Spending App

What is it?

Spending App is a free tool developed by Delib to help councils and other organisations present their open budget data in an interactive, intuitive way. It presents spending information in simple, visually appealing charts.

This interactive visualisation tool helps stakeholders view and engage with council spending data.  It includes:

• A colourful waffle chart displays your top-level spending areas.
• Ability to click on the chart to 'dig down' into each spending area and see a breakdown of spending in that area.
• No limit to the number of levels you can define: your visitors can dig down and see as much detail as your spending data allows.
• Ability to add further information to each spending area, for example to explain what the money was used for or how it was raised.

How it developed

Spending App was developed as part of the Your Local Budget programme run by Nesta in partnership with the Big Society Network and PB Unit, which sought to develop approaches to participatory budgeting. Delib received £14,400 to build Spending App.

The apps is designed to be a flexible tools that practitioners can 'plug-in' to support appropriate points of their wider engagement activities, introduce an online component, increase the quality of the deliberations and enable a wider profile of participants to take part.

Latest news (as at 3 September 2012)

A beta version of the tool is now freely available from the Your Local Budget website and from the Delib website.

 Want to know more

Alex Pitkin, Director @ Delib - alex@delib.co.uk