---
section: help
lead: true
title: What is OpenSpending?
authors:
- Neil Ashton
---
OpenSpending is a data sharing community and web application that aims to track every government and corporate financial transaction across the world and to present that data in a useful and engaging form. OpenSpending is an open project maintained by a community of contributors. Anyone interested in spending data of any kind is invited to contribute data to the OpenSpending database, create visualizations using the OpenSpending software, and use the OpenSpending API.

This chapter introduces new OpenSpending contributors to the core concepts of the system. It describes the kind of financial data that OpenSpending supports, and it explains how OpenSpending represents that data.

**Next**: [What types of financial data can go into OpenSpending?](../financial-data-types/)

**Up**: [OpenSpending Guide](../)
