Placer County, California
A County in California Gold Country Finds Valuable Time Savings in its ACFR Reporting

Primary Objective

Seeking ACFR Excellence

Sreamline ACFR reporting while saving time, reducing stress, and improving report quality.

Challenge

Expansive Geography — and ACFR Prep Time

Placer County, California, known for its expansive geography and dynamic community growth, faced mounting complexity in financial reporting.

Like many local governments, the County’s Auditor Controller’s Office relied heavily on disconnected Word and Excel files to prepare the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR). MD&A, financial statements, footnotes, and statistical sections were managed in separate documents, each updated manually. Adjustments meant combing through multiple files to ensure completeness and accuracy of the ACFR, and every internal review cycle required generating a new merged PDF. The process was arduous and error prone.

“It wasn’t just time consuming,” said Debbie Chan, Financial Reporting Manager, Placer County, CA. “It was stressful. One small change could impact multiple documents. Version control and formatting took up to 30% of our time.”

Solution

Greater Efficiency and Organization

Placer County selected Gravity by ClearGov to overhaul its ACFR reporting workflows for the following reasons:

• Unified ACFR Platform: Consolidated all Word and Excel files into one system with built-in linking.
• Audit-Ready Outputs: Validation checks and consistent formatting reduced risk and manual effort.
• Seamless Integration: Leveraged existing Workday data pipelines and past Gravity by ClearGov implementation work.
• Cost-Effective Choice: Competitive pricing compared to other vendors, with strong existing vendor familiarity

The financial reporting solution was absolutely the right decision. The time, accuracy, and sanity we’ve regained is more than worth the investment.

Debbie Chan, Financial Reporting Manager, Placer County, CA

Results

Greater Efficiency and Organization

The County’s implementation team, including Debbie Chan and Emily McLean, praised Gravity by ClearGov’s support throughout onboarding. “They’re one of the best teams we’ve worked with,” said Chan.

Features like automatic journal entry generation, maturity schedules, and real-time updates reduced stress and saved time. “They weren’t just setting up our files. They were helping us improve our entire process,” said McLean.

Placer County achieved the following by using Gravity by ClearGov’s ACFR Reporting solution:

Time Savings: 25% to 35% reduction in manual preparation time.

Stress Reduction: 50% lower stress due to version control, audit prep, and formatting cleanup.

Improved Report Quality: Output praised internally for professionalism and visual polish.

The county is currently undergoing its first full ACFR cycle using the Multi-Dimensional Financial Model (MDFM) platform and plans to expand usage across more reporting tasks. The team is very enthusiastic about the possibilities that Gravity by ClearGov’s ACFR Financial Reporting and MDFM offer.

If you’re spending hours stitching together documents and worrying about formatting, stop. There’s a better way and solution.

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