Many of you are attempting to anticipate the length or depth of the financial impacts of the pandemic. This will be difficult to predict, which makes financial planning challenging. One important tool available to help you in these circumstances is scenario planning.
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It is critical to forecast your cash inflows, outflows, and balances into the near-term future to anticipate liquidity shortfalls and remain solvent. Annual budgets tell you your spending authority for a year, whereas a cash forecast will tell you whether you have sufficient cash in the future on a month to month (or even daily) basis.
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Many governments are feeling the pressure on their general fund and looking at cost cutting and other measures. Here are some areas you might be looking at and some tips and resources to keep in mind.
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A cost allocation plan takes some work to set up and carry out, but it can take some pressure off of the general fund. Here are some helpful tips and resources should you decide to go that route.
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If the COVID-19 crisis is hurting your local government’s cash flow, you might be looking to borrow from restricted funds. Here are a few things to keep in mind.
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Local governments are navigating many new areas while managing operations in response to coronavirus. We’d like to share some information so that everyone knows where to look for some important answers.
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Do you use a checklist to prepare or review your financial statements? If not, maybe you should! We have updated our financial statement checklists for local governments.
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The monthly reconciliation is an essential control activity to government finance. Although we cannot prescribe a uniform way to perform your reconciliation, we have developed a list of best practices to consider and compare to your own government’s current processes.
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Accounting and reporting standards and guidance for leases are changing for both GAAP and cash basis local governments, effective for fiscal years ending December 31, 2020, and after. Although you won’t be preparing your financial statements and notes until early 2021, those first lease payments under the new standard will begin to flow in January 2020. Will you be ready?
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Segregation of duties, or separating conflicting duty assignments in your government, can help protect your local government’s assets. But which duties do you segregate, and what are your options if you cannot feasibly do this? What if you are a very small entity with limited resources?
Our Office recognizes how challenging this can be, so the Center for Government Innovation created a new resource to help you get started, no matter your size.
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