City Council Memorandum
TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL DATE: OCTOBER 6, 2026 FROM: FINANCE DEPARTMENT WARDS: ALL
SUBJECT: PROFESSIONAL CONSULTANT SERVICES AGREEEMENT WITH VERTOSOFT, LLC, OF LEESBURG, VIRGINIA THROUGH OMNIA PARTNERS/NATIONAL COOPERATIVE PURCHASING ALLIANCE (NCPA) COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT NUMBER 01-165 FOR BUDGET BOOK SOFTWARE WITH A TERM ENDING ON SEPTEMBER 30, 2028, FOR A TOTAL AGREEMENT AMOUNT OF $103,643 AND SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATION OF $50,558 FROM GENERAL FUND TECHNOLOGY RESERVE ISSUE:
Consider approving a Professional Consultant Services Agreement with Vertosoft, LLC, of Leesburg, Virginia through Omnia Partners/NCPA Cooperative Agreement Number 01-165 for Budget Book Software with a Term ending on September 30, 2028, for a total Agreement amount of $103,643 and Supplemental Appropriation from General Fund Technology Reserve.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
That the City Council:
Approve a Professional Consultant Services Agreement with Vertosoft, LLC through Omnia Partners/NCPA Cooperative Agreement Number 01-165 for Budget Book Software with a Term ending on September 30, 2028, for a total Agreement amount of $103,643; Authorize the City Manager, or designee, to execute all documents necessary to complete this purchase, including making minor and non-substantive changes; and With at least five affirmative votes, authorize the Chief Financial Officer, or designee, to record a supplemental appropriation of $50,558 from the General Fund, Technology Reserve to the Finance, Budget, Software Licenses expenditure account.
BACKGROUND:
The City of Riverside prepares and adopts a biennial budget, which represents one of the City's most significant financial planning, policy, transparency, and accountability documents. As part of this process, the City prepares a 500+ page budget book for the adoption of the biennial budget. The City's budget book consolidates financial information from across the organization and presents the City's operating and capital budgets, revenues, expenditures, departmental budgets, organizational information, performance information, financial policies, capital improvement information, and other information necessary for City Council and the public to understand the City's financial plan. The City prepares condensed budget schedules for the second year of the biennial budget.
Historically, the Finance Department has relied on a combination of Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Adobe PDF tools, photographs, graphics, and other stand-alone files to assemble the budget book documents. While this process has allowed the City to successfully produce its biennial budget, it requires substantial manual effort and creates opportunities for inconsistent formatting, duplicate data entry, version-control issues, and errors when information changes during the budget development process. This approach was time consuming—It requires hundreds of staff hours across multiple departments; and Error prone—Manual data entry increases the risk of miscalculations and inconsistencies.
The Finance Department piloted IGM Gravity during the preparation of the FY 2026–2028 Biennial Budget to evaluate whether a purpose-built budget book platform could improve the City's budget book development process. The pilot provided the Finance Department with an opportunity to evaluate the software using the City's actual budget information, departmental submissions, financial tables, narratives, graphics, and publication requirements rather than relying solely on a demonstration environment.
DISCUSSION:
On October 14, 2025, the City entered into a 1-year agreement with IGM US Holdings Inc, to pilot the Gravity budget book platform. The pilot was valuable because it was conducted using the City's actual biennial budget process rather than a theoretical demonstration. Finance staff were able to assess the software's ability to handle the City's organizational structure, budget information, narratives, financial tables, graphics, and publication requirements.
The pilot demonstrated the potential to improve the budget book development process in several areas:
Centralization of budget-book information;
Automatic Importation of Budget Data;
Reduction in manual document assembly;
Standardization of budget book formatting;
Greater consistency among financial tables;
More efficient incorporation of revisions;
Improved document organization;
More professional and consistent presentation;
Reduced reliance on manual PDF assembly; and
Improved ability for Finance staff to focus on budget analysis rather than document production.
