For cities, counties and county agencies

Strategic planning software for local government

ClearPoint is where cities and counties turn the plan the council adopted into owners, updates and a council packet that builds itself.

Every city runs on a plan, and every plan is a promise: roads, water, transit and parks. That work is spread across every department and tracked in scattered spreadsheets. With ClearPoint, every department works from one plan, in sync. An off-track measure, average EMS response time, gets a new initiative and comes back on track. The council report builds itself from live data, as a PDF or PowerPoint. The public dashboard shows residents the progress behind every promise, on desktop and phone, for any city and any plan.

01The plan
02Departments
03Decisions
04Council reports
05Public dashboards
150+ local governments have run their plans on ClearPoint · 21,000+ strategic plans
  • City of Fort Collins
  • City of Durham
  • City of Bartlett
  • City of Coral Springs
  • City of St. Albert
  • City of Germantown
  • City of Virginia Beach
  • City of Miami, Florida
  • City of Fort Lauderdale
  • Johnson County, Kansas
  • City of Dublin, Ohio
  • Arapahoe County

What is strategic planning software for local government?

Strategic planning software for local government is where a city or county holds its adopted plan and runs it: priorities, the objectives and measures under each, a named owner in every department, regular updates, the council packet and a public dashboard. Unlike a document or a spreadsheet, it keeps the plan current between retreats.

Comparing options for a city or county? See how the tools compare ›
How it works

How does a city keep the plan alive after the council adopts it?

Four people keep your plan alive: the city manager, the department head, the strategy and performance lead, and the analyst. Watch one quarter through each of their eyes.

The numbers behind it

Across 52,247 objectives in 318 organizations, 77% have no named owner. In local governments alone, 75.6% do. Initiatives with a named owner are completed 2.5× as often (21.5% vs 8.7%).

Chapter 1, city manager: Harbor View Strategic Plan landing page — Community, Service Excellence, Infrastructure priorities with objectives, measures and initiatives; Explorer map; Teams question "what are our 3 most pressing issues in public works?" answered from the Public Works & Utilities scorecard. Chapter 2, department head: Public Works & Utilities scorecard, Dependable Water & Sewer Infrastructure, measures dashboard, SWOT analysis. Chapter 3, strategy & performance lead: Quarterly Performance Update Q2-2026 workflow, council packet, public dashboard. Chapter 4, analyst: Water Main Breaks per 100 Miles Q2-26 value 19 written back from Teams by Jordan Blake.

01 · City manager
The adopted plan stalls by June.

How does the city manager see where the plan stands?

Priorities, objectives, measures and initiatives sit on one screen, as the council adopted them, with a live status on each. Ask ClearPoint AI in Microsoft Teams what is most pressing and the answer comes straight from the scorecard.

City of Durham, NC runs its citywide plan and every department business plan in ClearPoint.
02 · Department head
Three in four objectives have no named owner.

How does every department own its part of the plan?

Each department runs its own scorecard: objectives linked to the measures and initiatives behind them, rolled up to the citywide priorities. Anything without a named owner is flagged until someone claims it. ClearPoint AI drafts a SWOT from the live numbers.

City of Bartlett, TN reports 11 departments to council from one plan.
03 · Strategy & performance lead
The council packet takes two weeks.

How does the council report build itself?

A reporting workflow collects every department’s update on schedule. The packet is generated from the live plan in your branding, as PDF, PowerPoint or Word, with a summary drafted by ClearPoint AI. One toggle publishes it to a public dashboard built to WCAG 2.1 AA.

Fort Collins, Coral Springs and Germantown, three Baldrige cities, publish their results on ClearPoint.
04 · Analyst
Six departments, one inbox, no replies.

How do updates come in without chasing people?

Numbers arrive on a schedule from the systems you already use. Owners reply to a reminder email or answer ClearPoint AI in Microsoft Teams, and the value is written back to the plan. No login needed.

"ClearPoint really reduced our overall time for the process - about 75%."
Anita Johnson, Strategic Business Advisor, City of St. Albert
30 years of method, built in

Built for the way a city plans

The method comes from 30 years of helping organizations execute strategy, alongside the creators of the Balanced Scorecard. It is built into the setup and the Playbooks.

Playbooks for local government

Guided conversations with ClearPoint AI build a department plan, a SWOT or a risk assessment in your terminology. Comprehensive plan, departmental plans, capital plan: one structure, your words.

Set up with you, live in 3 weeks

The ClearPoint team loads your adopted plan, maps departments and owners, and sets the reporting calendar. Your first scorecard is live in three weeks.

Help from people, when you need it

Strategy sessions on request, live sessions, and a drop-in demo. The questions a Playbook asks are the ones our team has asked in strategy sessions for 30 years.

