Michigan Department of Treasury Uniform Chart of Accounts
Creating an Account: Second Set of Three Digits

Second Set of Three Digits: Activity Numbers

A summary table of functions/activities

Functions and Activity Numbers Table

An ACTIVITY is an office or department to which specific revenues and expenditures/expenses are to be allocated.

A group of related activities intended to accomplish a major service or regulatory program is a FUNCTION, such as general government function and public safety function. The activities listed in this manual are grouped into eleven functions.

There are two levels of activity numbers in the Uniform Chart of Accounts. They are control activity numbers and detailed activity numbers.

Control Activity Numbers

They are the higher-level activity numbers. The balance of each control activity number must at all times equal the total balance of the detailed activities numbers under that control activity number.

Detailed Activity Numbers

They are the lower-level activity numbers. Using them would provide local units with more detailed accounting information.

Open Activity Numbers

Within the detailed activity numbers, certain activities numbers are not designated with a specific activity name. Instead, they are marked as OPEN activity number in the Uniform Chart of Accounts and are available for local units to use if a local unit’s accounting system requires detailed classification and the Uniform Chart of Accounts does not contain a designated number that is suitable. They should be used under the proper control activity numbers or function classification that the Uniform Chart of Accounts indicates.

Reserved Activity Numbers

Within the detailed activity numbers, certain numbers are not available for local units and are for Michigan Department of Treasury use only. They are marked as RESERVED in the Uniform Chart of Accounts.  The department will use these for future state-wide accounts.

Point Off

Local units are encouraged to point off for activity numbers to record detailed accounting information if needed. Local units can use numbers or letters for point off. There is no limit to the number of digits or letters to use. Also, the actual use of the decimal is optional. Please see Example 4 under the Examples of Creating an Account Number in this section.

When to use an Activity Number

An activity number must be used for expenditure accounts in the General Fund or the primary fund and is not required to be used in special revenue funds. A special revenue fund usually accounts for a special activity and the fund number itself provides sufficient definition of the activities it accounts for. For funds that provide sufficient definition of the activities they account for, activity numbers are also not required. For example, if capital fund 401 is designated to account for sidewalk projects, then a specific activity number may not be needed as the fund number was designated for one specific activity. It is not necessary to use an activity number (the second set of three digits) for balance sheet accounts although they may be used. When an activity number does not apply or is not used, three zeros (000) are used as the second set of three digits in the 9-digit account number.  Revenue defined by GASB Statement 34 as program revenue may use an activity number or may use another method of accumulating the information for the government-wide financial statements.

The purpose of aggregating costs by activities is to better understand the cost of providing the various functions of government. The intent is to assign costs to the function or activity that benefits from those costs, not to the individuals who control them. For instance, consider the cost of health care for police officers. The benefit package may have been chosen by the governing body, but since this represents part of the costs of providing police services, these costs should be assigned to the police activity or public safety function (not to the governing body that made the decision to incur those costs).

In general, all costs should be assigned to the functions or activities that benefit from the costs. However, in order to be cost-beneficial, it is acceptable to allocate small dollar costs to a general government function. An example would be a telephone bill that is not separated by individual departments might be assigned to the building and grounds activity. 

Please refer to the table of activity numbers in Section 3 and descriptions of the activity numbers in Section 4 for detailed information.