Columbus, Ohio
Ohio’s Most Populous City Modernizes Its ACFR Reporting Process

Primary Objective

Renovate the ACFR Reporting Process

Streamline and modernize the city’s ACFR process while maintaining their reputation for financial excellence

Background

The Biggest Small Town in America

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. 

The City’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) is prepared by the City Auditor’s Office. Megan Kilgore is the elected Auditor for the City of Columbus. Per the City Charter, the City Auditor serves as the city’s 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.

Challenge

Financial Excellence, Achieved with Manual Processes

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However, the reliance on manual processes and outdated tools made things more complicated for the city, pushing them to look for a better solution that could help them maintain their reputation for financial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 “structured data” format sometime in 2026 or thereafter.

Before implementing Gravity by ClearGov’s ACFR Financial Reporting solution, 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 80–85 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.

Solution

From Manual Hurdles to Smooth Automation

To address these challenges, the City of Columbus implemented Gravity by ClearGov’s ACFR Financial Reporting solution, leveraging its robust automation capabilities to revolutionize its ACFR creation process. ACFR Financial Reporting enabled automated data integration, streamlined narrative updates, simplified collaboration, and quicker compilation times for Columbus.

We’re already seeing time savings in areas like budget-to-actuals. What took two weeks can now be done in a day. The ability to link everything in Gravity by ClearGov has been a game-changer.

Darlene Wildes, Deputy City Auditor, Columbus, OH

Results

The ACFR, Accelerated

Since implementing Gravity by ClearGov’s ACFR Financial Reporting solution, Columbus’s modernized ACFR and budgeting process have seen significant improvements.

Compilation Automation – Automated tools generate a comprehensive ACFR document, complete with accurate page numbers and table of contents, in a fraction of the time that Columbus took to accomplish it manually.

Streamlined Narrative Updates: Built-in linking ensures that changes to numbers automatically propagate through narratives and calculations, maintaining consistency.

Efficiency Gains and Reduced Overtime – Columbus used to spend two weeks preparing their ACFR. After modernizing with Gravity by ClearGov, that dropped to one day — a 93% decrease in preparation time that also significantly reduced the amount of employee overtime.

GFOA Award Winners – With the help of Gravity by ClearGov, Columbus won a GFOA Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for its ACFR.

Improved Accuracy and Consistency – The ACFR Financial Reporting solution imports data directly from the city’s ERP system, eliminating the need for manual data entry and reconciliation, as well as increasing accuracy and consistency.

Enhanced Collaboration and Workflow – Gravity by ClearGov’s cloud-based platform enables multiple team members to work simultaneously, eliminating version control issues.

Columbus transformed its ACFR process and output, and the city now spends less time to put out a better result. Your community can do the same with ClearGov.

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