Commonwealth Data Point, launched November 1, 2005, is an internet database, located on the Auditor of Public Account’s website, of key information about the Commonwealth of Virginia and the operations of state government. This database is the result of legislation passed with overwhelming support within the Virginia General Assembly, to ensure the public has readily accessible demographic data, and detailed state financial figures available. This website continues Virginia’s efforts to promote the transparency of state government operations. Virginia has been recognized as one of the states in the forefront promoting these efforts, and is one of only 5 states to receive a grade of A- from the independent Government Performance Project in the category of “information”.

Commonwealth Data Point includes state government financial data. Users can view budget, revenue, and expense information from the statewide level down to individual agency transactions. Commonwealth Data Point allows the user to display and analyze data in multiple ways. Examples of information that can be found on Commonwealth Data Point include:

• Budget data at statewide, secretariat, agency, fund, and function levels
• Budget to Actual analysis at the statewide, secretariat, agency, and function level
• Expense data at statewide, secretariat, agency, fund, program, object code, and vendor levels
• Revenue data at statewide, secretariat, agency, revenue source code, and fund levels
• Detailed small purchase charge card transactions by statewide, secretariat, or agency
• Analysis of general fund spending by locality and state agency
• Selected demographic information relating to population, income, workforce, schools, license and vehicle, and food stamps

Commonwealth Data Point has extensive search capabilities which allow the user to locate expense transactions by any one or combination of the following criteria: vendor name, agency, object code, or fiscal year.

In addition to the state financial data, Commonwealth Data Point also includes detailed local government expense and revenue data by locality. This data is also available for display and analyze in various ways. Because the Auditor of Public Accounts obtains the information presented in Commonwealth Data Point from a number of sources we have tried to standardize the presentation and format for ease of readability. However, we caution the user that both financial numbers and demographic data are not audited information and may require some review or additional research.