In government finance, “balance” isn’t just a financial metric; it’s a promise. A promise that resources are being managed responsibly. A signal that short-term solutions aren’t overshadowing long-term health. And for many finance teams, it’s the foundation of public trust.
But achieving a structurally balanced budget isn’t always straightforward, especially when your budget is spread across dozens of spreadsheets, static documents, and department-specific files.
So what does it take to build a structurally sound, sustainable budget? And how can digital tools make it easier, faster, and more reliable?
Let’s unpack it.
What is a Structurally Balanced Budget?
According to the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA), a structurally balanced budget ensures that recurring revenues are sufficient to fund recurring expenditures. It discourages the use of one-time revenues, like asset sales or a rainy-day fund, to cover ongoing operating costs.
Think of it as budgeting with the future in mind. Just because the numbers match doesn’t mean your budget is healthy. True balance is sustainable, predictable, and resilient.
“A structurally balanced budget signals long-term fiscal health. It shows that an organization is living within its means—not just today, but tomorrow as well.”
— GFOA Best Practices
Why Structural Balance Matters
✅ It builds fiscal resilience
In the face of economic shocks, such as a drop in sales tax or unexpected service demands, a structurally balanced budget enables agencies to adapt without making crisis-driven cuts or resorting to risky borrowing. Learn more about fiscal resilience in GFOA’s Fiscal First Aid.
✅ It supports bond ratings
Credit rating agencies like Moody’s and S&P Global often review whether a government is structurally balanced. This affects borrowing costs and investor confidence. As a result, structural balance directly impacts your financial flexibility
✅ It strengthens public trust
When elected officials and citizens understand that the budget is structurally sound, they’re more likely to support its policies and goals. See why transparency matters in GFOA’s Public Engagement Guide. In short, stability goes a long way in a political environment where decisions are under a microscope.
But Here’s the Catch: Balance is Hard When Your Budget Lives in Spreadsheets
Structurally balanced budgets rely on transparency and clarify two things that are notoriously hard to maintain in spreadsheet-driven processes.
Here’s why:
- Disconnected inputs: When departments submit separate Excel files, it isn’t easy to see the big picture.
- No real-time updates: Fund balances and allocations become quickly outdated as budget assumptions shift.
- No audit trail: It’s hard to trace which changes were made, by whom, and why.
- Limited forecasting: Most spreadsheets aren’t built to model multi-year impacts or test alternate scenarios.
As a result, finance teams spend more time chasing data and formatting reports than analyzing fiscal health. These challenges are well documented in GFOA’s Budget Monitoring Best Practices.
How GFOA Guidance Aligns with Modern Budget Tools
GFOA doesn’t just set a high bar—it offers clear guidelines for how to meet it. Among their best practices for budget documents are recommendations that emphasize:
- Multi-year planning
- Transparent fund accounting
- Strategic alignment with community outcomes
- Clear documentation of one-time vs. ongoing revenues and costs
Fortunately, these principles are easier to achieve with platforms that support structured, automated budgeting workflows. See GFOA’s Best Practices in Budgeting and Technology Solutions for Budgeting for more.
Gravity + Structure: Designed for GFOA-Ready Budgets
Gravity Budget Studio is built to help government finance teams create structurally sound budgets without sacrificing speed or control.
With Gravity, agencies can:
🔁 Tag one-time vs. recurring items to make the structure clear in the data model and the final book
🧮 Automatically update fund balances as assumptions or allocations change
📈 Use built-in forecasting tools to model multi-year trends and fiscal impact
📚 Track all changes with a real-time audit trail
🖥️ Produce GFOA award-ready budget books without exporting to Word, InDesign, or PDF editors
In other words, it’s like giving your finance team a GPS instead of a paper map—less guesswork, more precision. Learn more at Gravity Disclosure and Reporting Solutions.
Real-World Success: Rochester Hills, Michigan
Take the City of Rochester Hills, for example. Like many agencies, they wanted a structurally balanced budget, a polished book, and a more efficient process—but struggled with formatting delays, spreadsheet inconsistencies, and limited visibility across teams.
By switching to Gravity, they were able to:
- Centralize all budgeting activities in one collaborative workspace
- Use fund tracking to ensure ongoing programs are sustainably funded
- Reduce budget prep time significantly, without sacrificing formatting quality
- Increase transparency for internal stakeholders and the public
As a result, they built a smarter, more strategic budgeting cycle and a structurally balanced plan that didn’t require manual heroics.
For more on Rochester Hills’ budgeting approach, visit the City of Rochester Hills Finance Department or see the Gravity case study.
Five Steps to Move Toward Structural Balance
Not ready to overhaul your entire process? Start here:
- Inventory your recurring vs. one-time revenues and costs
- Separate base budgets from strategic investments
- Model scenarios over a 3-5 year horizon
- Evaluate fund balances monthly, not just at year-end
- Use tech to centralize, automate, and visualize your structure
This GFOA article offers additional tips and templates to get started.
Your Budget Book Can Be Structurally Sound—and Visually Stunning
A structurally balanced budget is a technical win. A beautifully formatted, easy-to-read budget book is a political and public win. With Gravity, you don’t have to choose.
You can connect every line item to its source. Update assumptions without reformatting 100 tables. And publish a document that’s not just accurate but also gets read.
📘 See how Gravity helps agencies deliver GFOA-compliant, council-ready budgets—without the spreadsheet struggle at Gravity Disclosure and Reporting Solutions.
