September quarterly update brings fresh data to FIT

With new annual report filings from nearly 200 governments across the state since June 30, we're excited to share our first quarterly update of the 2020 fiscal year financial data in the Financial Intelligence Tool (FIT).

The State Auditor's Office uses FIT to publish the data from the annual reports that local governments are legally required to submit. We published the “baseline” snapshot on June 30, which included the data from 1,698 local governments. SAO publishes updated data snapshots every quarter to ensure FIT contains the most up-to-date information for every local government that filed an annual report.

We published the first 2020 quarterly snapshot update on Sept. 30, which included data from 1,897 local governments and an increase of more than $8 billion in revenues over the June snapshot. With this new information, FIT users like reporters, bond rating groups and lenders, legislators, the public and others now can explore and compare more information about how local governments receive and spend public dollars.

To access this new snapshot data, visit https://portal.sao.wa.gov/FIT/, click the drop-down menu in the top right corner, and select “2020 Filing Milestone Snapshot (revised 9/30/2021).”

We'll create two more snapshot updates over the next five months—one near the end of the December and one in March 2022 after additional filing submissions have refreshed the FIT data.

If you have questions about snapshots or want to schedule a one-on-one FIT personal training session, please connect with the Center for Government Innovation's data specialists at center@sao.wa.gov.

On the FIT home page, click the drop-down menu in the top right corner and select “2020 Filing Milestone Snapshot (revised 9/30/2021)” to access the latest FIT snapshot update.