As cities and counties across the United States prepare for fiscal year 2027-28, governing bodies and professional managers are facing the simultaneous dual threat of sharply rising operating costs and public pressure to lower property tax rates. Traditional budgeting methods built around spreadsheets and disconnected systems have become nearly impossible to sustain.
To help cities and counties adapt to these challenges, LSI developed Fund View — a modern budgeting and planning solution designed to give local governments greater analytical insight, stronger forecasting capabilities, and more effective control over their financial planning process. Powered by SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC), Fund View helps organizations simplify analysis, budgeting, forecasting, reporting, collaboration across departments and public transparency.
The Growing Budgeting Challenges Facing Local Governments
Over the past several years, many municipalities successfully avoided tough decisions with temporary federal stimulus funding, one-time accounting, or judicious use of fund balance. But as these options become exhausted, local governments are being forced to prepare for bruising budget cycles ahead.
If these conditions weren’t enough, proposed adjustments in federal grant regulations can be expected to inject further uncertainty in routine federal programs as the rule-making process evolves.
For many organizations, budgeting processes still rely heavily on siloed data, manual data entry, number-crunching analytics, and staff-crafted presentations. These laborious, time-intensive practices turn difficult program choices into dice rolls as decision-makers fall back on pre-conceived beliefs about the best use of public money.
What to Expect in 2027 and 2028
While no one can predict the future perfectly, several themes are already beginning to emerge from our client discussions that signal a major evolution in how local governments approach budgeting and planning. Natural language query and predictive analytic functions are expected to make appearances in local government budgeting by 2027 and 2028. Cities and Counties are likely to begin introducing AI-assisted practices into budgeting guidelines, if for any reason, to compensate for staffing gaps and improve turn-around time on complex analyses. Organizations with well-structured, single-source-of-truth budgeting databases will be in the strongest position to take advantage of these emerging technologies.
Further, political and economic uncertainty is certain to make budget balancing more challenging. Communities across the country continue debating priorities around public safety, transportation, housing, sustainability, and economic development. Regardless of political perspective, budget leaders are expected to provide accurate, data-driven insights that support informed and transparent decision-making.
Why Modern Budgeting Solutions Matter
It’s a fact that there’s never enough timely information. As budgeting grows more complex, disconnected spreadsheets and manual processes are no longer enough.
That’s why Fund View was specifically designed to help cities and counties modernize budgeting and planning while improving efficiency, accuracy, process control, collaboration, and visibility. Purpose-built for cities and counties,the platform provides a centralized solution for managing historical data, performance measures, position budgeting, budget requests, approvals, revenue forecasting, reporting, and long-range planning, among other functions.
Fund View integrates with both SAP and non-SAP ERP systems, helping organizations maintain synchronized and consistent accounting, human resources and operational data across departments. Through SAP Analytics Cloud, users gain access to advanced analytics, predictive modeling, AI-powered insights, and customizable dashboards that make financial and operational data easier to understand and act on.
Preparing for the Future with Fund View
As the next several years will likely redefine how local governments approach budgeting
and planning, it is no surprise that the Government Finance Officers Association has been leading a ‘Rethinking Budgeting’ Initiative. The organizations that succeed will be the ones that can adapt quickly, improve transparency, and make smarter long-term decisions.
As the pressure for tough decisions mounts on governing bodies, elected officials will be expecting professional managers to be schooled in the latest budgeting concepts, practices, and technologies, Fund View helps cities and counties turn their financial and operational data into a strategic asset, giving leadership the visibility, flexibility, and forecasting capabilities needed to navigate the evolving fiscal and political challenges of 2027, 2028, and beyond.