Massachusetts Water Resources Authority Open Checkbook

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The MWRA Open Checkbook provides information about spending from July 2010 to the present. The information is updated every Wednesday morning and comes from the MWRA's Human Resource and Financial System, Lawson. Spending information currently includes employee payroll information. A later release will include vendor spending and information from the MWRA Retirement System. The "Data as of" date at the top of the screen reflects the snapshot date of the data. For specific questions, please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions.

MWRA Spending Navigation

Users can review MWRA vendor spending in three main ways:

browsing for a particular Vendor using the Search Vendor tab,
reviewing spending in a particular Spending Category on the View Vendors by Spending Category tab, or
reviewing where a Department spent its funding on the View Vendors by Department tab.

All of the tabs share the same basic navigation components:

Filters at the top allow users to refine which data is being displayed, only showing those that match the selections chosen.
- If a filter is a drop-down, one or more choices can be selected. The filters are applied after clicking the "GO" button.
- Filters that are "smart" based on earlier choices. For instance, if a particular Government Area is chosen, only the departments within that Government Area will be available under the Department drop down. The same is true for Spending Categories and Sub-Categories.
- For particularly large drop-down lists, users might want to select the "Search…" link at the bottom of the list to bring up a new window. All choices are displayed in the left pane, and can be moved to the right "filter" pane using the center arrows.
- Click on the tab at the top of the screen to remove any selections entered, and start fresh.
Data is summarized at higher-level "roll-ups". If further information is available, a "+" symbol is shown next to the roll-up. Clicking the "+" will display the underlying details; the "–" will hide the details again.
The lowest-level detail is the Vendor Name. Selecting a Vendor will open a Vendor Details Page which provides further information about spending on that Vendor, including the particular date(s) a check was issued.
All tables can be sorted by clicking on the arrows in the Header. The columns can also be moved as needed.
Data on each page can be downloaded for further review and analysis.

MWRA Payroll Navigation

The Payroll page displays data from 2010 to present on individual MWRA employees. Visitors can review the entire list or filter by one or more of the following criteria:

Name
Department
Title

MWRA Retirees Navigation

The Pension page displays data from FY2014 forward on MWRA employees who are receiving a pension. Visitors can review the entire list or filter by name.

Vendor Search and Advanced Search Tabs

The focus for these pages are the Vendors paid by the MWRA. The grid on each page displays the legal name of the Vendor, their Headquarters and the amount spent within the timeframe and other parameters specified in the filters, sorted to show the largest payees first.

The Advanced Search offers users the ability to specify to a great level of detail the vendors that are listed. Refer to the Glossary for information on each field in the Advanced Search.

Spending Category Tab

Spending on this tab is organized by types of spending. The Spending Sub-Categories (also known as Object Codes) roll up to Spending Categories to provide meaningful summaries of data.

Selecting a Spending Category displays the underlying Spending Sub-Categories. Filters at the top allow users to limit the information based on Fiscal Year.