Welcome to Steele County’s financial transparency portal. In an effort to provide more inclusive and transparent financial data, Steele County has partnered with OpenGov to provide a new web-based financial transparency and intelligence tool that dynamically presents the County’s financial information in a simple graphical user interface.
By leveraging the OpenGov platform, interested users have around-the-clock access and a better understanding of the County’s budget and actuals. Steele is one of the few counties in the State of Minnesota to publicly release its financial data on the OpenGov platform.
Access our Transparency Portal anytime at: https://costeelemn.opengov.com
OpenGov Visuals
Annual Report Initial View
Current Year Report Initial View
Tips on Using the City's Financial Transparency Portal
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This portal allows you to explore budget and historical finances in a simple graphical user interface. Seven different reports can be viewed through the portal including an Annual Report, Budget Milestones, Current Year Report, Debt Service Schedule, Actual to Budget, Tax Levy Historical Data and Treasurer's Report.
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To see actual dollar amounts within the graphs, hover your curser over any area of the graph to see the actual or budgeted amounts for that period. You can also view a Summary Table detailing the financial information in dollar amounts by scrolling down the page.
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Using the “Views” menu is a great way to start exploring OpenGov. Views offer a list of frequently asked questions and allows instant access to that financial data. Click on any view and the graph will automatically change to that specific topic. Visit the frequently asked questions (FAQ) section below for some example views.
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There are five different types of visual representations of the data: area chart by percentage, area chart by dollars, line graph, pie chart, and stacked bar chart. Change the chart type as desired and the data will automatically convert to the chosen graph. These functions are on the top right of the page located below “Help” and “Share” tabs.
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To find information not offered in a view, click on “Filters” (located to the left of views) which will allow you to specify a specific fund, department, or expense type. Start with “show” and specify if you want to show revenues, expenses, or revenues vs expenses. Then pick a how you want data to be “broken down by.” This changes the legend on the graph to funds or departments for example. Next you can filter the data by fund, department, program, service, or expense type. Click on the filters and check/uncheck the information that interests you. Lastly, the bottom bar allows you to view data within specific years.
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Keep in mind that some items may gray out when filtering data meaning an item doesn’t apply. For example, under funds, if you select only General Fund then Debt Service or Capital Construction will be grayed out under departments since they are under a another fund.
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For a quick description on how governmental accounting works click on “Help” at the top right corner and click on “Multi-Fund Accounting 101.”
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To contact Steele County about any questions or comments send us a message under the “Help” tab.
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Under the “Share” tab, located on the top right of page, you can download any chart or graph as a picture, table, or spreadsheet. This information can also be shared with social media or email.
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The General Fund is the primary operating fund of the County and is used to account for all financial resources except those required to be accounted for in a separate fund (i.e. Road & Bridge). It supports many of the essential county services such as the community health, public safety, and administration.
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Not all expenditures or revenues are used every year. For example, there may be an expenditure for a specific item or project in FY 2014 that the County no longer uses. These expenditure categories will only be visible for the years they were used.
What is OpenGov?
OpenGov transforms the way the world analyzes and allocates public money. With more than 700 government customers across 44 states in a rapidly expanding network, OpenGov is the market leader in cloud-based financial intelligence, budgeting, and transparency for government. The OpenGov platform transforms government financial data into intuitive, interactive visualizations for both internal government users and citizens. OpenGov technology empowers administrators to make better policy decisions by measuring budget to actual expenditures, comparing data across departments and other governments and streamlining the budgeting process. Founded in 2012 with headquarters in Silicon Valley, OpenGov works with leading governments of all sizes including Minneapolis, New Haven, and Beaufort, SC. Learn more atwww.opengov.com.