What it is
Every California city files a Financial Transactions Report (FTR) with the State Controller each year (Government Code sections 12463 and 53891). The State Controller publishes the results as open data at bythenumbers.sco.ca.gov, where the Legislature, researchers, reporters, and the public use them to compare cities. The report is filed online through the State Controller's Local Government Reporting System (LGRS).
Special districts and counties file their own versions of the FTR. This guide covers the Cities FTR, which is the report the CACOA crosswalk targets today.
When it is due
- The report is due seven months after the end of the fiscal year, or by the date the State Controller prescribes if later. The State Controller announces the date in an annual alert letter. For a June 30 year end, plan on the end of January.
- No extensions are granted. Late reports are marked late.
- The data must come from audited financial statements if they are available, and the State Controller asks for a copy of the audit.
- An officer who refuses to file, or knowingly files a false report, commits a misdemeanor, and the agency can face a forfeiture of $1,000 to $5,000 depending on its revenue (Government Code sections 53894-53896).
Always confirm dates and requirements against the current year's instructions from the State Controller; this guide is not a substitute for them.
How the report is organized
The FTR does not report fund by fund. It groups funds by type and reports each group its own way:
| Funds | Where they report |
|---|---|
| Governmental funds (general, special revenue, capital projects, debt service, permanent), combined | Revenue forms 15-23, expenditure forms 24-29, other financing form 30, balance sheet form 37 (one column per governmental fund type) |
| Governmental activities, government-wide | Form 40: capital assets, long-term liabilities, and deferred outflows and inflows |
| Enterprise funds | One operating statement per enterprise type (forms 04-13: airport, electric, gas, harbor and port, hospital, sewer, solid waste, transit, water, other) and form 38 (statement of net position) |
| Internal service funds, combined | Form 03 operating statement and form 38 |
| Fiduciary funds | Form 30.5 (changes in fiduciary net position) and form 39 (fiduciary net position), one column per trust type |
| Debt | Forms 31-35, prepared from the agency's debt schedules |
| Everything else | General information (01), comments (02), conduit financing (14), services checklist (36), summary (41), parcel taxes (42) |
Blended component units are included in the city's funds.
Where the numbers come from
Most of the report is a classification of the trial balance. In the CACOA the forms fall into four groups:
- From the trial balance: forms 03-13, 16-30, 30.5, and 37-40. Every CACOA posting code has a published line on these forms.
- From schedules: the debt forms (31-35), conduit financing (14), and parcel tax statistics (42).
- Derived from the ledger: functional revenue detail (15), built from each functional revenue's object and function code.
- Calculated: the summary (41) and every total line.
- Descriptive: general information, comments, and the services checklist.
The chapters that follow cover each group. The full crosswalk, form by form, is at FTR forms.