DALTON, Mass. — The Finance Committee has endorsed a budgeting software to streamline and increase the transparency of the budgeting process.

 

The Select Board will consider whether to support the purchase of software.

 

During the Feb. 11 meeting, the committee reviewed the budgeting software ClearGov, which has been used in other municipalities and school districts, including Lanesborough, Central Berkshire Regional School District, Lenox Public Schools, and Mount Greylock Regional School District.

 

"It is an expense, but I think in terms of transparency, and about being able to give the residents of Dalton a transparent budget picture, I think it's a great way forward," Town Manager Eric Anderson said. 

 

It is something that the town can post to its website, improving transparency, and save staff time. 

 

This will be Anderson's seventh year driving a budget discussion, six in his previous town in Connecticut, and budgeting consumes a substantial number of hours annually. 

 

"I'm a pretty expensive employee for you, so anything you can do to free up my labor hours to do other things is a bonus to the town and that goes for the department heads also, and that goes for your time," Anderson said. 

 

"I think this is worth it in terms of just labor savings to the town, but I also think it's a safer way to budget." 

 

The town has been using the same Excel sheet to budget since it was developed by former committee member Terry Williams 25 years ago and life has gotten more complex since then, Anderson said. 

 

Excel-based budgeting increases the liability to error because of the high number of cells in the document that has to be managed, he said. 

 

"It's very easy to overwrite a cell and then lose the path that was previously established, and then, you know, not realize you've done that," Anderson said. 

 

Although Anderson's previous town did not approve the software, three of the four abutting towns did. 

 

"One of them adopted it after they botched a budget pretty badly through an Excel error. They set a mill rate that was roughly a million higher than they had to and ended up returning money to a town," he said. 

 

"And after that, they decided they needed to up their game on the budget issue a little bit after they took an immense amount of flack." 

 

The program is very robust, Chair William Drosehn said, referencing to a presentation on the system that he, Anderson, and Select Board Chair Robert Bishop, attended. 

 

Drosehn said he looked at a couple of other programs but did not consider them as robust. 

 

"It's really gotten my attention that it would be very beneficial for us to have this," he said. 

 

During budget deliberations, the committee often seeks up-to-date information on current fiscal year spending, but typically must wait up to a month for a response, Drosehn said. 

 

"With this piece of software, we would be able to put it on the board and know that day or that moment," he said. 

 

The initial setup fee is $5,185, which covers downloading the town's accounts, integrating it with ClearGov, and ensuring compatibility with its existing financial software.

 

This setup allows the town to pull data directly from its current system into ClearGov and, after the budget process, export it back into its financial software.

 

This year, the total cost would be about $18,000, including the $12,000 a year subscription.