A CACOA posting uses four codes. Written together they form the account string:
| Dimension | Digits | Answers | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fund | 3 | Whose money is it? | 100 General Fund |
| Department | 2 | Who is responsible? | 30 Police |
| Function | 4 | What service does it support? | 2100 Police |
| Object | 4 | What is it? | 4000 Salaries & Wages – Regular |
Written out: 100-30-2100-4000. Agencies may store the segments in any order their system prefers; the meaning is in the codes, not the punctuation.
Funds
Three digits, grouped in blocks by fund category:
| Block | Category |
|---|---|
| 100-299 | General fund and special revenue funds (295 is a permanent-fund template) |
| 300-399 | Capital projects funds |
| 400-499 | Debt service funds |
| 500-699 | Enterprise funds, one ten-code block per enterprise type |
| 700-799 | Internal service funds |
| 800-899 | Fiduciary funds (custodial and trust) |
| 900-999 | System funds: 980 government-wide conversion ledger, 999 pooled cash clearing |
Every fund carries a fund category (general, special revenue, enterprise, and so on). The category decides which FTR form and column the fund reports on. Enterprise blocks go further: each block reports on one FTR enterprise form (510-519 water on form 12, 520-529 sewer on form 09, and so on).
Large agencies may add a fourth digit for subfunds (1001, 1002). The first three digits still decide the reporting.
Objects
Four digits, grouped by class:
| Range | Class |
|---|---|
| 1000-1899 | Assets |
| 1900-1999 | Deferred outflows of resources |
| 2000-2799 | Liabilities |
| 2800-2899 | Deferred inflows of resources |
| 2900-2999 | Fund balance and net position |
| 3000-3999 | Revenues |
| 4000-4999 | Payroll and benefits |
| 5000-5999 | Materials and services (including depreciation and interfund charges) |
| 6000-6999 | Capital outlay |
| 7000-7999 | Debt service |
| 8000-8999 | Other financing sources and uses |
| 9000-9999 | Control codes (never posted) |
Functions
Four digits. The first digit follows the FTR's expenditure sections: 1 general government, 2 public safety, 3 transportation, 4 community development, 5 culture and leisure, 6 health, 7 public utilities, 8 capital outlay by function, 9 nonfunctional. A few functions report in a different FTR section than their first digit suggests (street lighting reports under public safety; sewers, solid waste, and cemeteries under health). The crosswalk handles those; coders do not have to remember them.
Departments
Two digits in blocks of ten (10-19 governing body and executive, 20-29 administrative services, 30-39 police, and so on). Departments are for management reporting. They are optional for the FTR, except that each department has a default function, which lets an agency that does not code functions still produce functional reports.
Silent defaults
- Function 0000 means "no function recorded." On revenue it means general revenue. On spending, the department's default function applies.
- Department 00 means "no department recorded."
A small agency can post with fund and object only, use one department per program, and still produce a correct FTR.
Revenue and the function code
The State Controller splits governmental revenue into general revenue (usable for any public purpose, such as general property tax, sales tax, and business license tax) and functional revenue (revenue from direct services, or revenue tied to a service by an external requirement, such as fees, gas tax, grants, and special assessments). The CACOA records that distinction with the function code:
Put a function on a revenue posting only when the revenue is functional under the State Controller's definition. Leave it at 0000 when the revenue is general.
That single rule decides whether an amount lands in the General or Functional column of the FTR revenue forms and feeds the net expenditure calculation. See Revenues.