Join a drop-in demo ›
Where the method comes from

Founded by Ted Jackson and Dylan Miyake, who worked with Robert Kaplan and David Norton — the creators of the Balanced Scorecard — and have spent 30 years helping organizations execute strategy.

What 150+ local governments taught us

What does the data say about city plans that get done?

ClearPoint has run 21,000+ strategic plans. The patterns below come from anonymized plan structure in local governments. We see how a plan is built, never what it says.

75.6%

of objectives in local government plans have no named owner.

ClearPoint platform data: 15,186 objectives in city and county plans, September 2026.
2.5×

as likely to be completed when an initiative has a named owner.

21.5% of initiatives completed with a named owner, 8.7% without. 90,305 initiatives in 315 organizations, September 2026.
28
plans
522
measures
191
initiatives

run by the median city or county on ClearPoint.

Licensed local governments on ClearPoint, September 2026.
01Ownership gap
02Owner effect
03Median city

Those patterns shape how we set up your plan and what ClearPoint AI flags in it: an objective without an owner, a measure nobody updated, a priority with no initiative behind it.

Your dashboard should look like your city.

Two live public dashboards, published from the same plan the council sees. No two look alike.

What your procurement and IT teams will ask

SOC 2 Type IITX-RAMP Level 1SAML 2.0 SSOAES-256 + TLSUS hostingWCAG 2.1 AA + VPAT

Procurement documents in the Trust Center: SOC 2 report under NDA, VPAT, DPA, W-9. Your data is never used to train AI models.

Week 1

Your adopted plan loaded, departments and owners mapped

Week 2

Data connections and the reporting calendar

Week 3

First scorecard live, first update cycle run

3 weeks
to the first live scorecard
1 call
to scope what you want to see
Is it too complex for our department heads?

The setup is done with you, and the people who update never see the admin side. Most contributors reply to an email or to Teams.

What happens after an election or a new city manager?

The plan, its history and its owners stay in one place. A new administration edits priorities; nothing is rebuilt.

Do we need IT to run it?

ClearPoint is hosted in the US and administered by your strategy team. IT reviews the SOC 2 report and enables SSO.

Questions cities and counties ask before choosing

What is the best strategic planning software for a city or county?

It depends on who reports on the plan and to whom. Look for a named owner on every objective, updates without a login, a council packet built from live data, and a public dashboard. Our guide compares the options for local governments ›

Is ClearPoint an ERP or a budgeting system?

No. ClearPoint holds the strategic plan and its performance data. It connects to your ERP, budget and permitting systems so the plan reports from them.

Can ClearPoint run performance management for a city?

Yes. Targets, status rules and accountability run every reporting period on the same plan. See performance management ›

How long does it take to go live?

Three weeks to the first live scorecard. The ClearPoint team loads your adopted plan and maps departments and owners with you.

Does it work for a county or a county agency?

Yes. Counties, county agencies and special districts run their plans on ClearPoint alongside cities. The structure follows your organization chart.

Is the public dashboard ADA compliant?

Public dashboards are built to WCAG 2.1 AA, and the VPAT is available in the Trust Center. ADA Title II deadlines fall in April 2027 and April 2028 depending on jurisdiction size.

Can department heads update without logging in?

Yes. They reply to a reminder email in plain English or answer ClearBot in Microsoft Teams, and the update is written back to the plan.

What happens to the plan after an election?

Nothing is rebuilt. The plan, its history and its owners stay in place; the new administration edits priorities and the reports follow.

Book a free demo

See your city's plan in ClearPoint

A strategic planning expert for cities and counties reviews your needs, loads your plan, your data or your use case into ClearPoint, then walks you through it.

  • 30 minutes
  • Your plan, loaded before the call
  • You pick the time

What happens next

  1. Pick a time that works for you

    Two short steps, then choose a slot on the calendar. No back-and-forth emails.

  2. Your expert scopes the demo

    A strategic planning expert who works with local governments reviews your request and asks what you want to see.

  3. You see ClearPoint with your data

    Your plan, measures or use case is loaded before the call, so the 30 minutes run on your city. Nothing to share yet? They show you a city like yours.

150+ local governments have run their plans on ClearPoint
City of Fort CollinsCity of DurhamCity of BartlettCity of Coral SpringsCity of St. AlbertCity of Germantown
4.6/5
on G2 · 179 reviews
21,000+
strategic plans
3 weeks
to your first live scorecard
Updated September 2026
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In their words

ClearPoint customers on how they save time, make reporting easier and manage their strategic plans.
“Quarterly reporting took more than 120 hours across teams. With ClearPoint, we were able to reduce that time by 80%, saving us weeks every quarter!”
Octavius M.Assistant to the City Manager
“After the demo, we sent our strategy docs—they handled the rest. Up and running in 2 weeks.”
Brandie H.Director of Strategy
“Before ClearPoint, we were drowning in spreadsheets and PowerPoints.”
Darren E.Director of Finance
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