The Background
When John Snow stepped into the role of budget officer for the Town of Granby, NY, in 2010, he had no background in finance. A former educator, he taught himself government accounting from the ground up, eventually being elected as Town Supervisor in 2018 while continuing to handle the town’s budgeting responsibilities.
“I just started learning. Joined GFOA, and I fell in love with government accounting,” John said. “I like the analytical part. I like reporting. I really like budgeting.”
With a population of just over 6,000 and an office of “one and a half,” John oversees nearly every aspect of town operations, including managing Granby’s debt and compliance reporting.
“In the state of New York, the town supervisor is also the chief financial officer. So accounting and reporting all falls on my desk as well as everything else that the town supervisor is responsible for,” John shared. “So I wanted to look at what technologies were out there to make my life easier so that I’m able to do all of these things.”
Why Granby Needed a Better Way
Before DebtBook, Granby faced the kinds of challenges many small governments struggle with:
- Missing documentation due to staff turnover and short political terms
- Manual reporting for debt payments and compliance filings
- Outdated or handwritten amortization schedules
- Difficulty preparing legally required annual financial reports (AFR)
“There had been a number of town supervisors before me. Documents were lost. Things got overlooked. We had copies of amortization schedules that had been copied a million times with handwriting all over them,” John said. “We just didn’t know where the originals were.”
This impacted not just internal operations but the town’s ability to plan and communicate effectively.
“We were budgeting for debt payments, but when the payment hit, it was off because we’d lost track of the interest,” he shared.
At a Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) New York conference, he learned about DebtBook and immediately saw the potential.
Use Case #1: Modernization and Succession Planning
Granby implemented DebtBook to centralize documentation, automate calculations, and simplify reporting.
“When we started working with DebtBook, I found one of our serial bonds had enough money sitting in the bank to pay it off early,” John explained. “It was a sewer district, and only the residents in that district were paying the taxes to pay the debt. I never would’ve looked at that if I hadn’t been getting all our materials ready for DebtBook. Just to have all those pieces in DebtBook and then to see everything tied together was absolutely amazing.”
Now, Granby manages all its debt, GASB 87 lease and GASB 96 subscription-based IT arrangements in one centralized, secure place.
“I don’t have to worry about losing documents anymore. Everything’s in DebtBook. I refer to it all the time,” John said.
As for handling staff changeover?
“When you have a lot of changeover things get overlooked, things get lost. What's nice about DebtBook is now all my documents are in its repository, and so I don't have to worry about losing them or wondering ‘where did that file go’, or ‘where's the box that contains this?’ It's all together, so I refer to DebtBook all the time. When I have a question I know ’oh, I can get it in DebtBook.’ That's been really, really good for us.”
Use Case #2: Simplifying Annual Reporting Preparation
In New York, municipalities must submit an annual financial report by law, but many small towns struggle to complete it.
“Some of my colleagues can’t even fill out the debt section. That part alone can be a barrier to filing the AFR. But for me, it takes me literally five minutes. All the data I need is in DebtBook. I simply do an export in Excel, sum up the totals I need, and I’m done.”
Before DebtBook, preparing the AFR meant manually building amortization schedules from scratch, a process John estimates would take hours and leave ample room for error.
“You’d have to dig through closing documents to find the amortization schedule, build out spreadsheets with all the formulas. Some of our sales bonds have two interest payments a year but they’re different amounts because the first payment is really interest on the previous year,” John explained. “So I would have to create columns in Excel, input the correct formulas, and try to project that out to what my payments will be for the next 30 years. You’re talking hours and so much room for human error.”
Even a small mistake in those calculations could throw off an entire report, creating stress and uncertainty.
“I love Excel, but one bad formula, one missed cell, and your whole report’s off. With DebtBook, I don’t worry about the accuracy of my data. I just run it, and it’s there.”
Use Case #3: Improving Rates at Market with Transparent and Centralized Data
John takes pride in running a transparent, efficient local government and says DebtBook helps him live up to that goal.
