities. However, the reliance on manual processes and outdated tools made things more complicated for the city, pushing them to look for a better solution that could help them maintain their reputation for financial excellence. In addition, Auditor Kilgore was looking for tools to assist with the future implementation of the Financial Data Transparency Act of 2022 (FDTA) requiring certain data and financial information provided to and developed by many federal agencies to be sent in a โstructured dataโ format sometime in 2026 or thereafter.
THE NEED
Before implementing Gravity, the City of Columbus relied on disparate spreadsheets and Word documents to prepare its ACFR. The prior software, while functional, required extensive manual effort to:
- Consolidate data exported from Microsoft Dynamics 365 into static files.
- Manage 80โ85 budget-to-actual statements and combine them into a single document.
- Cross-reference financial data and narratives manually, increasing the risk of errors.
- Update PDFs with new data, which required extensive reformatting of page numbers and the table of contents.
THE SOLUTION
To address these challenges, the City of Columbus implemented Gravityโs ACFR solution, leveraging its robust automation capabilities to:
THE RESULTS
Since implementing Gravity, Columbus’s budgeting process has seen significant improvements.
Efficiency Gains and Time Savings
Improved Accuracy and Consistency
Enhanced Collaboration and Workflow
Significant Reduction in Overtime
Support and Implementation
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