City of Boston Discretionary Spending

The City of Boston reports on our discretionary spending as part of our commitment to transparency and to growing pathways to equitable procurement for diverse suppliers. This dataset contains all discretionary spending data from Fiscal Year 2019 - Fiscal Year 2026, Quarter 4.

Discretionary spending refers to the total value of payments made by the City to a supplier through a contract ($10,000 or over) or a purchase order (under $10,000). This includes procurements where there is competition and discretion over choosing a supplier. Discretionary spending does not include mandatory or fixed obligations, such as payments of employee benefits.

You can view an interactive dashboard of our discretionary spending at https://www.boston.gov/equitable-procurement.

To learn more about the City’s procurement and supplier diversity efforts, visit:

• https://www.boston.gov/procurement
• https://www.boston.gov/supplier-diversity

** Notes on the Data **

The Discretionary Spending dataset differs from our Checkbook Explorer (https://data.boston.gov/dataset/checkbook-explorer) dataset in two key ways.

• First, we report on some types of spending in the Checkbook Explorer dataset, such as utility, telecommunications, and benefits payments, that we don’t report in the Discretionary Spending dataset.
• Second, the Checkbook Explorer dataset is updated monthly; the Discretionary Spending dataset is updated quarterly. We are working to synchronize these datasets in the future.

If you have questions about this data or would like to provide feedback, please use this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/10_VGn3OEaa-JA5VJynZ9JKw-I3t0BAzw3ckv8rxVMLc/viewform?edit_requested=true