Mecklenburg County's Budget Dashboards

About the Program

Category: County Administration and Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2014

Over the past few years, Mecklenburg County has faced several challenges that have served as the impetus to change how we manage our business; these changes include growth, diminishing state revenue, the need to adequately fund education, and a more diverse population. In response to these challenges, Mecklenburg County has chosen to focus on changing and improving the key processes for planning, budgeting, and performance management in order to ensure that we make the best use of limited resources in order to deliver the greatest return on investment to our customers and stakeholders. This process is known as Managing for Results (M4R). As part of the Managing for Results philosophy, the Office of Management and Budget has developed and maintained three types of interactive dashboards – Performance, Enterprise, and Department – as a way to help monitor progress in meeting both department and overall organizational financial and performance goals. Each dashboard offers an easy-to-use visualization of financial or program evaluation data (or both) using graphs and charts. These dashboards are made available on the County’s website. The implementation of these budget and performance dashboards has resulted in an increased level of accountability and transparency that provides information to departments, elected officials, and the community in an easy to follow manner, which is consistent with the County’s effort to incorporate transparent business processes and practices as an integral part of daily operations.