Annual Comprehensive Financial Report

The City of Cottage Grove issues a Comprehensive Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) that provides a wealth of information about the city's finances.

Sections of the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report

The ACFR has three major parts:

• Introduction: General information on the government's structure, services and environment.
• Financial: Contains the basic financial statements, notes to the financial statements, any additional required supplementary information, information on individual funds, and discretely presented component unit.
• Statistical: Presents detailed information as a context for understanding what the information in the financial statements, note disclosures, and required supplementary information says about the city's overall financial health. The statistical section includes financial trends, revenue capacity, debt capacity, demographic and economic information and operating information.

You can read the most recent ACFR here.

Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting

For the 2020 CAFR, the Cottage Grove Finance Department received the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting. The certificate, awarded by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada, is the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting.

The award recognizes that Cottage Grove's comprehensive annual financial report (ACFR) meets criteria that most cities' reports do not. In Minnesota, just 11% of all cities receive the award. The city has earned the award 31 consecutive years.