Nestled on the high plains of Northern Colorado, just east of the Rocky Mountains and north of Denver, the City of Greeley is known for its vibrant college-town energy and growing population of over 115,000 residents. As home to the University of Northern Colorado and Aims Community College, Greeley balances academic spirit with civic responsibility—none more critical than managing its $587 million annual budget.
For years, assembling the city’s annual budget book was a largely a manual process that involved juggling spreadsheets, Word docs, and Adobe files—hardly a model of efficiency or collaboration. Only one team member could access a document at a time, and accessibility compliance was a persistent challenge.
But in 2025, Greeley’s budget team decided it was time for change. The initiative to implement Euna Budget’s Budget Book Studio was spearheaded by Brandon Garza, Interim Deputy Budget Director, and Brandon McEldowney, Budget Analyst II. They transformed a time-consuming task into a streamlined, collaborative, award-winning process.
Greeley’s move to a digital-first budget book wasn’t just about operational efficiency—it was about accountability. By opening up their budgeting process with a more transparent, community-accessible budget book, the city strengthened trust between government and residents. In a time when public perception can hinge on clarity and openness, Greeley positioned itself as a leader in responsive, citizen-first governance.
Improved Collaboration
For years, building the city’s budget book meant manually inputting numbers & reports into Excel or Word, converting files into PDFs, and hoping it all came together in time. The process was manual, time-consuming, and limiting—only one person could work on a document at a time, and accessibility was an afterthought.
In 2025, everything changed with the implementation of Euna Budget’s Budget Book Studio, and the impact was immediate. The purpose-built publishing tool made it easy for multiple contributors to work together in real time, transforming a siloed, stress-heavy process into a smooth and collaborative experience that improved accuracy, compliance, and accessibility.
“One thing we lacked previously that Budget Book Studio really helped with was the user interface,” McEldowney explained. “For people that aren’t really working on the budget, they can just bop in, input their information, and bop out. It definitely led to a lot more efficiency.”
The public is now better equipped to navigate Greeley’s budget, thanks to the improved accessibility of their budget book, which made it easy to share financial data with stakeholders and their community as well as meet ADA, AODA, ACA, and WCAG standards.
“A lot of our PDFs were restricted to certain users” says Brandon M. “With Budget Book Studio, there’s no real issues there, and I feel like the accessibility is definitely improved.”
And when it came to last-minute edits and reviews, having Budget Book seamlessly integrated with their budget solution provided flexibility to unpublish and revise at any time.
“I probably unpublished and published it 20 times”, laughs Brandon M. “So in instances where someone like a director is going through their pages after it’s published and says ‘you know what? I don’t like this sentence’, it was nice to have that ability to just unpublish, make the correction, and republish the whole thing—it was really easy to do.”
That flexibility also demonstrated to the public that the city’s budgeting process is dynamic, responsive, and transparent. Showing their leaders’ commitment to open communication and fiscal clarity, it reinforced community trust.
Improved Compliance
The improvements didn’t stop at collaboration. Maintaining compliance with accessibility standards like the ADA, and the GFOA’s Distinguished Budget Presentation Award criteria was no small feat, but Budget Book Studio helped the team meet ADA standards for the first time and eliminated common technical roadblocks.
“We just had a PDF that we would print out and send to GFOA and then we would print out the books for Council,” said Budget Analyst Brandon McEldowney. “None of which are really ADA compliant. So I loved the fact that, with Budget Book Studio, you’re able to just throw it in there and run the scanner.”
Meeting those standards also meant that more Greeley residents could fully engage with the city’s budget, no matter their ability level. That inclusive access laid the groundwork for greater civic participation and affirmed the city’s commitment to transparent governance.
Set up for Future Success
Instead of rebuilding the wheel every year, Greeley now has a living, editable template that simplifies the update process for future publications.
“Now we have a good template to use, so all we really have to do is just refresh the numbers,” McEldowney said. “And that helps with the next year, too, cause now we can just copy the basic outline, and everyone can jump in and update their sections.”
Result
With Euna Budget’s Budget Book Studio, the City of Greeley didn’t just streamline their process—they raised the bar for what a modern municipal budget book can be.
The team cut down on inefficiencies, enabled real-time collaboration, and produced their first-ever ADA-compliant digital budget book. Most notably, their 2025 budget earned the GFOA Distinguished Budget Presentation Award, a clear validation of both the content and the process behind it. “It was definitely an improvement from prior years,” said Brandon G.
And with a reusable template in place and a smoother path for updates, the team is already set up for success in future cycles. As Garza puts it, when asked what he’d say to colleagues still debating making the switch to a digital budget book: “Take the leap. Honestly.”
And for the City of Greeley, that leap paid off—not just in the form of national recognition with a GFOA award, but in better community engagement. The digital transformation of the city’s budget book gave residents unprecedented insight into how funds are managed and priorities are set. It also gave their budget team the recognition they’ve long deserved for their dedication to accessibility, excellence, and public service.
If you’d like to view the City of Greely’s GFOA award winning digital budget book, visit their OpenBook Portal.
Ready to modernize your municipal budget book? Request a demo of Budget Book Studio today.