Taming ACFR Chaos: A Better Way to Work Under Pressure
April 16, 2025Every city publishes an ACFR — but few talk about what it takes to build one.
Behind every clean, public-facing report lies a maze of spreadsheets, late nights, and formatting marathons. Finance teams spend hundreds of hours gathering data, reconciling numbers, and triple-checking footnotes — only to repeat the process the following year.
Many teams don’t realize how much time they lose until they see what a structured process can do. With Gravity, some have cut up to 85% of their ACFR preparation time by eliminating the manual work that eats up their day.
So, where does all that time go?
Scene 1: The Spreadsheet Web
It usually starts with a few spreadsheets. Then, a few more. Before long, finance teams juggle:
- Dozens of Excel files from multiple departments
- Different versions of the same dataset
- Copied numbers instead of connected data
- Formulas that conflict or quietly break
- Totals that don’t match — but no one knows why
When one number changes, it triggers a chain reaction:
- Teams rewrite footnotes by hand
- Analysts manually recheck totals across multiple tabs
- Report builders reformat charts to reflect updated values
No system tracks these dependencies. People do — with sticky notes, memory, and repetition. It works until it doesn’t.
Scene 2: The Formatting Fire Drill
Even when the numbers align, the finish line still feels far away.
- Someone adds page numbers manually
- Another team member adjusts every table to avoid awkward page breaks
- The document lead fixes headers that shift every time they export
- Someone else updates the table of contents again after another round of edits
- Meanwhile, new “Can you just tweak this?” requests roll in from all sides
Every change introduces a new risk. By the final week, even experienced teams and version 27 of the file were running on nerves.
Scene 3: The Hidden Cost
The real cost isn’t just hours lost — momentum, trust, and people.
- Errors in footnotes can jeopardize audit confidence
- Teams burn out from repetitive, low-value work
- Critical process knowledge leaves when experienced staff retire
- Strategy gets sidelined by survival-mode execution
Most teams don’t want more time — they want their time back.
Enter: Structure, Not Scramble
Gravity replaces the patchwork with a platform built for the real work of reporting.
At the center is our Multi-Dimensional Financial Model (MDFM) — a framework that gives every number a source and every update a path forward:
- Teams connect values to their origin, so totals always align
- Footnotes and tables update in real time
- Formatting stays consistent across the report
- Finance leaders control the flow and narrative without manual rework
This isn’t just automation. It’s an infrastructure shift that eliminates chaos and creates a process you can trust, scale, and reuse.
From Backstage to Center Stage
The ACFR says a lot about your government. It tells the public whether you’re accountable, transparent, and in control.
But behind the scenes, the current process asks too much — too much time, risk, and patchwork.
Gravity helps public finance teams stop scrambling and start leading. Because the final product matters — and so does the process that gets you there.
Want to see Gravity in action?
Book a demo and learn how to reduce your manual lift, reclaim your team’s time, and deliver reports you can stand behind — every number, every footnote, every time.