“If a municipality doesn’t file their AFR, the state blasts that all over. You don’t want your town on that list. If you're not being transparent, it damages the trust people have in their local government,” John said.
“With DebtBook, I know I’m reporting properly, accurately, and being transparent. That helps me build trust in my community and helps us plan for the future.”
That reputation is paying off.
“We’ve been getting awesome rates at market. Banks throughout the state are bidding on little Granby’s issuance. Investors tell us, ‘You’ve got some good stuff going on.’ That’s because our information is accurate and transparent. DebtBook has definitely saved me time but also provided confidence with the information I'm presenting.”
That confidence extends to routine financial activities as well. With DebtBook, John can quickly generate operating statements for capital projects, making short-term financing faster and more efficient.
“We do a lot of short term financing for capital projects, maybe like a year at a time. So every time you do the operating statement it's very, very easy, because all the information that you need for the operating team is right in DebtBook and you can easily export it and throw it in your operating statement. The automation has been fantastic.”
That wasn’t always the case. Before DebtBook, producing an operating statement was a manual, frustrating task that consumed time and left room for error.
“When you go to market, you have to prepare your operating statement. Without DebtBook, I don't know where I would have gone to get all the information for the operating statement. And I'll be honest with you, you know the very first time I prepared one I wanted to pull my hair out. Maybe I would have given up and called my bank and asked what their rate is. But then you're not competing and getting the best interest rate,” John shared.
Thanks to DebtBook, Granby can now confidently go to market with accurate data and a strong financial story.
“Now I’m hearing ‘I can't believe you're getting the rates that you're getting because you're very small.’ Thanks to DebtBook’s help, we're getting some of the best rates compared to other small towns in the county. So I'm very proud of that. We're doing what we're supposed to. We're also saving taxpayer money by not paying high interest.”
Use Case #4: Streamlining GASB 96 Compliance & Spend Management
John uses DebtBook to manage 12 subscription-based IT arrangements under GASB 96 and says it would be “extremely hard” to comply without it.
“I know CPAs who struggle with GASB 96. It can’t be any easier in DebtBook. It's very cut and dry and straightforward.”
Having all subscription agreements in one place has also helped him reassess technology spending.
“When you list everything out, you realize, ‘Holy cow, we’ve got a lot of money tied up in tech.’ It makes you think, ‘Am I getting my money’s worth from this vendor?’ I wouldn’t be asking those questions without DebtBook,” he shared.
This has been especially helpful when it comes to managing spend.
“I want to make sure our payments are done on time again for the reputation of the town. Now with the Federal Government's transparency and reporting requirements that will be coming down, I feel like because we have DebtBook, whatever happens we're going to be ahead of the game because our information's in one place. It's ready to go. With DebtBook, we'll be ready.”
Use Case #5: Unlocking Cash Flow Visibility
Recently, Granby added DebtBook’s Cash Management solution.
“I’ve seen other municipalities struggle to make payroll. I don’t want that to ever happen here,” John stressed.
With the new solution, John can track inflow and outflow, and finally get his mental cash flow calendar out of his head and into a shared system.
“God forbid something happens to me. No one else would know what I know. With DebtBook, we’ll have it documented and visible for the next person.”
Not Just Software—A True Extension of the Team
John credits DebtBook with helping Granby save time, improve accuracy, and elevate the town’s financial reputation all while running things from a one-person office.
“Just yesterday an auditor asked for a document. I said, ‘Yep, it’s in DebtBook.’ I downloaded it and sent it in two minutes. Otherwise, I’d be digging through the vault, grabbing files, scanning them in. That alone is amazing. Plus, being able to visually see your forecast for your debt to track payments is an added bonus.”
“The emails, the videos, the support — all amazing. I feel like I'm an office of one and a half, but I have teammates from DebtBook that are on my team so we're able to do amazing things.”
His bottom line?
“DebtBook allows me to do the things I want to do for my community. Everyone should have DebtBook.”
