Open Checkbook
Transparency is fundamental to accountability. Most states, including Washington, have transparency websites. Washington's transparency website (fiscal.wa.gov) is a collaborative effort between the Office of Financial Management and the Legislative Evaluation and Accountability Program Committee.
The Open Checkbook is part of the transparency website which also provides access to data related to budgets, spending, revenue, state employee salaries, and contracts.
Other resources
- How the 50 States Rate in Providing Online Access to Government Spending Data (U.S. PIRG Education Fund):
The transparency initiative in Washington was formalized in Senate Bill 6818, which was codified as RCW 44.48.150 and became effective on June 12, 2008. It says the Legislature intends to make revenue and expenditure data as open, transparent, and publicly accessible as is feasible. This intention agrees with the public view that transparency is fundamental to accountability.
To help accomplish transparency, most states, including Washington, have transparency websites. Washington’s transparency website (fiscal.wa.gov) is a collaborative effort between the Office of Financial Management (OFM) and the Legislative Evaluation and Accountability Program Committee (LEAP).
The transparency website launched in 2008 with user-friendly access to agency and statewide data in areas such as budgets, spending, revenue, state employee salaries, and contracts. The Open Checkbook was added in 2012.
The "Open Checkbook" is an option on fiscal.wa.gov. No special access is needed.
The open Checkbook went live the first week of January 2012, data is presented only for the current and previous two biennium.
The transparency website directs the public to send an email to a generic email address. LEAP monitors the email traffic and forwards questions to the specific agency’s contact person.
Once the email question is forwarded to the agency's contact person (see above), the agency decides how to distribute the question and respond.
Contact Michael Mann, LEAP administrator, or Julie Jorgenson, state financial senior consultant at OFM.
The universe is a subset of disbursements made through the Agency Financial Reporting System (AFRS). AFRS makes disbursements for treasury and treasury trust accounts only. Disbursements made from local accounts are not included. Refer below for specifics on what is included or excluded.
According to the State Administrative and Accounting Manual (SAAM) glossary, disbursements are “payment[s] by cash, warrant, check, journal voucher, ACH, or any other technological payment method approved by OFM.” Expenditures are “decreases in net current financial resources. Expenditures include disbursements and accruals of the current period. Expenditures do not include encumbrances.”
Not all expenditures are disbursements. An example is an accrual. Not all disbursements are expenditures. An example is a revenue refund. Therefore, disbursement amounts do not necessarily equal expenditure amounts for any payee or period of time.
Unless information is specifically exempt from disclosure, it is disclosed if it meets the other inclusion criteria. We gathered information on exempt data via a survey and then worked with individual agencies on how to exclude exempt data from disclosure.
Payment data is available for the current and previous two biennium.
The website data is refreshed each month after AFRS closes.
Payments made through AFRS are included. Payments made from petty cash accounts and other local bank accounts are not included.
From the universe of AFRS payments, budget type N (non-budgeted); vendor type N (client); objects A, B, and M; and subobjects NA, NF, NT, NU, and NY are excluded. There are also a few agency-specific exclusions.
Revenue refunds are not included in the website.
Warrant cancellations are not included in the website.
Higher education payments made outside AFRS are not included in the website.
Local account payments are not included in the website.
Because purchase card detail transactions are not posted to AFRS through a payment batch type, they are not included in the website.
Payments made through AFRS to other agencies or accounts within an agency that meet the inclusion criteria are included in the website.
No, we decided not to include these because salary information is already included on the website.
Warrant cancellations are not included in the website. Aside from warrant cancellations, no other corrections, such as JVs, meet the selection criteria.
Therefore, it is important that information be as correct as possible when originally entered.
If you are not a state employee, contact LEAP or Julie Jorgenson at OFM. If you have questions about a specific payment, contact your agency fiscal officer or accounting department. If you have questions about the type of data that is displayed, contact your agency’s assigned OFM accounting consultant.
