Primary Objective

Simplify, Modernize, and Streamline Budget Creation

Simplify a manual, spreadsheet-based budget process, improve transparency, and create an interactive, easy-to-understand Digital Budget Book for staff and the community.

Challenge

A Manual, Stressful, and Time-Draining Budget Book Process 

Hendry County School District’s Chief Financial Officer Jason Adams has worn many hats since joining the district in 2015 — from teacher to instructional coach to IT director and now CFO. His mix of instructional and technical experience shaped his drive to bring efficiency and innovation to the district’s financial operations.

But before adopting ClearGov, Adams and his 3-person team relied on a manual, Microsoft Excel-based process to build Hendry County School District’s annual budget book. Every time a change was made, the team had to start over and rebuild the entire document from scratch. The Excel-based format itself was extremely limited — it only offered readers plain numbers and basic tables without any visuals or charts to help explain the story behind the data.  

The process was not only inefficient but mentally exhausting. During peak budget season, Adams’ team routinely worked 12-hour days that extended into their weekends. As Adams put it, the process “made us think about our own sanity,” since his team would put in so many overtime hours. It became clear that something had to change.

Solution

Discovering ClearGov’s Digital Budget Book

Immediately after finishing his first exhausting traditional budget book cycle, Adams began looking for digital alternatives. “I think that my background in IT really highlighted the fact that this traditional way of working does not have to be that way,” Adams said. “There are way more efficient processes and other products available to simplify and improve the budget book.”

At first, no software solutions impressed him enough to consider switching. That changed when he saw ClearGov in action. After viewing a demo, he instantly recognized the product’s potential to transform the district’s process with automation, visual presentation, and transparency. 

What sealed the decision was the ease of importing financial data and instantly generating visual, interactive budget content. ClearGov Digital Budget Book’s ADA-optimized, customizable pages gave Hendry County School District control over how data, charts, and visuals were presented, allowing staff to transform a once-static spreadsheet into a modern source that better communicated key information to the community. Digital Budget Book’s generative AI feature also let Adams generate a comparative analysis of fund balances that otherwise wouldn’t have been a part of Hendry County School District’s budget book.

“The thing that surprised me most about the ClearGov Digital Budget Book was how easy it was to import information and new information, and then have all of that graphically represented and displayed in your budget book immediately. That was what really sold the product to me.”

Jason Adams, Finance Director, Hendry County School District, FL

Implementation

Easy Onboarding and Exceptional Support

The ClearGov support team’s real-time availability, expertise, and step-by-step guidance made the onboarding process smooth and efficient. He noted that there was some one-time setup required at the beginning, but once that was completed, most financial pages could be generated with a single click. The ClearGov support system also includes an extensive online library, weekly live training sessions, and on-demand chat and phone support, which ensured that Adams’ every question was answered quickly.

Once configured, ClearGov allowed Adams to import ERP data, review it, and publish a complete, professional-looking budget book in under a minute. Digital Budget Book’s automatic data updates keep revenue and expense data current as the budget changes, eliminating the need to manually find and replace outdated figures.

“The ClearGov onboarding experience has been one of the easiest onboarding experiences with software implementation that I’ve ever worked with. And as a previous IT director, I’ve worked with many software companies.”

Results

A Faster, Smarter, and More Transparent Budget Process

Implementing ClearGov helped Hendry County School District achieve results that improved both internal and external improvements:

• Reduced budget preparation time by 75%: Previously, three people spent weeks preparing the book; with ClearGov, Adams completed it himself while slashing the time it took to complete. As a result, Adams’ team no longer needs to work 12-hour days during budget season.
  
• Automated, visualized data: The district’s financial reports now include bar and pie charts, making complex information easy to understand and easy to complete. Adams also loves Digital Budget Book’s generative AI feature, which helped him generate a comparative analysis of fund balances in minutes.
  
• Improved budget communication: Department heads across the district commended the new Digital Budget Book for helping them better understand funding sources and budget planning. School board members also expressed how impressed they were with the professionalism and clarity of the new format.
  
• Future-proofed efficiency: Adams can now clone the entire budget book each year and update it with new data in as little as 15 minutes.

ClearGov transformed Hendry County School District’s budget process from a stressful, manual slog into a streamlined, visual, and transparent experience. With automation, an easy-to-use interface, and powerful presentation, the district not only gained efficiency but elevated trust and engagement across departments and leadership. Your government can do the same with ClearGov — making budgeting faster, clearer, and more collaborative than ever before.

“I’m a proud partner with ClearGov. And if you want to make your life easier, then you will be, too.”

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Primary Objective

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Challenge

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Solution

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