A first-draft view of FY27 monthly spending, variance to budget, and town cash balance, built from data the town has already published.
First draft
This is a first draft of showing what monthly spending, variance to
budget, and the town's cash balance could look like, built from data
the town has already published. Those reports exist internally but
aren't published externally. Below is the closest version possible
from public data: a department-level pacing table (current YTD vs.
straight-line target), a monthly burn chart by fund, and the annual
free-cash series. Each section ends with what's missing for the real
version.
FY27 elapsed:…Read: % used above the elapsed-FY mark is pacing hot; below is pacing cold.
Department
Revised budget
YTD actual
% used
vs. pace
How to read the pacing column.
“+8% ahead” means the department's spend is 8 points past where straight-line pacing would put it, not 8% over budget. Some categories never pace linearly and the column isn't meaningful for them: debt service (a few fixed payment dates per year, mostly early), capital articles (lumpy draws, often year-end), harbor (seasonal), snow removal (winter only). The schools, fire, police, DPW, and water/sewer lines are where the pacing read tells you something useful.
What's still rough
Encumbrances aren't shown in the table, but they're in the data. The portal exposes an encumbrance column per department; this view currently only shows expended. Adding a "% committed" column would surface that.
Per-month budget. Even for departments that do roughly spend monthly, a flat 1/12 target is a coarse benchmark; the real internal report compares to a department's own historical month-by-month profile.
2. Monthly cash-out, by fund
Cumulative monthly spend by fund (payroll included). Dashed line is straight-line target.
Lumpy by design. Some funds spike in July (debt service prepay), some at year-end (capital draws). A flat 1/12-per-month line is the wrong comparison for most of them – it's a rough orientation, not a verdict.
Top 6 by total spend. Smaller funds (Harbor, Tax Articles, ARPA, capital projects) aren't charted. Drilling into those is a future iteration.
3. Town cash balance
Year-end reserve balances, FY16–FY25, and year-end certified free cash, FY15–FY26. One value per year per series; reserves come from the audited ACFR, free cash from DOR DLS Gateway.
Source FY25 ACFR (statistical section + RSI tables); FY24 ACFR for general stabilization detailCadenceAnnual · ACFR published the spring after FY closes
Reserves at the most recent year-end (June 30, 2025)
The dedicated General Stabilization Fund (MGL Ch. 40, Sec. 5B; requires a 2/3 Town Meeting vote to draw) is reported inside the General Fund Unassigned line in the audited statements. At FY25 year-end it held $557,204 — a small fraction of the $9.88M unassigned total.[s]
Certified free cash by year
Certified by Massachusetts DOR DLS Gateway (FreeCash2 report). FY15–FY24 are DOR-certified; FY25–FY26 are ACFR-unassigned proxies pending DOR refresh (faded).
Reserves trend, FY16–FY25
Three reserve categories on the same scale. The Pension Trust (~$133M at FY25YE) is on its own scale to the right because it dwarfs the others; bar heights between the left-axis series and the pension line aren't directly comparable.
What's missing for the real version
Monthly cash position. The Treasurer tracks pooled cash continuously. Nothing month-by-month is published. Free cash and reserves are year-end ACFR/DOR figures, not running balances.
FY25 and FY26 free cash are ACFR proxies, not DOR-certified. DOR's FreeCash2 report tops out at Year 2023 (= FY24 by our convention). The two most recent bars use the town's ACFR year-end General Fund Unassigned (FY24 ACFR for FY25, FY25 ACFR for FY26) as the best available proxy. DOR's certified value typically lands somewhat below the ACFR unassigned. Faded bars flag the methodology difference.
Operating cash, enterprise cash, and individual trust funds. The Treasurer's internal monthly report breaks pooled cash by category (general / Water+Sewer / Light / restricted trusts). Only year-end totals show up publicly, in the ACFR balance sheet.
Pension/OPEB market sensitivity. The Pension Trust and OPEB Trust balances move with PRIT/SRBT investment returns, not just contributions. A drop year-to-year doesn't mean a draw; it can mean a market correction. The FY22-FY23 dip in the pension line is the 2022 market.
What it would take to publish this for real
If the board decided to start sharing this externally each month:
Monthly variance report. Town Accountant exports a department-by-department expended + encumbered + remaining at month-end. PDF or CSV posted to the Finance page after each month closes.
Monthly Treasurer cash report. Pooled cash, broken out by general fund / enterprise funds / trust funds / restricted. One number per category, end-of-month.
Checkbook auto-publish. Right now the vendor checkbook only exports on demand. A monthly automated CSV drop would make a chart like the one above maintainable without a manual pull.