Bloomfield Township, Michigan

Primary Objective

To produce a professional, modern, and error-free budget document that saves time and reduces manual effort while also updating capital budgeting processes.

Background

Bloomfield Township is a large charter township located in southeastern Michigan. It spans 26 square miles and serves a population of approximately 44,000 residents. Despite its size and complexity, Bloomfield remains legally designated as a township rather than as a city.

Jason Theis has served as Finance Director for Bloomfield Township since 2014, following his tenure as Deputy Finance Director beginning in 2007. Throughout his career, he has continually sought more efficient tools and processes for government financial management.

Challenge

Before adopting ClearGov, Bloomfield Township relied on a mix of legacy software and manual processes to prepare its annual budget. The Township’s original general ledger software was a custom-built, text-based interface that required navigation using arrow and function keys. Later, the township replaced that custom ledger software with an ERP system. Budget documents were entirely assembled manually with Microsoft Word and Excel, making formatting time-consuming and increasing the likelihood of errors.

The township’s ERP system also lacked an integrated solution for producing a final budget document. Michigan’s rigid Uniform Budgeting and Accounting Act for local governments and its standardized chart of accounts imposed further complexity. The finance team struggled to deliver a polished, consistent, and transparent end product that could meet both internal and public-facing expectations.

Capital budgeting wasn’t initially a process Bloomfield Township was looking to improve. But the Township’s finance department used Microsoft Excel to manually track five-year capital budgeting. Some of the Township’s departments kept their own Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and used their own software to track future capital items beyond one year out. 

The [previous budget document] end product just never looked professional to me. And for our size of township, I just felt we should do more, and people expected more.

Jason Theis, Finance Director, Bloomfield Township, Michigan

Solution

Theis first learned about ClearGov by reaching out to other communities to find a better way to produce a budget document. Once he saw a demo of ClearGov’s Digital Budget Book, he immediately recognized the value of moving away from static PDFs to a dynamic, web-based format and decided to adopt ClearGov Digital Budget Book.

Bloomfield Township initially adopted ClearGov’s Digital Budget Book but quickly discovered additional benefits of ClearGov’s Capital Budgeting solution. They saw that Capital Budgeting was more effective than the Township’s prior Excel-based approach to capital planning and appreciated its seamless integration with Digital Budget Book. After seeing firsthand how Capital Budgeting improved their workflows, Bloomfield Township adopted the solution.

When I came across ClearGov, that was actually when I realized through the demo that there was a website-based Digital Budget Book. Once I saw that, there was no going back to a static version.

Jason Theis, Finance Director, Bloomfield Township, Michigan

Implementation

Bloomfield Township timed its onboarding process between the end of its audit and the start of the next budget cycle. Within two weeks, the Township had transferred five years of historical data and received it back from ClearGov. From there, Theis built out Bloomfield Township’s Digital Budget Book framework himself over the summer, supported by ClearGov’s team as needed.

Despite being a “one-person show” for budgeting, Theis found the ClearGov onboarding and support team to be responsive and collaborative throughout the setup process. He presented the Digital Budget Book to department heads in early August and launched it to the board and public by the end of that same month.

Theis found Capital Budgeting to be an easy implementation as well. He especially appreciates how Bloomfield Township’s information in Capital Budgeting flows directly and automatically into the capital budgeting section of its Digital Budget Book.

Once that Digital Budget Book framework is there, then it’s just a matter of importing the numbers and updating some of the narratives that you’ve done custom. You’ll spend much less time on that part of the process.

Jason Theis, Finance Director, Bloomfield Township, Michigan

Results

By adopting ClearGov, Bloomfield Township achieved substantial improvements in both process efficiency and the quality of its budget presentation. The switch from manual formatting to an automated, digital solution freed up significant time and allowed for more focus on strategic financial planning. The web-based budget book improved transparency and accessibility for stakeholders and residents alike.

• Time Savings and Error Elimination: Bloomfield Township reduced formatting time by automating updates to fonts, page numbers, and columns. Eliminating manual processes also ensured that Bloomfield Township’s budget books are error-free — saving time and headaches alike.
  
• Professional Presentation: With Digital Budget Book, Bloomfield Township’s budget document is a clean, easy-to-navigate budget document with automated charts, consistent formatting, and interactive presentation.
  
• Enhanced Public Transparency: Residents and board members can easily access specific information through dropdown menus and interactive visuals.
  
• Improved Capital Budgeting: ClearGov’s Capital Budgeting tool is a major improvement over the manual Excel tracking that Bloomfield Township had previously used for its capital planning. Theis and his team use Capital Budgeting to efficiently build easy-to-understand one-year and multi-year capital improvement plans (CIPs).
  
• Streamlined Annual Process: Once the Digital Budget Book framework was established, annual updates became faster and less labor-intensive.

Bloomfield Township has seen firsthand the benefits that a web-based budget book can bring to finance staff, the board, and community members alike. Theis is confident that the Township’s budget book will remain a Digital Budget Book for a long time. 

The team was great on the ClearGov side, really responsive. Anytime I had a question or an issue, it was a very, very quick turnaround.

Jason Theis, Finance Director, Bloomfield Township, Michigan