Coming Soon: A Paperless Filing Day

The second filing day of NYC’s 2017 election cycle back in January marked the first time candidates could submit electronically backup documentation for contributions directly through the CFB’s candidate disclosure software, aka C-SMART. Under the city’s campaign finance program, campaigns must provide documents to validate each contribution from a New York City resident that they submit for public matching funds.

We are happy to report that 16 of the 38 candidates who filed with the CFB in January used the new tool to submit 732 pages of contribution documents, or roughly half of the total submitted to the CFB in the January filing.

The CFB’s Candidate Services Unit held optional orientations to introduce the new C-SMART feature prior to filing day. Staffers and treasurers from 11 different campaigns participated in the sessions. Feedback from those sessions described the tool as easy to navigate and user-friendly. The high number of campaigns that used the new tool confirms those positive reviews.

What’s next for the C-SMART submission tool? In future filings, all campaigns will be using this tool to submit contribution documents. We’ll also expand the tool to cover other document types and schedules.

The C-SMART document tool helps organize your backup prior to submitting them to the CFB. A new report flags contributions claimed for matching funds that still require documentation, helping campaigns gauge their progress towards the threshold for public funds.

Here are some tips to make using the tool a snap:

• Enter contributions & documentation as your campaign receives them. If you enter contributions into C-SMART BEFORE depositing them in the bank, it can help you identify and avoid potential compliance issues.
• Have a lot of contributions? Scan them all onto one PDF and use the “bulk upload” feature to import and index the documents to the transactions already in C-SMART.