PowerBI
Every local government data professional reaches a point where they are maintaining both PowerBI dashboards and Excel workbooks simultaneously — and wondering whether that redundancy is necessary or whether one tool should replace the other. The honest answer is that neither replaces the other. Microsoft is not replacing Excel with PowerBI.
Excel
If you read our guide to the 10 most important KPIs for public works departments, you already know what to measure. This article is the implementation guide — how to take a standard work order system export and build a dashboard in Excel that makes those metrics visible to the people
budget transparency
Budget data is one of the most important and most underutilized assets in local government. Every department has an appropriated budget. Every department tracks expenditures. And in most cities, that data sits in an ERP system or finance department spreadsheet — accessible to accountants, invisible to department heads, and entirely opaque