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XCrossbeam

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Tutorials, walkthroughs, and a glossary of core concepts.

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Concepts

How to choose the right geographic spending lens for your question.

Geographic Spending Basis

Federal awards are recorded in administrative systems.

But most real questions about spending are geographic.

To make this explicit, XCrossbeam lets you choose a Spending Basis. Each basis answers a slightly different question.

Docs

Features

Short feature walkthroughs from inside the analytics workspace.

Step 1: The Sidebar

The first step in any analysis is choosing a primary category to start from. This focuses your analysis on federal spending directly related to that selection, such as a state or city. There are four category groups: Geographic, Governmental, Economic, and Financial. Geographic lets you analyze spending relative to places like cities, states, and congressional districts. Governmental lets you analyze spending by the awarding organization: a top-level agency (e.g., Department of Defense or Department of State), the sub-agencies beneath it (e.g., Department of the Navy), and even specific offices (e.g., the program office that awards funds to recipients). Economic lets you analyze spending by industry: a broad sector, a standardized industry code (NAICS), or a standardized product/service code (PSC). It also includes categories for set-asides, assistance programs, and award types. Financial focuses on Disaster Emergency Funding (DEFC) so you can see how emergency funds are spent.

Step 2: The Search Bar

After selecting a primary category, search for the item you care about. For example, search for a state under States, an organization under Agency, or a recipient by legal business name. US National and International are special selections that do not show a search bar; they analyze spending across the entire nation or internationally.

Filters

After selecting an item, you can optionally apply filters to refine results. Filters let you constrain by date, award amount, and more. For example, you can analyze California for a specific fiscal year and limit results to awards from selected agencies. Or you can start from an assistance program and filter down to cities that match a demographic overlay (race, education, poverty level, etc.). Combining a primary selection with filters lets you tailor the analysis to the specific view of federal spending you need.

Metrics

Metrics control how spending is measured and compared across the map and Top-K table: - Total Awarded: The sum of awards assigned to a Map Level or Group By category. - Award Count: The number of awards given to a Map Level or Group By category. - Median Award Amount: The 50th percentile of Award Amount for a category. This provides an "average" that is less sensitive to very large or very small values. - Mean Award Amount: The arithmetic mean of Award Amount for a category. Often used as an "average," but it can be skewed by outliers. - Per Recipient Spend: Total Awarded divided by the number of recipients in that category. - Per Capita Spend: Total Awarded divided by the population in that geography. Only available when Group By is a geographic category.

Map levels

XCrossbeam supports multiple map levels so you can see how funding is distributed across different boundaries. The following geographic map levels are supported: - Country - State - Congressional District - County - Census Tract - City - ZIP Code - Core-Based, Metropolitan, Micropolitan, and Combined Statistical Areas: Various ways to group large population areas to analyze broader trends. - AIANHH Area: American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian geographic areas. - Hex: A uniform analytic grid (H3 cells) that supports consistent spatial analysis without relying on legal or statistical boundaries. Spending is allocated to the appropriate hex cells to reveal geographic patterns.

Color map

The Color Map has several tools to help you explore federal spending geographically. Hover over any area to see a tooltip with the current metric value. Click an area to start a new exploration with the same filters applied, enabling geographic drill-down. The legend lets you adjust settings such as shape opacity (transparency), color palettes, base maps, and color distributions. Tweaking these can help highlight patterns or surface outliers. Color distribution modes (with a fixed number of bins): 1) Linear: Takes the full range of values and bins them evenly (0, 10, 20, ..., 1M). If there are a few very large outliers, many areas may cluster at the low end. 2) Log: Spreads bins on a logarithmic scale (1, 10, 100, ..., 1M, 10M), which often produces a smoother gradient when values span orders of magnitude. 3) Stretch: Forces values to be evenly distributed across the full color spectrum. This maximizes visual contrast, but you should not interpret the min and max colors as absolute extremes. Other map controls: 1) Auto Zoom (box icon): Snap the map to areas that have data. 2) Lock Map (lock icon): Prevent automatic zooming when data changes. 3) 3D View (cube icon): Toggle between 2D and 3D, where height is relative to the metric value. 4) Expand View: Expand the map for a larger view to explore or download. 5) Download: Download the map as currently shown.

