openthebooks.com

February 22, 2026

What OpenTheBooks.com is and what it’s trying to do

OpenTheBooks.com is a U.S.-focused government spending transparency site that lets you search large collections of disclosed public spending records—things like public employee salaries, pensions, and “checkbook” vendor payments (who governments paid, how much, and when). The organization behind the site describes its goal as capturing and publishing “every disclosed dollar” of government spending in near real time, across federal, state, and local levels.

They position the project as a mix of (1) a searchable database for the public and (2) an investigations and reports operation that uses those records to publish stories about waste, fraud, abuse, and conflicts of interest.

What you can actually do on the site

The front-and-center feature is “Search the Data.” The site prompts you to pick a category—Salaries, Pensions, or Checkbooks—and then search by a person’s name, a vendor name, or a unit of government. Results can be filtered and sorted so you can narrow down to a specific agency, year, job title, payment type, and so on (exact filters vary by dataset).

In practical terms, people tend to use it in a few ways:

• Look up a public employee (or a job title) to see reported compensation for a specific year or range of years.
• Check vendor payments to understand what a town, agency, or school district paid to contractors and suppliers.
• Scan pensions to get a sense of retirement payouts in systems where those records are disclosed and included.

The site also has an investigations feed and longer-form “oversight reports,” where their team highlights patterns they found in the data and connects it to public policy questions.

Where the data comes from and how they say they collect it

OpenTheBooks frames its work as building a large private database from publicly disclosed records. They emphasize Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests as a key mechanism, and they publish big “scope” numbers that are meant to show how broad their coverage is—federal spending since the early 2000s, nearly all state “checkbooks,” and hundreds of millions (or more) salary and pension records.

They also claim high request volume over time (tens of thousands of FOIA requests in a year, and larger totals over multiple years).

One useful way to think about this: a lot of their work is about taking records that are technically public but hard to access or fragmented across agencies, and packaging them into a single search experience. That’s valuable when it works well, because most official sources are split by jurisdiction, data type, or reporting standard.

How it compares to official government sources

For federal awards (contracts, grants, loans), the U.S. government’s official open spending portal is USAspending.gov, which explains its data sources and update process and is the primary federal reference point.

OpenTheBooks isn’t replacing that official pipeline. What it’s trying to do differently is:

• Combine multiple spending categories (like salaries + pensions + vendor payments) across many jurisdictions, not just federal awards.
• Push investigations and narrative reporting alongside the database.

In other words, if you’re validating a federal award amount and want definitions, methodology, and a canonical reference, USAspending.gov is the baseline. If you’re trying to connect compensation, vendor payments, and local spending records across places (and you’re okay with a third-party database), OpenTheBooks is aiming to be a convenient layer on top.

What the organization is, who runs it now, and how it’s funded

OpenTheBooks is associated with the nonprofit American Transparency (a 501(c)(3)). Public nonprofit databases show filings and high-level financials for the organization, including revenue and expenses by year.

Founder Adam Andrzejewski led the organization for years, and he died in August 2024. After that, the organization announced John Hart as CEO.

On the funding side, the group solicits donations publicly, and there are also third-party profiles that discuss donors based on tax records and reported grants.

Credibility, bias questions, and how to read the site carefully

A site like this can be simultaneously useful and imperfect. The records they publish may originate from official documents, but the way they frame investigations, choose targets, and write headlines can still introduce bias.

A media-bias rating site classifies Open The Books as right-leaning in editorial emphasis while also describing much of the underlying research as relying on official documents (with some criticism of their news sourcing choices).

Separately, fact-check style coverage of specific OpenTheBooks claims exists, and it’s worth reading when a story goes viral—especially when the claim is presented with a strong conclusion or a simplified number that travels faster than the nuance behind it.

If you use OpenTheBooks as a research tool, a grounded approach is:

• Treat the database entries as leads.
• Click through to whatever supporting documentation is provided.
• Cross-check with official portals (federal, state, local) when the stakes are high.
• Read their reports like advocacy journalism: sometimes informative, sometimes selective, occasionally both at the same time.

Who the site is most useful for

OpenTheBooks.com tends to be most practical for:

• Local reporters and watchdogs who need quick access to salary and vendor payment records for a town, school district, or agency.
• Policy researchers looking for patterns across many jurisdictions (especially when official datasets are scattered).
• Citizens trying to answer simple questions like “How much does this role pay?” or “Who got paid by this department last year?” without filing their own records requests.

It’s less ideal if you need guaranteed completeness, standardized definitions across every dataset, or an official record that can’t be contested. That’s not a knock, it’s just the tradeoff of using an aggregation project spanning thousands of government entities.

Key takeaways

• OpenTheBooks.com is a searchable database plus investigations hub focused on disclosed U.S. government spending.
• The site emphasizes salaries, pensions, and checkbook-style vendor payments, collected via large-scale public records work including FOIA.
• For federal awards, USAspending.gov remains the official baseline; OpenTheBooks is more of a cross-jurisdiction convenience layer and storytelling outlet.
• Leadership changed after founder Adam Andrzejewski’s death in August 2024; John Hart was announced as CEO.
• The underlying documents can be valuable, but the site’s editorial framing is commonly described as right-leaning, so cross-checking matters.

FAQ

Is OpenTheBooks.com an official government website?

No. It’s run by a nonprofit (American Transparency) and aggregates disclosed records into its own database and reporting.

Is the data “real time”?

They describe their mission as publishing in near real time, but coverage and update speed depend on each dataset and how quickly records are disclosed or obtained.

Can I rely on it as the single source of truth?

It’s better as a starting point. For high-stakes use, verify with original documents and official sources (especially for federal awards via USAspending.gov).

Who runs OpenTheBooks now?

After founder Adam Andrzejewski died in August 2024, the organization announced John Hart as CEO.

Why do people say the site has political bias?

Because many of its investigations and editorial choices align with fiscal conservative priorities, and third-party media-bias reviewers have described it as right-leaning in emphasis even while noting reliance on official documents in research.