You’ve heard the old adage that good food comes from quality ingredients. The same could be said about your government’s annual report: it’s only as good as the data that goes into it. As you prepare to file your annual report this year, remember that there are many consumers of your financial data and its accuracy is important.
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It’s not uncommon for a government to have multiple bank or investment accounts with different staff or departments reconciling them. That’s okay, but keep in mind there can be risks when different people are involved with reconciling several accounts.
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In the spring of 2020, SAO changed the way that cash-basis local governments were to report their cash and investment balances. Gone away were reserved and unreserved classifications and in their place came unassigned, assigned, committed, restricted, and unspendable. This meant a new task was at hand—calculating the amount of total ending cash and investments that fits into these new classifications at the end of each fiscal year. This article helps you understand how a local government’s accounting policies may dictate how to calculate these amounts.
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The “Overview of Changes” section contains descriptions of the changes and links to the appropriate sections of the manuals. Please refer to the “Alerts and Changes” tab for determining which revisions might affect your 2021 annual reporting.
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The State Auditor’s Office will start the annual process of updating the BARS Manuals (GAAP and Cash) on Monday, Dec. 13, 2021. During the updates, sections of both online BARS Manuals will be unavailable for your use. Once updated, they will be fully available for accounting and reporting guidance related to fiscal year 2021 and forward.
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We curated this latest issue of our regular newsletter to make it easy to find key information from this blog, all in one place! Please download or share with colleagues who might find it valuable.
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The Overview of Changes contains detailed descriptions of the changes and links to the appropriate sections of the Manuals. Please refer to the Alerts and Changes tab for determining which revisions might affect your 2020 annual reporting.
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You might see some red flags on the Schedule 01 that you haven’t seen before. In previous years, you might have received a yellow flag with the error message: “This BARS account may not be allowable in this fund type.” Starting in 2021 (reporting year 2020), we have changed this yellow flag to a red flag. To help local governments with this new error message, we have compiled a list of all BARS accounts that will be affected and their applicable fund types. Red flags must be corrected before submitting your annual report.
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The BARS Manuals (GAAP and cash) are being updated beginning today. During the updates, sections of both online BARS Manuals will be unavailable for use.
… CONTINUE READING → The BARS Manuals (GAAP and cash) are being updated beginning December 14. During the updates, sections of both online BARS Manuals will be unavailable for use.
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