The Data Branch app

District size	Product	Annual cost
7,200 students	Vendor A	$68,400
6,100 students	Vendor B	$51,900
8,900 students	Vendor A	$74,250

What you can ask

Start with the question on your desk.

Fill in the blanks to compare with agencies like you. Leave any blank as any.

Answers cite the purchase order, contract, or minutes they came from. How we collect those files is on How it works.

Before you buy

💰

What agencies actually paid

The real per-unit price an agency your size paid a supplier, and when. Not the list price.

Example What did our type: districts serving size: 5,000-10,000 pay per item: Chromebook, and when? Another example What has our type: police agencies in state: any paid vendor: Axon per unit since date: 2024?

Ask about one product or vendor at a time. Broad either/or searches time out; adding a date range makes them fast.

📄

Contracts

Check a vendor's quote against their contracts elsewhere, see per-unit prices and quantities, and find contracts you can buy off directly.

Example Does vendor: Enterprise Fleet Management have an active contract for product: fleet leasing we could piggyback on, expiring after date: today? Another example What did our type: cities your size pay per product: body-worn camera dock, with vendor and quantity?

🧾

What the vendor offered someone else

The pricing a vendor put in front of a peer agency, including the proposals they won with. The best indication of how far their price can move.

Example Show me what vendor: any proposed to our type: cities for product: fleet telematics, and whether they won it.

A proposal is the vendor's offer, not a settled price. Compare it against the contract that followed.

📋

RFPs & bids

See how peers scoped the same purchase: their RFP language and timeline. Pair with Contracts to see who won.

Example Show me RFPs our type: cities in states: CA, FL issued for category: managed print / copiers in the last window: 2 years.

Winner and price come from the matching contract. Budget context is a separate agency lookup.

Timing & context

⏳

Renewal and price check

Catch expiring agreements before they auto-renew, then check whether what you were billed matched what you signed.

Example Which contracts for category: any held by peers: our type, our size expire in the next window: 6 months? Another example For vendor: any, what did the contract say and what did the invoices actually total?

We compare signed value against billed amount wherever we hold both sides. Where we hold only one, we say so.

🗓️

Meeting minutes

The discussion behind a purchase. Search any board's published minutes for a vendor or topic and read what they said.

Example Find where peer set: districts mention vendor/topic: our vendor in board minutes around event: renewal, switch, or complaint.

Returns the passage from the published minutes. You read it to judge.

🤝

Who to talk to

The procurement office or program lead an agency publishes, so you can ask a peer directly.

Example Who does agency: Austin ISD publish for role: procurement director, IT lead?

Current role-holder, not a project owner. We pull one live if the agency isn't loaded yet.

How peers buy it

📜

Procurement guidelines

How a peer runs the purchase: bid thresholds, cooperative-purchasing rules, emergency-purchase waivers.

Example How do agency type: cities handle keyword: cooperative purchasing / bid thresholds / emergency purchases?

Keyword search across published policies. Not yet filterable by agency size or type. Pass a state or agency to narrow.

🏛️

Federal funding

Which agencies won federal funding, for what, and how much is left undrawn.

Example What federal grants funded purpose: any for our type: any in state: any, and how much is still undrawn?

Strongest for federal awards (USAspending-sourced). Local-program grant coverage is still filling in.

What's coming at you

⚖️

New laws and mandates

State bills that name your type of agency, including ones that create a purchase requirement without saying so, and what that purchase has cost peers who already made it.

Example What passed in state: TX this session that affects our type: districts and requires us to buy something? Another example What money did state: any appropriate for purpose: school safety, and who can draw on it?

Scoped by state and session. We show you the bill and the requirement; connecting a requirement to a specific product is still improving.

📚

Who an agency pays

A peer's published payment records, so you can see their whole supplier list at once instead of one contract at a time.

Example Show every supplier agency: any paid for category: any during window: last fiscal year.

Coverage is deepest for districts and cities. Smaller agencies may have only part of a year on file.

Ask like you'd ask the next county.

See what a new law will cost

Find a contract you can use

Check the quote against peers

See if the price held