Laramie launches Open Finance tool tied to new Munis ERP; searchable checkbook feature slated for May

City finance staff demonstrated a new Open Finance web tool at a Laramie City Council work session, showing a live, web-based interface that draws weekly updates directly from the city's new Munis enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. The tool currently displays aggregated operating and capital revenues and expenditures by fund, category, division and account. Staff said a transaction-level "checkbook" feature that will show invoices and payable details is planned for an upcoming release.

Director Wade told the council the Munis ERP (Tyler Technologies' product) went live this past year and that Open Finance is a public-facing data tool that "derives its data directly from our financial software with no additional manipulation by city staff." Staff said Phase 1 was launched last month and is updated weekly.

Senior accountant Spencer Ficuri led the live demonstration and walked the council through common queries: filtering by fund, drilling to division or account level, viewing operating versus capital classifications, exporting data to CSV and reviewing multi-year trends.

"It's kind of choose your own adventure," Ficuri said, explaining that users can filter by fund, category, account or department to find the item they want to inspect. He demonstrated an example search for electricity expenditures at the ICE Event Center that returned year-to-date and prior-year totals and showed how to export the underlying table.

Key details and limitations Staff emphasized the tool was designed to surface budgetary and operating information (the most public-facing measures) rather than the more technical GAAP-oriented balances that appear in audited financial statements. The data are updated weekly from Munis and staff said they validated totals to match council-approved budgets and monthly financial reports.

The checkbook function, staff said, will allow users to examine individual payable transactions and invoices; that phase required additional back-end work and was not yet live at the demonstration. Staff asked the public and councilors to use short video tutorials and user guides produced for the site and to provide feedback on navigation and contact details.

Council response and next steps Councilors praised the tool's accessibility and asked staff to make contact and help resources easier to find on the Open Finance site. Several councilors suggested adding the tool to the city homepage, placing quick links in email signatures, and using it as a reference during constituent inquiries. Staff said they will hold a second work session when the checkbook feature goes live and will continue refining the site based on user feedback.

Ending: staff invited the public to try the Open Finance tool and to use provided tutorials; staff said they will return to the council with the checkbook demonstration when ready.