What do you want to do?#
Quick start
Sign in, create your first submission and send it for review.
Creating & editing submissions
The submission editor, auto-save, numbering and the side panel.
Approval workflow
How submissions are routed and approved tier by tier.
My Tasks
Your personal work queue of assignments and approvals.
Meeting schedules & dates
Board meetings, cutoff dates and scheduling submissions.
Agendas & meeting minutes
Build the agenda PDF and record each Board member's vote.
How CLIF works#
Every item that goes before the Board starts as a submission (often called a board memo). The submitting department fills in the subject, requested action, funding and background. CLIF then routes it to the departments that must review it, organized in approval tiers. Each department assigns a reviewer, the reviewer marks the work ready and an approver signs it off. Along the way the submission is scheduled for a Board meeting; once the last tier approves, it is finalized, appears on the meeting's agenda and the Board's votes are recorded.
PrepareThe submitting department writes the submission
ReviewReviewing departments check it tier by tier
ScheduleBOE Operations picks the meeting date
ConfirmThe Clerk confirms; the submission is finalized
DecideAgenda is printed and the Board votes
Read Core concepts & lifecycle for the full picture, including every status.
Key capabilities#
| Capability | What you get | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| One place for each board memo | Subject, requested action, contracts and funds, background, SMBA&D goals, public art, employment requirements and impacted addresses, all on one submission. | Tabs & fields |
| Auto-save and live collaboration | Every change is saved as you make it; colleagues viewing the same submission see your edits immediately. | Editing |
| Automatic routing | Reviewing departments are chosen from the submission's department, category and transaction type. | Approvals |
| Personal work queue | My Tasks lists what is assigned to you, what waits for your assignment and what waits for your approval. | My Tasks |
| Meeting scheduling | Board meetings with cutoff dates; a countdown shows how long you have before the next cutoff. | Meetings |
| Agenda production | One click builds the full agenda PDF, with a table of contents, and a separate President's agenda. | Agendas |
| Final documents | The approved memo is merged with its attachments into one PDF and can be stamped. | Documents |
| Full-text search | Find submissions by subject, people, department, background text and even the text inside attached PDFs. | Search |
| Status reports | See what is waiting for assignment or approval in your department, and how long reviews take. | Reports |
| Complete audit trail | Every field change, status change and email is logged with the user and time. | Logs |
Glossary#
| Board of Estimates (BOE) | The City board that approves contracts, grants and spending. Its members are the Mayor, the City Council President, the Comptroller, the City Solicitor and the Director of Public Works. |
|---|---|
| Submission (board memo) | One item for the Board, with its own Submission Id such as SB-25-1234. |
| Submitting department | The City agency that prepares the submission. |
| Approval tier | A stage of review: Presubmission, Submission, Approval, Validation and Confirmation. |
| Approval box | One department's part of a tier on a submission, with its reviewer, approver and statuses. |
| Level 1 / Level 2 user | Level 1 does the work (submitter or reviewer); Level 2 assigns the work and approves it. |
| Meeting date & cutoff | The Board meeting a submission is scheduled for, and the deadline for getting items onto it. |
| Finalized | The last tier has approved; the submission becomes read-only. |
| Decision maker | A Board member whose vote is recorded in the meeting minutes. |
Getting help#
- Press Ctrl + K to search these docs.
- Start with Troubleshooting & FAQ when something doesn't look right.
- Administrators can check Platform operations for background tasks and logs.