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Lancaster County outlines phased plan to publish check registers and p-card data on new transparency site
Summary
CFO Sabrina Harris proposed a phased transparency initiative to publish revenue collections, budget-to-actuals, check registers and low-dollar p-card transactions on a dedicated county website; council asked for department-level views and decided to return layout options to council before public rollout, with a plan to begin monthly postings after the new ERP go-live.
Lancaster County’s chief financial officer on Nov. 24 presented a phased plan to expand the county’s online financial transparency, including regular public posting of revenue collections, budget-to-actual reports, check registers and lower-dollar P-card transactions.
Sabrina Harris, the county CFO, told council staff has built sample exports from the current financial system and proposes a transparency “button” on the county website linking to a dedicated page where residents could drill into finance, projects, grants and procurement solicitations. Harris described a phased rollout: begin publishing monthly reports after the new Workday financial module goes live on July 1, 2026, and start posting January data in February under the first phase.
Council members asked staff to avoid naming individual employees in public reports and instead present transactions by department. Councilmember Harper said department-level detail should be sufficient for public oversight without exposing individual employees. Councilmember Graham and others asked how far back data would go; staff recommended starting with moving-forward publication and loading three years of historical transactions into Workday with limited drill-down.
Harris said sample reports include the county’s monthly budget-monitoring narrative and exports of check registers and P-card transactions. P-card exports include cardholder names by default; staff proposed presenting transactions by department and to return to council with layout options for approval before making data public.
Council directed staff to prepare variations of the reports and an implementation schedule for council review. The presentation noted expanded transparency could later include project dashboards, solicitation links and grant activity.
