Learn About Electronic Filing

• Access the filing application from any computer with Internet – You can use any computer with Internet access to go to the Ethics Commission’s website, log in to the online filing application with your secure Filer ID and password, and complete your report.
• PFS filers can copy activity from a previous year to the current year’s report – Using the online filing application, you have access to any PFS that you previously filed electronically with the Commission. When you start this year’s PFS, you can choose to copy financial activity reported for a previous calendar year into your current PFS. Then just add new activity and update with changes as needed.
• Save and return to your report – You can log in to the online filing application, start your report, and save an incomplete report. When you log in again, you can access the “in-progress” report and complete the entry. (Just don’t forget – you must click “File Report” to finally file the report successfully.)
• Import data into your report – Avoid hours of manual entry! If you have a large amount of financial activity to disclose, you can use the Commission’s formatted templates to import data in the electronic filing application. There are import templates for campaign finance reports, personal financial statements, and lobby registrations.
• Quick and easy submission – When your report is ready to file, it only takes seconds to transmit using the online electronic filing application.
• Midnight deadline – The deadline for any report filed electronically with the Commission is midnight Central Time Zone on the due date. The deadline for a paper filing is 5 p.m. Central Time Zone on the due date.
• No notary required – The online filing application gives you the security of a unique Filer ID and password that serves as your electronic signature. Unlike filing on paper, no notarization is required!
• No postage, certified mail, or delivery charges – Using the online electronic filing application is free.
• No Affidavit of Exemption (AFFEX) is Required for electronically filed Campaign Finance Reports.

Most individuals or entities filing report with the TEXAS ETHICS COMMISSION are required to file reports electronically unless the individual or entity is eligible to claim a statutory exemption.

Speaker filers have no statutory exemption.

EXEMPTION: A campaign finance filer may claim an exemption from electronic filing only if the filer does not use a computer to keep current records of contributions, expenditures, or donors AND if the filer does not accept more than $34,890 in political contributions or does not make more than $34,890 in political expenditures in calendar year 2026. (This threshold is adjusted annually under Section 571.064(b) of the Government Code based on changes in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers.) To claim an exemption a filer must submit with each paper filing the appropriate “Electronic Filing Affidavit Exemption”.

The law continues to exempt the following from the electronic filing requirement. In these cases, an affidavit need not be filed to claim the exemption.

• Certain candidates for political subdivisions located in more than one county if the governing body has not yet been formed, and specific-purpose committees supporting or opposing only those candidates.
• Specific-purpose committees supporting or opposing a measure if the measure concerns a political subdivision located in more than one county if the governing body has not yet been formed.
• Candidates for state party chair.
• Appointees.

All TEC filers will be assigned an 8 digit Filer ID number, sometimes called an account number, like 00049300. The only exceptions to this rule are Governor For A Day and Speaker Day Reunion filers which do not have a Filer ID and file on paper only.

If you are a TEC filer and do not have a Filer ID, you will most likely need to file a Treasurer Appointment form in order to be assigned a number. The following filers do not file a TA in order to be assigned a Filer Id:

• DCE filers that are organized as a PAC commonly referred to as Super PAC; they need to file a Statement to Act as Direct Campaign Expenditure Only Committee affidavit.
• LEG filers need to send a letter to the commission indicating that they are being created. See the Guidelines for Forming Legislative Caucus.
• SPK filers need to send a Declaration of Speaker Candidacy to the commission even though they will use the same filer id as they use for their candidate/officeholder account.
• Lobbyists will need to file a Filer ID Request/Name Change form.
• Appointees need to have a letter sent by their appointer (usually the governor or an executive head).

If you are a new TEC filer and do not qualify to file on paper, you must also submit a Form SECURITY to gain access to the Commission’s electronic filing application.

