INTRODUCTION

CLASSIFICATION STRUCTURE

The Statewide Accounting and Reporting System (STARS) accumulates financial data through a formal classification structure. The objective of STARS is to provide for the centralized accounting and reporting of financial data in accordance with the Statewide program budget structure mandated by the State Legislature. STARS was designed to meet the following objectives:

• Collect and report accounting information in a manner that will allow the State's financial statements to be prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)
  
  
• Provide the control and operating agencies with programmatic data to enable an appropriate evaluation of the fiscal operations of the State
  
  
• Provide several levels of organization detail, completely independent of the statewide programmatic structure
  
  
• Provide for the full accountability of all statewide programs, federal grants, and capital projects

In STARS, revenue and expenditure data are classified in a variety of ways to provide the ability to analyze the information from different perspectives. STARS has five major methods of classifying financial data. Each component in the structure provides a unique and essential method of classifying financial data. The categories of information are:

ORGANIZATION
The administrative unit responsible for the transaction

PROGRAM
The purpose for which an expenditure was made (Often refers to the Mini Code)

FUND
The basic fiscal entity within government

OBJECT CODE
The commodity or service obtained from an expenditure, or the source of revenue

PROJECT
Any special component not covered by the other classifications.
Primarily used for Federal Grants and Capital Projects

Click here for additional information on the classification structure.

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