The CACOA is meant to be adopted in steps. Each step is useful on its own.
Path 1: Map (keep your chart)
- Keep the existing chart of accounts and posting practices.
- Map each local account to a CACOA fund, object, and function in a crosswalk table.
- Produce the FTR and other reports from the mapped trial balance.
Best for: small agencies, agencies catching up on audits, and anyone who wants results before changing anything.
What it costs: one careful mapping, then a few minutes each year for new accounts. The published crosswalk supplies the FTR side, so the agency only maps its own accounts to CACOA codes, not to hundreds of FTR fields.
Path 2: Blend (new accounts follow CACOA)
- The existing chart stays active.
- New accounts are created with CACOA numbering or carry a CACOA code as an attribute.
- Validation rules flag unmapped or ambiguous accounts before year end.
Best for: mid-sized agencies and agencies preparing for a system change.
Path 3: Convert (CACOA is the chart)
- CACOA codes are the posting codes.
- Local detail lives in the reserved local-detail ranges.
- The FTR, budget, and financial statement groupings come straight from the ledger.
Best for: new agencies, ERP replacements, and agencies that want the lowest ongoing reporting cost.
Which path saves the most?
The savings grow with each step, but the first step is where most of the annual FTR effort disappears: once accounts are mapped to CACOA codes, the FTR mapping is inherited instead of rebuilt. Agencies moving to a new ERP should start from Path 3; converting later costs more than starting clean.
Adopting the CACOA turns any of the three paths into a plan that fits inside one fiscal year, with what to hand the auditor and a summary for the governing body.