# Open The Books

> Access U.S. government spending, contracts, grants, and public employee salaries. (iPhone/iPad app by American Transparency.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/open-the-books/id485809631 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [American Transparency](https://appshunter.io/developer/939816911)
- Category: Reference, Finance
- Price: Free
- Rating: 2.45/5 from 86 App Store ratings · 67 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 15.2 · 6 MB
- Languages: English
- Released: 2011-12-19
- Data updated: 2026-06-09
- Monetization: ad-supported
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/open-the-books/id485809631/reviews.md

## What is Open The Books?

Search the United States Government checkbook since the year 2000: contracts, grants, loans, direct payments, and farm subsidies. 

The app also contains seven year salary histories and bonuses for 2.2 million disclosed federal employees, state checkbooks in at least 16 states, and public salaries from 36,000 local units of government across America.

Hyper-localize all federal spending by using your current GPS location, setting a custom location by zip code, or search by a vendor name or employee's last name.

See state checkbook spending: 1. choose a target state on the ‘state checkbook fly wheel’ of the app; 2. if you live ‘out-of-state,’ then change your location by keying any ZIP code within the target state.

See salaries from 36,000 units of local government across America by your current location (as determined by GPS) or keying in a ZIP code.

American Transparency is a 501(c)3 non-partisan, non-profit organization. Visit our website at www.openthebooks.com.

The need for transparency has never been greater. Americans have never been more willing. Now is the time to stand up and be heroes.

## Key features

- Search U.S. government checkbook data
- View federal employee salaries and bonuses
- Access state checkbook spending
- Find local government public salaries
- Hyper-localize searches by GPS or zip code
- Search by vendor or employee name

## Recent user reviews (10 of 67)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/open-the-books/id485809631/reviews.md

### 1/5 — I can’t register 😠

*2025-01-08*

First time it said my password was not good. 
Second time it said my email was already being used. Duh by me! Fix this problem

### 1/5 — Buh-bye

*2022-08-23*

I noticed they updated the app. Now you have to donate $$ to use the app or when your free trial is over you’re done using it. Just deleted it, buh-bye.

### 5/5 — Updated app!

*2022-07-18*

Everything works great now and matches their website.

### 1/5 — App doesn’t work.

*2022-06-15*

Will not let you do anything.  Has been like this for a long time where are the updates?

### 1/5 — Freezes

*2022-05-10, version 2.7*

App continually freezes plus information is very outdated.

### 1/5 — Very buggy

*2022-02-17*

Was looking forward to this app after hearing Andrew Andrzejewski speaking at Hillsdale. Very buggy and practically useless. An organization which criticizes government for wasteful incompetence should think twice before releasing an app like this.

### 1/5 — Freez

*2022-02-16, version 2.7*

Keep freezing every time I’m trying to use the app

### 1/5 — A LOT of bugs

*2022-02-09, version 2.7*

This is a very amateurish app. It frequently locks up and crashes. Almost useless.

### 1/5 — Freezes

*2022-02-06*

Freezes for local area -the only part I care about. Bummer

### 1/5 — Won’t Open For Me

*2022-01-02*

Just installed the app at my son‘s recommendation and it will not open on my iPhone 11 max. He has an older iPhone 6s Plus and it works fine on his device. I made sure my iOS is on the latest version, I deleted the app, performed a hard restart, reinstalled, still no go. It appears to be related to location services.

## Frequently asked questions about Open The Books

### What kind of government data can I find in this app?

This app allows you to search the United States Government checkbook for data dating back to the year 2000. This includes information on contracts, grants, loans, direct payments, and farm subsidies. You can also find salary histories and bonuses for federal employees, as well as public salaries from state and local government units.

### How can I search for specific spending or salary information?

You can hyper-localize your searches using your current GPS location, by setting a custom location with a zip code, or by searching for a specific vendor name or an employee's last name. For state checkbooks, you can select a target state and then adjust your location if you are out-of-state by entering a zip code within that state.

### Is this app free to use?

The app is free to download and use. However, it does display advertisements. There are no in-app purchases mentioned in the provided description.

### What is the geographic scope of the data available?

The app provides access to U.S. federal spending data, state checkbook spending for at least 16 states, and public salaries from 36,000 local units of government across America. You can search this data based on federal, state, or local levels.

### Who is behind this app and what is their mission?

The app is provided by American Transparency, a 501(c)3 non-partisan, non-profit organization. Their mission is to promote transparency in government spending and operations, believing that Americans have a right to know how their tax dollars are being used.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 3.2 — 2025-09-24

+ UI updates and fixes

### 3.1 — 2025-02-04

+ misc. updates & improvements

### 3.0 — 2022-07-16

Redesigned the app to match the look and feel and performance enhancements.

### 2.7 — 2018-02-01

This app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon.

Adds support for Push Notifications

### 2.6 — 2015-09-17

• Adding more states to the State Checkbook
• Bug fixes and optimizations

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-09.*