Delta County, Colorado

Primary Objective 

Eliminate inefficiencies with Excel-based processes, get a better view of personnel budgets, and level set with all department heads to enable county-wide use of the same budgeting solution.

Challenge

Delta County Finance Director Leone Anderson has worn many hats throughout her 30-year tenure at the county. Anderson worked in data entry, network administration, and human services accounting before assuming her current role in managing the county’s budget in 2019. “Everything’s been a whirlwind since then,” she says.

Part of that whirlwind came from having to manage budgets manually while juggling a plethora of spreadsheets. As a Finance Director, Anderson had to gather each department’s budget and check their numbers and fund balances — all by hand. She also had to manually merge all the budgets into a final PDF document for taxpayers and departments. 

When Anderson became Finance Director, all budgets were on paper and notebooks. Over time, this shifted to Anderson working with over 70 different Excel spreadsheets, with some containing over 30 tabs. Budgeting work sometimes kept Anderson awake until 2:00 a.m. Delta County commissioners even teased her about the emails she’d send them during the wee hours. 

Solution

Anderson wasn’t actually looking for a solution when she came across a ClearGov demo. “I didn’t know anything like ClearGov existed out there,” Anderson says. “I guess I just never looked because I was too busy trying to manage all those spreadsheets.“

However, once she saw the demo, she was intrigued by ClearGov’s budgeting solutions. As she described ClearGov’s solutions to Delta County’s commissioners, administrators, and department heads, they were also impressed. “ClearGov is clearly the answer,” Anderson says. “And the referrals, the fact that NACo recommends you guys and all that stuff— that was all I needed to see.” 

And Anderson added, “ClearGov was within our price range where we didn’t have to go out for bid or anything like that. So I was like, ‘Yes!’, where do I sign?“

The ClearGov team sent Anderson personalized videos and scheduled individual training sessions to help her quickly get up to speed. As she became comfortable with Personnel Budgeting, Anderson taught other department heads how to use it, even creating specialized videos for them to reference.

Achievements

Delta County used ClearGov to create its 2023, 2024, and now 2025 budgets. Implementing ClearGov’s budgeting solutions has improved Delta County’s budgeting in a variety of ways. Anderson now has a detailed, high-level overview of her budget, making it easy for her to organize her budget. With ClearGov, Anderson can add sub-line items to budget entries to further break down costs. The scenario planning functionality and the seamless integration between the ClearGov modules streamline the process even further. Whenever Anderson has a question, the ClearGov Customer Success Team is always on call to help her out.     

• Instantly make large-scale changes throughout all budgets. Delta County had a 13% increase in its health insurance, and Anderson was able to instantly change the percentage across all of her personnel budgets. Before, Delta County’s payroll clerk had to manually calculate the results of such benefits changes. “Just to add the new percentages in and have ClearGov automatically update all of the budgets – without having to remember to go through every spreadsheet in those departments and make sure it totals to 100, and you’re not over or under –  was absolutely wonderful and saved hours and hours of work,” Anderson says.

• Know what’s in your budget — from the big to the small. Personnel Budgeting’s Metrics Dashboard gives Anderson a birds-eye view of the budget, allowing budget nuances to be easily detected. Delta County gives phone allowances through its payroll, but these allowances could be missed when reviewing budgets. Now, it’s a breeze to find those items. “You get a clear picture of everything,” Anderson says.

• Save time with automation and advanced searching. The health department works with multiple grants, so a nurse, for example, could work in different departments with different grants. In the past, Anderson would have to find each of these percentages in individual spreadsheets and individually calculate each one — a time-consuming, manual process. ClearGov’s Personnel Budgeting automates calculations and puts all percentages at users’ fingertips, saving users huge amounts of time. Anderson estimates that ClearGov has saved her at least 100+ hours.  

• Explore all options with scenario planning. ClearGov’s Personnel Budgeting solution lets users create scenarios forecasting into the future and manage your budget by dollar amount or percentage adjustments. Anderson used a scenario for the entire county to help her better plan the county’s budget, and she’s able to export the scenario so that others in the county can review and provide feedback.

• Always get the help you need with our customer success team. ClearGov gives customers a personalized experience with each product. When Anderson had questions for the ClearGov team, a customer success manager would schedule 15-30 minute meetings to answer her questions. “If I have a question it gets answered.  I always get an answer very quickly,” she says. 

Personnel budgets are often the largest part of a public organizations’ budgets, but they don’t have to be your biggest pain. ClearGov Personnel Budgeting has saved Anderson and Delta County time, eliminated headaches, and delivered peace of mind with building and managing their personnel budgets. “It’s been a whirlwind,” Anderson comments on her time as Finance Director. “But now, with ClearGov, I’m much better off.”

“ClearGov is clearly the answer. And the referrals, the fact that NACo recommends you guys and all that stuff— that was all I needed to see.”