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Sample changeovers

We took the ledgers three California agencies publish as open data, mapped every account to the CACOA, produced each agency's State Controller report from the mapped ledger, and compared it line by line with the report the agency actually filed.

How each changeover was run

  1. Download the agency's published ledger actuals and the report it filed, from the State Controller's By the Numbers data. Where the filing for the ledger's year was not yet published, the prior year's filing is used and lines are compared by their share of the total.
  2. Map every account to a CACOA fund, function, and object, the way a finance office would: by account series first, then by title, and by judgment only when neither decides.
  3. Run the mapped ledger through the published crosswalk to produce the report.
  4. Compare each line with the filed report.

The agencies are not named. Their ledgers and filings are public, but this page publishes only shares and rounded counts.

Small city · FY2018-19

Cities Financial Transactions Report

Dollars placed on a line or a documented exclusion100%
Filed dollars on the same line81.3%
Accounts mapped by

the agency's own account series65.1%

the account title6.8%

a person's judgment28.2%

Distinct accounts
about 440
Lines filed
about 89

Budget-system actuals by fund, department, division, function, and account, published as open data.

Produced ÷ filed, by section
Charges for Current Services0.86
Debt Service and Capital Outlay1.00
Fines and Forfeitures and Revenue from Use of Money and Property1.25
General Government and Public Safety1.05
Health and Culture and Leisure0.94
Intergovernmental - Federal, County, and Other Taxes In-Lieu7.30
Intergovernmental - State0.76
Internal Service Fund1.00
Licenses and Permits1.02
Miscellaneous Revenues0.88
Other Enterprise Fund1.00
Sewer Enterprise Fund0.82
Solid Waste Enterprise Fund1.00
Special Benefit Assessments0.29
Taxes1.06
Transportation and Community Development0.96

1.00 means the section came out exactly as filed.

Mid-size city · FY2022-23

Cities Financial Transactions Report

Dollars placed on a line or a documented exclusion100%
Filed dollars on the same line70.9%
Accounts mapped by

the agency's own account series41.1%

the account title57%

a person's judgment1.9%

Distinct accounts
about 460
Lines filed
about 93

GAAP-basis ledger actuals by fund, department, division, program, and object, published as open data.

Produced ÷ filed, by section
Charges for Current Services1.22
Debt Service and Capital Outlay0.33
Fines, Forfeitures, Penalties, and Revenue from Use of Money and Property1.01
General Government and Public Safety1.06
Health and Culture and Leisure0.88
Intergovernmental - Federal, County, and Other Taxes In-Lieu1.09
Intergovernmental - State1.00
Internal Service Fund1.05
Licenses and Permits0.86
Miscellaneous Revenues1.18
Other Enterprise Fund0.98
Sewer Enterprise Fund1.00
Special Benefit Assessments1.91
Taxes0.97
Transportation and Community Development0.86

1.00 means the section came out exactly as filed.

County · FY2024-25

Counties Financial Transactions Report

Dollars placed on a line or a documented exclusion100%
Filed dollars on the same line76.6%
Accounts mapped by

the agency's own account series97.2%

the account title2.2%

a person's judgment0.7%

Distinct accounts
about 130
Lines filed
about 290

Budget-basis ledger actuals by department, program, revenue source, and object, published as open data. No fund numbers: fund type is inferred from the program. The filed report is the prior year, so the comparison uses each line's share of the total.

Produced ÷ filed, by section
Airport Enterprise Fund0.95
Charges for Current Services1.11
Debt Service and Capital Outlay0.59
Education and Recreation and Cultural Services0.96
Fines, Forfeitures, and Penalties0.82
General Government1.15
Intergovernmental - Federal0.83
Intergovernmental - Other0.53
Intergovernmental - State1.13
Internal Service Fund1.28
Licenses, Permits, and Franchises0.66
Miscellaneous Revenues0.58
Other Enterprise Fund0.34
Property Taxes1.02
Public Assistance0.91
Public Protection1.00
Public Ways and Facilities, Health, and Sanitation1.02
Revenue from Use of Money and Property0.51
Sewer Enterprise Fund1.35
Taxes - Other1.06

1.00 means the section came out exactly as filed.

Why the rest differs

Every dollar found a line. Where the produced report differs from the filed one, it is almost always because the agency filed the same kind of transaction somewhere else. That is the inconsistency a common chart removes.

Same money, different line
Development impact fees filed as miscellaneous revenue, franchise fees filed as other taxes, lease principal filed as bond principal. The chart has one line for each; the agencies chose others.
Refunding escrow deposits
Money sent to an escrow agent to retire refunded bonds was filed as principal paid. The chart treats it as an other financing use, as governmental GAAP treats escrow payments made from refunding bond proceeds, so the principal line comes out smaller.
Allocated overhead
Filed reports spread public works administration and engineering across streets and other functions; the ledgers kept those costs in their own departments. The same total lands on different function lines.
Enterprise contract costs
Contract operators of sewer and other enterprises were filed as general and administrative expenses; the chart sends contract services to the contractual services line.
County program funding
A county filed 2011 behavioral health realignment with mental health realignment and ran some social services through special revenue funds its budget ledger does not show. Fund type had to be inferred from program names.

What the chart changed because of them

Some differences were the chart's fault. These fixes are in the 2027.03 draft release:

  • 3015 Transactions and Use Taxes

    a new code, so voter-approved add-on sales taxes stop landing on the 1% sales tax line

  • 3758 Successor Agency and Housing Authority Payments

    now says that redevelopment trust fund distributions are property taxes (3007, 3008), whatever the ledger calls them

  • 1830-1839 Plant acquisition functions

    capital outlay in these budget units now reports on the capital outlay lines, as most counties file it

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