The Chart of Accounts (COA) is the foundation of the Statewide Financial System (SFS). It provides each business unit, department, fund, project, program, and account within the State a unique identification number to identify financial transactions. Centralized governance of the COA will ensure continued consistency within the State related to maintenance and future changes.

The primary goals of the COA are to facilitate the collection and analysis of statewide financial information. It helps ensure information is straightforward; flexible and standardized; reduces redundancy within data elements; and provides scalable data at various required levels of detail which can be rolled up into hierarchical structures.

The development and implementation of the COA for the SFS allows the State to realize significant benefits:

Business Transformation – Improves financial analysis; makes the State's financial information more transparent; improves visibility by outside parties into State operations; and generates savings by streamlining agency administrative practices.

Enhances Controls – Improves internal controls by focusing on preventive and automated approaches, rather than on those which are investigatory and manual.

Improves Statewide Reporting and Compilation of Data – Improves reporting and tracking capabilities; and enhances analysis of statewide cross-agency data.

Reduces Duplication of Effort – The COA decreases the time and effort associated with processing “work-arounds”, making operations more efficient.

The sections contained in this chapter are intended to provide an overview of several components of the COA within the SFS. For more detailed information, refer to the COA Information Center on the SFSSecure website — including the COA Handbook.

Guide to Financial Operations

REV. 04/23/2019