In order to reset your account’s password you must first request an email token by clicking on the “Forgot Password?” link on the login page as illustrated below:

At the next screen, TEC filers must enter their Filer ID or account number, shown with a red arrow pointing to the location. A local filer or a 1295 filer must enter the email address they are using for a login Filer ID (case sensitive as initially created). After entering your Filer ID, a filer must select a proper filer type from the pull down menu accessed by clicking the “v” to the right of “Select Filer Type”. Then you must click the “Next” button at the far right bottom of the screen to proceed. This screen is illustrated below:

You will receive a message in blue at the top right corner “An email has been sent”. An email from do-not-reply@ethics.texas.gov containing a link to change your password will be emailed to the primary email address on file.

The email token is good for 7 days. (A 1295 email token is good for 24 hours.) After that you must request a new password reset. The email token can be clicked only once. After it has been used, it is no longer usable.

The filing application can be started by using a personal computer or laptop, a Mac desktop computer or MacBook, a Tablet, or a smart phone to bring up a browser window. Acceptable browsers and their minimal version level are:

• Chrome 4
• Firefox 15
• Opera 12.1
• Safari 4
• Internet Explorer 9

Note: IE is no longer supported by Microsoft and is not recommended

Logging in the First Time

How to Change Your Profile

How to Change Your Password

How to Check Your Report for Errors

How to File a $0.00 Report

You are always required to itemize or report detailed information for contributions, expenditures, and loans over a certain monetary threshold. The thresholds vary depending on the type of activity, and these thresholds are updated annually. For smaller contributions, expenditures, and loans that do not exceed the threshold (in the aggregate from a single source), you may report them in one of two ways: 1) add them all together and enter the unitemized total as a lump sum; OR 2) enter the detailed information on the schedule entry screen (and choose to itemize or not).

For the contributions, expenditures, and loans that you have decided to enter as a lump sum, you will enter these lump sums for the applicable schedule on the “Schedule Subtotals” page in the filing application.

You will find the link to the “Schedule Subtotals” near the bottom of the left side menu of the report. Select the link to navigate to the “Schedule Subtotals” data entry page. Enter any unitemized totals here. If you have none, do not enter any data on this page. Go to the bottom of this data entry page and click on “Next” to either save or skip the “Schedule Subtotals” data entry page.

Cover Sheet Page 2 of your report summarizes your transaction activities for this period covered. The filing system will automatically calculate your total contributions and expenditures using the transaction data you entered into your report. The filing system does not calculate your “Total Political Contributions Maintained as of the last day of the filing period”. You must manually enter this value onto the “Report Totals” page yourself. The “Total Political Contributions Maintained” is the balance of your campaign bank account as of the last day of the period covered for this report. You get this amount directly from your bank statement. (If you have more than one campaign account, you will need to add all the bank balance amounts to get your total.)

You must visit the “Schedule Subtotals” page in order to navigate to the “Report Totals” for Cover Sheet Page 2 of your printed report. You will find the links to the “Schedule Subtotals” and “Report Totals” near the bottom of the left side menu of the report. Selecting either of these links will take you to the “Schedule Subtotals” data entry page. Enter any unitemized totals here. (See “Entering Unitemized Lump Sums into Your Report” above.) If you have none, do not enter any data on this page. Go to the bottom of this data entry page and click on “Next” to either save or skip the “Schedule Subtotals” data entry page. This will take you to the “Report Totals” section for Cover Sheet Page 2 of your report. You are required to fill out both boxes 5 and 6 in order to save data on this page.

Box 5 is where you enter your bank balance. Box 6 is where you enter the total principal amount of all your outstanding campaign finance loans as of the last day of the reporting period.

When are have entered your data into both boxes 5 and 6, click on “Save” at the bottom of the page. You will stay on this page. You can click on “Check For Errors” or on any other link in the left side menu to move forward in the report.

Do not correct an old report to satisfy the filing requirements for a new report. A correction is always tied to the parent report and cannot be broken away to cover a different report for a different time period. For example, do not correct a report due one year ago to count for the new report due today.

