Documentation · Abbreviations
Reading the schema.
Texas filings use compact codes — short prefixes, suffixes, and letter codes that turn a 30-character column name into something like CITY_OFFICIAL_BUS_YN. This page expands the ones you'll see most often in the tables and joins on the documentation page.
Agencies
Who publishes the data — and who doesn't.
- TEC
- Texas Ethics CommissionState filing agency
- FEC
- Federal Election CommissionNot ingested
Filer types
How the state classifies a person or entity that files.
- CF
- Campaign finance
- CAND
- Candidate
- OH
- Officeholder
- PAC
- Political Action Committee
- GPAC
- General-Purpose CommitteeTEC filer type
- SPAC
- Specific-Purpose CommitteeTEC filer type
- DCE
- Direct Campaign ExpenditureSpent without coordination
Identifiers
The columns that join one table to another.
- filerIdent
- TEC CF filer IDState CF join key
- FilerID
- TEC lobby filer IDSeparate namespace
- reportInfoIdent
- TEC report numberCitation key
- REGISTRANT_ID
- Austin lobbyist ID
- TRANSACTION_ID
- Austin per-row stable ID
- REPORT_ID
- Austin quarterly report ID
- MQ_ID
- Municipal Question ID
- CO_ID
- City Official ID
- EMP_ID
- Employee ID
- RP_ID
- Real Property ID
- SM_ID
- Subject Matter ID
Austin column prefixes
Two- or three-letter prefixes that namespace columns by the entity they describe.
- MQ
- Municipal Question
- CO
- City Official
- CM
- Council Member
- EMP
- Employee
- RP
- Real Property
- SM
- Subject Matter
- COMP
- Compensation
- EXPN
- Expenditure
- DEPT
- Department
- ADR
- Address line
- BUS
- Business
Column suffixes
Suffixes that indicate the semantic type of a column.
- _YN
- Yes / No flag
- Cd
- Code lookup
- Dt
- Date
- Ident
- Identifier
- Eff
- Effective (date prefix)
- Jdi
- Jurisdiction
- ENTITY_CD
- Entity codeIndividual / org / etc.
Schedules (TEC CF)
TEC's letter codes for the major sections of a campaign-finance report.
- Sch A / C
- Contributions
- Sch B
- Pledges
- Sch E
- Loans
- Sch F / G / H / I
- Expenditures
- Sch K
- Credits & refunds
- Sch L
- Debts
- Sch M
- Assets (judicial)
- Sch T
- Out-of-state travel
Worked example
A column called CITY_OFFICIAL_BUS_YN on Austin's lobby expenditures.csv breaks down as CITY_OFFICIAL (the entity prefix) · BUS (Business) · _YN (Yes/No flag) — i.e. "was this expenditure for city-official business?"