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Guide for Town Managers
This guide is for the person managing OpenBook day-to-day — typically the Town Manager, Town Administrator, or Finance Director. Everything is done through a web browser. No technical knowledge required.
OpenBook is a free, open-source tool that gives your town a public website where residents can explore the budget in plain language. It turns your existing spreadsheet data into an interactive portal with charts, searchable tables, and plain-language explanations.
The software is free. The only cost is web hosting — free on Vercel, or $5–$20/month on other platforms. See the IT Department Guide for setup.
Your IT contact will give you:
- The admin panel URL (e.g.,
https://budget.yourtown.gov/admin/login) - An email and password to log in
After logging in, the admin panel has these tabs:
| Tab | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Settings | Town name, colors, logo, contact info |
| Upload | Add budget data from a spreadsheet |
| Data | View, replace, or delete uploaded files |
| Tooltips | Plain-language explanations for budget items |
| Links | External links (meeting minutes, reports) |
| PDFs | Uploadable documents for residents |
| FAQs | Frequently asked questions on the portal |
| Users | Invite and manage department staff |
| Requests | Review capital expenditure requests |
| Transfer | Hand admin access to a new person |
| Preview | See what residents see |
Work through these in order the first time.
Set your town name, URL slug, brand color, logo, contact email, and a short description. Click Save Settings.
The URL slug becomes your portal address (e.g., budget.yourtown.gov/sutton). Use lowercase letters and dashes only.
Go to Upload. You'll do this once per fiscal year. OpenBook accepts CSV and Excel files up to 10 MB.
Three steps per upload:
- Pick a category — Expenses, Revenues, Capital Projects, or Reserves
- Drop in your file — you'll see a row/column preview
- Map your columns — OpenBook auto-detects common headers. Confirm or correct each mapping. For dollar amount columns, set the fiscal year and whether it's Budget or Actual
Required fields:
| Category | Required |
|---|---|
| Expenses | Function Area + at least one Budget amount |
| Revenues | Category + at least one Budget amount |
| Capital Projects | Department, Purpose, Funding Source + amount |
| Reserves | None required (stored, not yet displayed) |
Click Confirm & Save Data when ready. Upload each category as a separate file.
The Data tab lists all uploads. You can replace or delete individual files, or wipe everything to start fresh.
Deleting an upload removes that data from the public portal immediately.
Click Preview to see your portal as residents will see it. Check charts, numbers, branding, and that data shows for each category.
Tooltips are short explanations that appear when residents hover over budget items. A ? icon marks items with tooltips.
- Category explainers — one or two sentences for broad groupings like "Public Safety"
- Line item hover text — explanations for individual rows like "Cherry Sheet Assessments"
Keep them short. One or two sentences is ideal.
- Links tab — point residents to external resources (town meeting warrants, audit reports, press releases)
- PDFs tab — upload documents residents can download (adopted budget, annual reports, fee schedules)
If your town uses the capital request feature, invite department staff from the Users tab:
- Enter a staff member's email → click Create Invite
- A single-use invite link is copied to your clipboard
- Send it to the staff member however you prefer
You can restrict invites to specific email domains (e.g., yourtown.gov) and generate password reset links for staff who forget their passwords.
The Requests tab shows requests submitted by department staff. Click a row to see details and add admin notes. Mark each request as Approved, Denied, or Under Review.
If you're leaving and someone new is taking over, go to the Transfer tab. Enter the new admin's name, email, and a password. Your account is replaced with theirs. Share the credentials before confirming — this can't be undone.
Each fiscal year:
- Export new budget data from your financial system
- Delete or keep previous uploads in the Data tab
- Upload new files
- Preview the portal
- Review tooltips for any category changes
The portal updates immediately when data is saved.