How to Use WATCH


With its latest improvements, WATCH makes it even easier to track the County's budget and expenditures. In addition to the General Fund, the new version of WATCH tracks 15 other fund categories in the County budget, including grants and capital improvements. See a description of these funds.

Step 1:












Step 2:

 Select current or previous year to view financial transactions from the main WATCH page:

View current year financial transactions.

(Please note: Choosing “View Previous Year Financial Transactions” will display, in the new format, General Fund transactions, the only fund category available in the previous version of WATCH.)



In WATCH, you can drill down in the information by clicking on the "plus" sign beside the department name:

Related:

Learn how to submit a question

What you will see in WATCH

Find out what is included in the budget numbers

View current year financial transactions

View previous year financial transactions

Get instructions for downloading

Return to the main WATCH site

Step 3: You can display more information for a department by clicking the "+" signs beside each item to display division, cost center, expenditure categories, line items and vendor. This method will provide you with all information for that particular department.

Each line will show both the budgeted amount and actual amount.  Learn more about budgeted amounts.


Step 4: If you wish, you can also filter for data by selecting from within the Fund, Department, Expenditure Category or Vendor Name tables. For each selection you make within one table, only the valid options for that selection will display as available in the other tables:




To clear your selections within a table, simply click on the red "X" in the upper-righthand corner of that table.


Step 5:

An improved search feature enables you to quickly locate information on any item in the current budget and financial records.

Step 5a: Click on any of the pull-down arrows located at the right of the column headings in the current year financial transactions table (lower right).

Step 5b: Select Label Filters and then choose your filter from the drop-down menu to search within that column.




Step 5c: Within the Custom Filter box that appears, enter the search term you choose. (In the example below, we chose the word “vehicle.”) Click OK.




Only the categories that contain your search term will be displayed:




Step 5d: To remove the filter, click the icon at the top of the column and choose Clear Filter from the drop-down menu.



Instructions for Downloading

You can also download financial data to your own Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Warning: This is a very large file (minimum 10 MB) that will continue to grow monthly throughout the fiscal year as more data is added, so it may take a long time to download, depending on the speed of your connection and the file space you have available on your computer.

For full functionality, you must have Excel 2010 or later on your computer – Excel 2007 and earlier versions offer limited functionality. Steps are as follows:
  1. Click View Current Year Financial Transactions.

    View current year financial transactions.

  2. Click the Open in Excel tab at the upper left of the page, under the WATCH banner.



  3. Select Read Only and click OK.