THE CHALLENGE
Placer County, California, known for its expansive geography and dynamic community growth, faced mounting complexity in financial reporting. Like many local governments, the Countyโs Auditor Controllerโs 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.
โIt wasnโt just time consuming,โ said Debbie Chan, Financial Reporting Manager. โIt was stressful. One small change could impact multiple documents. Version control and formatting took up to 30% of our time.โ
The Lease Accounting process was equally painful. Departments had to manually configure lease schedules in Workdayโs contract module, creating a decentralized, continuous burden on staff. Compliance with GASB 87 and 96 was a moving target. The decentralized nature of the process increased audit risk.
THE SOLUTION
In 2022, Placer County selected Gravity to overhaul its ACFR and lease reporting workflows. Already using Gravity for its 500+ page Budget Book, the County prioritized an integrated approach. Gravityโs ability to consolidate financial content, automate linking, and centralize lease management immediately stood out.
WHY PLACER COUNTY CHOSE GRAVITY
- 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. - Centralized Lease Management
Transformed decentralized processes into a centralized year-end workflow. - Seamless Integration
Leveraged existing Workday data pipelines and past Gravity implementation work. - Cost-Effective Choice
Competitive pricing compared to other vendors like Workiva, with strong existing vendor familiarity
IMPLEMENTATION AND RESULTS
The Countyโs implementation team, including Debbie Chan and Emily McLean, praised Gravityโs support throughout onboarding. โThey werenโt just setting up our files. They were helping us improve our entire process,โ said McLean. Features like automatic journal entry generation, maturity schedules, and real-time updates reduced stress and saved time.
Time Savings.
Estimated 25 to 35 percent reduction in manual prep time
Stress Reduction.
50 percent lower stress due to version control, audit prep, and formatting cleanup
Lease Management.
Replaced Workdayโs decentralized model with a centralized and efficient process
Report Quality.
Output praised internally for professionalism and visual polish
Support and Implementation.
โOne of the best teams weโve worked with,โ said Chan
LESSONS LEARNED AND OPPORTUNITIES
While the initial rollout under the Eclipse model had some usability limitations, Placer County has since upgraded to Gravityโs MDFM (Multi-Dimensional Financial Model) platform.
โThis new version is much more intuitive,โ McLean noted. Both she and Chan acknowledged a desire for improved documentation and more proactive communication about product updates.