About

Responsibilities of the State Controller

The Controller is the Chief Fiscal Officer (CFO) of the state and is responsible for administering the state’s accounting system, registering vendors, settling all claims against the state and collecting debts owed to the state. The Controller processes and records the state’s financial transactions, conducts the final audit and ensures compliance with our Nevada Constitution, federal laws and state statutes. The Controller also provides the citizens, state agencies, local governments and legislators with accurate and impartial financial information. Nevada’s State Controller protects the citizens’ money by ensuring that it is properly accounted for and spent in the most efficient and cost effective manner at all times. The Controller has a statutory charge to recommend plans for: support of public credit; promoting frugality and economy; better management of the state’s fiscal affairs; and better understanding of them.

The State Controller is one of the six Constitutional Officers of the State and is elected to a four-year term. The authority of the Controller is set by the Nevada State Constitution Article 5, Section 19 and Nevada Revised Statute (NRS) 227.

Mission of the Controller's Office

To advance accountability, continuity and efficiency in the state’s financial operations.

Publications of the Controller’s Office

All of these reports are available through this website.

Accomplishments and Current Projects in the Controller’s Office

One of the largest undertakings statewide involves the Controller’s Office, along with countless other state teams, on CORE.NV, the statewide initiative to upgrade the state accounting, human resources, budgeting, and payroll systems. The last time an upgrade to the accounting system was completed was 1998, and the initiative is implementing a software as a solution (SAAS) product and cloud data storage. Controller Matthews is one of three voting members on the executive steering committee for this project, and several members of the Controller’s Office team are participating in the subject matter expert and business process re-engineering portion of this important project that will bring the Silver State one modern solution to replace several older, out-of-date systems.

Nevada historically has been losing money in the form of unpaid debts owed to the state. In 2017, we went live with a modern debt collection system that has demonstrated positive results in the form of increased collections. This system has allowed our team to automate first notices to debtors, produce reports automatically instead of using Excel spreadsheets and allows for bank levies and administrative garnishments to further enhance collections of revenues owed to the state. We encourage anyone who owes money to the state to be proactive and contact our office prior to being subjected to a garnishment or bank levy. This system will be further modernized as part of the CORE.NV project.

Our team, in partnership with the state chief information officer and his team, is finishing a new online checkbook project which goes live to the public at the beginning of 2024. This will allow any Nevada citizen to research spending, payroll, and state budgets in a user searchable, easy to use format. Data will be available going back for five fiscal years along with present day spending updated every weeknight. Completion of this project will further Controller Matthews’ vision of open, financial transparency in state government, which he promised to do while running for the office.