Edwin, an AI-powered treasury and financial platform for local governments, has released a national public-sector financial benchmarking map built from historical Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) data. The dataset lets finance directors compare their portfolio's yield, risk, and asset allocation against peer agencies of similar size, revealing missed opportunities that could amount to millions of dollars for communities.
The release comes amid growing interest in AI for Finance tools that can automate routine treasury work.
A data-backed case for modernizing investments
The benchmark examines policy use, yield profiles, and maturity patterns across public agencies. The goal is to make structural discrepancies visible without punishing agencies for past decisions. Instead, it provides the hard peer-comparison statistics that finance leaders need when asking City Managers, City Treasurers, and oversight boards to approve updated investment strategies.
"Local governments in this country manage roughly $5 trillion in public funds, yet the vast majority are forced to steward these immense public resources using a disconnected web of static Excel spreadsheets and fragmented bank portals," said Peter Rogers, CEO and Co-Founder of Edwin. "Our benchmarking map shows that even well-run cities leave millions of dollars on the table simply because they lack the automated tools to safely maximize their investments."
The hidden toll of legacy processes
Manual data entry still dominates public finance, and it's costing taxpayers. Staffing shortages, mounting audit pressures, and tight budgets keep teams buried in day-to-day reconciliation work. Strategic cash management gets pushed aside. In an environment where interest rates stay higher for longer, idle cash represents a direct loss of potential revenue.
Edwin's platform connects a city's bank accounts directly to its accounting system as a read-only service. AI agents automate bank reconciliations, forecast cash flow two years out, and alert finance teams when investments drift from local policies.
Technology built for public stewardship
"Stewardship, accountability and fiscal responsibility are woven directly into our code," Rogers said. "Local government deserves to be part of this AI moment today, not the last sector to benefit from it. Software is our wedge to build the robust financial infrastructure that public agencies have permanently lacked, ensuring every public dollar works as hard as possible for the community it serves."
The benchmarking map has already reviewed publicly available financial reports from agencies representing more than 90 percent of the U.S. population. Edwin will preview the platform and dataset at the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) conference in Chicago, running June 28 through July 1.
Why this matters for finance professionals
For treasury and finance directors, the benchmark removes guesswork from portfolio reviews. It turns peer data into a defensible rationale for change-whether that means modernizing investment policies, adopting automation for repetitive tasks, or simply proving that current practices are sound. The dataset, paired with tools that cut manual workload, gives teams a clear path to recapture lost yield without adding headcount.
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