If you are a TEC filer and filed your report electronically, you must correct your report using the electronic filing application. In order to correct a report, you must know which report you wish to correct. Find the report you wish to correct by looking at the report number, report type, period covered, and filed date in your “Filed Reports” grid list under “Manage My Reports”. To the right of this report, there is a “Correct/Update” action button. Click the “Correct/Update” action button to correct the report. See the figure below to find this button.

A blank correction affidavit will automatically be provided for you as part of this new corrected report. Make your changes to the report and then fill out the correction affidavit that is provided. The correction affidavit is found by scrolling down the left side menu of your report in the filing application and locating the “Correction Affidavit” link near the bottom of the menu. Clicking on the “Correction Affidavit” link will run the “Check for Errors” function, which will list the “Correction Affidavit” as a high severity error. Click on the “Correction Affidavit” link in the error table to get to the data entry page for the affidavit. Remember, the report will not pass error check and cannot be filed if you have not filled out the correction affidavit. See the figure below to find the links to the correction affidavit.

• Save your csv template as an Excel file and enter all your data into your .xlsx file. When you are ready to run your file through the verifier or import it into your report, save your Excel file as the simplest csv file [CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv)].
• There can be no blank lines between your entries.
• Always run your csv file through the import verifier and correct all your data before you import your csv file into your report. The import verifier provides detailed information to help you find and correct the errors in your csv.
• Import your data into your report and verify your imported records are accurate and complete before you make any manual entries to your report. If there is something wrong with the data you imported, you can delete the report, create a new report, and re-import your data after you correct your csv file. When you verify all your imported data is correct, then enter your manual entries to your report.
• Some of the data fields require you to enter codes. These codes are listed in the Import Guide. You need to enter the codes exactly as they are listed in the Import Guide, typically in upper case.
• Import your data only one time. If you import your csv file twice, you will have two copies of your transactions in your report.

You can export the data from most of your schedules from your in-progress and your filed reports. These exports are useful for verifying you have entered all your transactions into your report. These can also be very useful if you need to delete your report and start over, but you manually entered the data and you do not want to enter it again. You can export the data and re-import it into your new report.

The export function can also be very useful should you want to extract the addresses of your contributors.

The export function is available on the “Manage My Reports” page as a button in the “Action” column of your report tables.

• Activities reported on Daily pre-election reports and Special Session reports must be reported again in the next applicable campaign finance report.
• The filing application will automatically copy the transactions from any Daily report or Special Session report you file into your next required report.
• Do not manually re-enter these transactions or import these transactions into your next standard report. If you do, these transactions will be listed in your next standard report multiple times.
• If you find you have multiple entries in your next standard report, please contact the Texas Ethics Commission for technical support to remove the duplicate entries as you may not be able to remove them yourself.

The first PFS you electronically file is the most difficult – There is a Cover Sheet and 20 Parts that you must look at to determine which Parts you are required to file. The following year’s report will be much easier and faster to file because you can copy this year’s report into next year’s report, make a few updates, and file.

Copy activity from a previous year – Using the online filing application, you have access to any PFS that you previously filed electronically with the Commission. When you start this year’s PFS, you can choose to copy financial activity reported for a previous calendar year into your current PFS. Then just add new activity and update with changes as needed.

You can import many of the Parts into your PFS – There are import templates for most of the PFS Parts on the website. If you have several entries for a single Part, it may be simpler to enter these into that Part’s import template. If you only have a few items for that Part, it is easier to manually enter these into the report yourself. Be sure to use our import templates, import guide, and import file format verifier before you try to import data into your report.

Reporting thresholds change annually – Reporting thresholds are updated annually. When you copy a previous year’s report into your new report, some data will not copy over to the new report if the data is a threshold value. You will need to manually update these fields that did not copy over. When you run error check, you will get errors on these fields to remind you to select the new threshold for that activity.