The pilot also reduced implementation risk because the City has already gained practical experience with the platform, identified implementation requirements, and developed knowledge regarding how the software can be incorporated into the City's biennial budget process. For these reasons, staff believes moving forward with IGM Gravity (ClearGov) represents a logical continuation of the City's investment rather than initiating a new implementation with another platform.
IGM Gravity's Budget Studio is specifically designed for government budget development and publication. The platform supports the budgeting process from drafting and data entry through final publication, including centralized data collection, automated tables and charts, workflow collaboration, and automated publication.
The primary benefits are expected to include the following.
Automation of the Budget Book—The software can automate portions of the process that are currently performed manually, including formatting and publication. This provides an opportunity to significantly reduce the administrative burden associated with producing a 500-plus-page document.
Improved Accuracy and Consistency—The use of centralized information and automated report generation can reduce the number of times staff must manually transfer financial information between Excel, Word, and PDF files. This provides additional control over the budget-book production process.
Reduced Version-Control Risk—A centralized platform can provide staff with a more consistent source for budget-book information and reduce the number of independently maintained files.
Standardized Presentation—The budget book represents the City's primary public-facing financial planning document.
Faster Incorporation of Changes—Budget changes are a normal part of the City's biennial budget process. A software-based approach can allow staff to update source information and regenerate affected portions of the budget book more efficiently than manually revising multiple Word, Excel, and PDF files.
Improved Staff Utilization—The Finance Department's primary responsibility is financial management, analysis, forecasting, budgeting, policy development, and stewardship of public resources. Reducing the amount of staff time devoted to manual document production allows employees to spend more time on higher-value financial activities.
Institutional Knowledge and Process Continuity—The pilot has provided City staff with experience using the platform and identifying how it fits within Riverside's budget process. Continuing with the same platform avoids the cost and disruption of restarting the evaluation, implementation, configuration, and training process with a different system.
Improved Transparency and Public Accessibility—The City's budget book is an important public transparency document.
Purchasing Overview
OMNIA Partners/NCPA is a national service cooperative created to provide government procurement resources and solutions to members in government, education, and nonprofit sectors. To meet competitive bidding requirements of government entities, OMNIA Partners/NCPA performs its own competitive bidding process for various services and supplies. OMNIA Partners/NCPA issues a Request for Proposal that is advertised across various publications. Vendors bid on contracts with OMNIA Partners/NCPA, offering discounts and taking advantage of economies of scale. Purchasing this software through the cooperative agreement will allow Finance to purchase this budget book software at a discounted rate.
This action is pursuant to Purchasing Resolution No. 24421, Section 602 which states “Competitive Procurement through the Informal Procurement and Formal Procurement process shall not be required in any of the following circumstances… (f) When Cooperative Purchasing is available and undertaken or when Goods can be obtained through Federal, State and/or other public entity pricing contracts or price agreements.” The Purchasing Manager concurs that the recommended action is in accordance with Purchasing Resolution No. 24421.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The fiscal impact of this action is $103,643. Upon City Council approval, a supplemental appropriation in the amount of $50,558 will be recorded from the General Fund Technology Reserves to the Finance, Budget, Software Licenses expenditure account 2310000-425700 for the first-year costs of the contract. The second year of the contract will be included in the proposed FY 2027/28 budget from the General Fund Technology Reserve. Sufficient Technology Reserves are available to support the supplemental appropriation.
Prepared by: Peter Kakos, Budget Manager
Approved by: Sergio Aguilar, Deputy Finance Director
Certified as to
availability of funds: Julie Nemes, Finance Director/Assistant Chief Financial Officer Approved by: Edward Enriquez, Assistant City Manager/Chief Financial Officer/Treasurer
Approved as to form: James Johnson, City Attorney
Attachment: Agreement
Omnia Coop Contract with Vertosoft for Gravity Budget Book Software ● Page 2