Comprehensive Annual Financial Report

A "Comprehensive Annual Financial Report" or "CAFR" is a government book keeping practice which started in the post WWII economic boom and replaced what was regularly an "off-the-books" practice called the "general fixed asset account group" . The various levels of government; "general government" or the federal United States, individual state governments and government agencies each began producing a CAFR in the late 1940s to early 1950s to catalog an accurate picture of institutional funds, or financial holdings, assets and total investment incomes for those government and non-governmental entities using the report, which is above and beyond the budget process. In 1945, the Government Corporation Control Act, began the auditing of wholly owned government corporations and mixed ownership corporations,( those that government may have controlling holdings in but operate as private corporations) all of which may come under the term "enterprise funds".

While a budget might indicate that the government or agency has financial trouble and debt, (because of excess spending within the select grouping of "general fund" accounts presented), the CAFR will normally indicate that government possesses large holdings considerably over what is shown in a budget report or "general fund" alone.