Group by

Group By groups awards into the selected category and summarizes the results as a Top-K list, shown as both a table and a chart. For example, you can select a state and then request the top cities, recipients, agencies, or any other category. Because Group By drives both the table and the chart, you can switch the chart type (Bar, Pie, Heatmap, Boxplot, etc.). Charts can also be toggled between Linear and Log modes, expanded, and downloaded. As with the Color Map, clicking a row in the table starts a new analysis with that category selected in the sidebar and the clicked value set as the search term.

Top-K

Top-K lists the top entries from your Group By selection. You can set Top-K to 5, 10, 15, 20, or 25.
Docs

Tutorials

Short videos covering common tasks and workflows.

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Glossary

Definitions for geographic units, program types, and award classifications.

Geographic
International

International coverage rolls up awards that flow outside the United States. It’s used to analyze global recipients and program reach.

US National

US National is the nationwide rollup across all states and territories. Use it for top-line totals and trends.

Country

Country groups awards by recipient country or place of performance when outside the U.S.

State

State aggregates awards by U.S. state to compare regional distribution.

District

Congressional District shows how awards distribute across U.S. districts.

County

County aggregates awards at the county level for regional context.

City

City aggregates awards at the city or place level for local analysis.

Zip

ZIP groups awards by postal ZIP to show neighborhood-scale patterns.

Tract

Census tract isolates awards within smaller neighborhood units for per‑capita and equity analysis.

Core-Based Statistical Area (CBSA)

CBSA groups counties around an urban center for metro-level comparisons.

Combined Statistical Area (CSA)

CSA combines adjacent CBSAs with strong economic ties for broader regional rollups.

AIANHH Area

AIANHH areas represent tribal and Native Hawaiian geographies for Indigenous-focused analysis.

Hex

Hex is a uniform grid overlay for consistent spatial comparisons across areas.

Economic
Economic Sector

Economic Sector groups spending into high-level industry categories.

NAICS Sector

NAICS Sector is the two‑digit NAICS rollup for broad industry splits.

NAICS Code

NAICS codes classify the industry of recipients or contractors.

PSC Code

PSC codes classify the product or service purchased in procurements.

Governmental
Agency

Agency identifies the federal agency responsible for the award.

Sub-Agency

Sub‑Agency breaks agencies into major operating components.

Office

Office pinpoints the issuing office within a sub‑agency.

Funding Agency

Funding Agency is the organization that provides the budget authority.

Funding Sub-Agency

Funding Sub‑Agency narrows the funding source below the agency level.

Funding Office

Funding Office specifies the office providing the funds.

Award Category

Award Category groups awards by instrument family (contract, grant, loan, etc.).

Award Type

Award Type is a more specific award instrument classification.

Contract Pricing Type

Contract Pricing Type identifies the pricing method used in contracts.

Extent Competed

Extent Competed shows how competitively an award was solicited.

Type Set-Aside

Type Set‑Aside indicates whether awards are reserved for certain business types.

Assistance Program

Assistance Program (CFDA/Assistance Listing) groups awards by program.

Treasury Account

Treasury Account ties awards to the federal budget account source.

TAS Path

TAS Path is the treasury account symbol path used for budget lineage.

Disaster Emergency Fund Code (DEFC)

DEFC labels awards tied to disaster or emergency funding.

Recipient
Recipient

Recipient is the organization that receives the award.

Parent Recipient

Parent Recipient rolls subsidiaries up to their corporate parent for consolidated views.

Financial
Award

An award is a specific financial record (grant, contract, loan, etc.) recorded in federal spending data. Awards are the atomic records used to roll up totals by geography, agency, recipient, and time.

Demographic
Demographic variable

A demographic category (income, race, age, etc.) used in overlays to compare spending against population characteristics.