Digital budget book puts all finances online

By Lisa Brody

Bloomfield Township Finance Direct Jason Theis introduced the new digital budget book at the board of trustees meeting on Monday, August 22, a way for all residents to view the budget process and the township's funds and finances in an easy to access format.

The digital budget book, which should be live this week, can be accessed via the township's website. “There is a link on our website, and it will take you directly there. Once on the digital budget book, there are several different drop downs that provide you with a summary of our budget process to highlights of revenues and expenditures, personnel changes, fund summaries, capital improvements, debts. Residents can dive right into line items if they wish,” he said.

Theis said all of the township's 2022-2023 budget numbers will be uploaded, as well as a summary of the budget process, the organization wide structure, and “it gets into accounts and fund structures.”

He noted that U.S. census data information is automatically uploaded to the site, and they will be updating data regularly. Each of the township's dedicated funds will have its own page. “Its purpose is to summarize the last few years in a chart, detailing revenues and expenditures. We can compare prior year's actuals of revenues and expenditures by types.”

He noted there are drop down pages that summarize total outstanding debt for the fiscal year, detailing each type of debt. As for capital improvements in the township, pages detail one-year plans as well as multi-year plans and explain what the capital improvements are and why they need to be done.

Theis said if a resident is not comfortable viewing everything on a computer, there is a print button that sends an email link.

“The whole thing is 392 pages, and it printed quickly,” Theis said.