Local government finance teams are being asked to do more with fewer resources—faster closes, tighter deadlines, more transparency, and cleaner reporting. At the same time, the reports themselves keep getting bigger and more complex.
For many finance departments, the challenge isn’t a lack of data. It’s managing how that data flows across the many reports that rely on it.
That’s why more local governments are rethinking how financial reports are built — and turning to financial reporting automation as the solution.
The Real Problem: Financial Reporting is Manual, Repetitive, and Risky
Most local government finance teams produce multiple reports from the same underlying data:
- The ACFR
- Budget books
- Council or board presentations
- PAFRs and Public-facing financial summaries
- Monthly or quarterly reports
In a manual reporting process, this means:
- The same number is entered in multiple places
- Difficult collaboration across disconnected teams
- Updates must be tracked and applied repeatedly
- Version control becomes difficult
- Late changes create panic
- Small errors can easily slip through
This approach works—until it doesn’t. And when it breaks down, it often happens right before a deadline.
The Solution: Financial Reporting Automation
Financial reporting automation does not automate accounting judgment. It automates the mechanics of reporting. A modern, automated reporting process allows teams to:
Stop chasing the same number in 12 places
Finance teams often spend hours confirming that the same number matches across statements, notes, schedules, and summaries. One late audit adjustment can trigger a chain reaction of manual updates — and the risk that something gets missed.
In a connected reporting system, numbers are entered or imported once and reused everywhere they appear. When a value changes, every instance updates automatically — reducing reconciliation time and inconsistency risk.
Collaborate across departments, contributors, and even external partners in one shared environment
No more “Who has the latest version?” During ACFR or budget season, reporting becomes a coordination challenge. Different staff update different sections, files get emailed back and forth, and version confusion slows everything down.
A controlled collaborative environment lets multiple contributors work simultaneously, with permissions, tracked changes, and clear ownership — so teams move forward together instead of waiting on files.
Stop rebuilding formatting at the finish line
Get publish-ready reports. Many teams finalize numbers in spreadsheets… then spend days copying them into Word, fixing spacing, adjusting tables, and rebuilding charts — only to redo it when late changes arrive.
When reports are built in a publishing-ready format from the start, formatting and layout stay intact even as numbers update. That removes one of the most time-consuming end-of-process steps.
Maintain year-over-year repeatability
Don’t rebuild the same report every year. Without a structured reporting system, each year’s ACFR or budget book often starts with copying files, rebuilding links, and rediscovering last year’s logic — especially when staff turnover happens.
A repeatable reporting framework allows prior-year structures, tables, and narratives to roll forward, so staff spend their time reviewing and improving instead of rebuilding.
LSL’s Financial Reporting Solution: Workiva
When LSL helps local government clients implement financial reporting automation, the tool we use to support that process is Workiva.
Workiva is a cloud-based financial reporting solution built specifically for complex, deadline-driven reporting environments—like those faced by local government finance departments.
Importantly, Workiva does not replace your accounting system. It sits on top of your data and changes how reports are built, updated, and managed.
Bottom Line
Local government reporting challenges aren’t usually caused by accounting complexity — they’re caused by processes that haven’t kept pace with the growing number of reports, contributors, and deadlines finance teams manage each year.
Automation doesn’t replace professional judgment. It simply connects the data, people, and reports that already exist, allowing updates to flow smoothly, collaboration to happen in one place, and final reports to come together with less rework and fewer surprises.
If your team wants to produce ACFRs, budget books, and related reports in a more controlled, efficient, and sustainable way year after year, contact us today to learn more!
