Allowing capital funding, for long-term fixed assets like buildings, to be spent on revenue costs such as bills and salaries, is unusual.
Reasons for this include the spending types being taxed differently, and the fact that recording them incorrectly can misrepresent profits and assets.
Kilvinder Vigurs, deputy mayor for policing, said the capitalisation direction had given SYMCA “time to reorder its financial affairs whilst protecting frontline services”.
“The identification of the accounting and budgetary omissions does, however, place material strain on the financial health of the South Yorkshire Police Fund,” she added.
She said SYMCA and SYP had set about resolving the issues with “pace and transparency”.
SYMCA, which oversees the force and sought out the direction on its behalf, said the budget gap had come as a result of a “fundamental error in accounting practices in the office of the former PCC,” Dr Alan Billings.
But Billings said although the PCC was “nominally responsible” for finance, it had been the police force who had carried out the work.
He told the BBC he had not been aware of any errors and had been “astonished that external auditors didn’t pick this up”.