Next Gen Financial Reporting

This paper describes a vision to improve financial reporting for local governments using technologies like generative AI and other high-tech tools. For example, it suggests “unbundling” financial reports to customize them for specific audiences and “personalizing” financial data to match users’ preferences and expert level. It also provides other ideas for how technology could transform financial reporting. The goal is to start a discussion on making financial reports more accessible, relevant, and useful. This paper is part of GFOA’s Rethinking Financial Reporting initiative.

We have provided this report below as a MS Word document and invite you to suggest ideas to improve the vision. We have enabled track changes and comments. If possible, please use the comment feature to provide your input as documents with many track changes become difficult to read. We will periodically update the document to reflect comments and suggestions.