BARS

Updated: Jan 5, 2023

The State Auditor's Office has finished updating the GAAP and Cash Basis BARS Manuals.

Updated: Dec 12, 2022

The State Auditor's Office will be updating the BARS Manuals (GAAP and Cash) beginning Monday, Dec. 12, 2022.

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 2022 and forward.

We will notify local government audit contacts via email when the BARS Manuals have been fully updated.

Updated: Feb 7, 2023

Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced Oct. 3, 2022, that 125 local governments in Washington would receive $215 million under a resolution with three companies found responsible for fueling the opioid epidemic.

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.

Published: March 16, 2022

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.

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 nonspendable. 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.

The State Auditor's Office has finished updating the GAAP and

Updated: December 9, 2021

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.

We will notify local government audit contacts via email when we have fully updated the BARS Manuals.

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. Click on the image below to see articles regarding updates to reporting deadlines, information on annual report filing and more.

The GAAP and Cash Basis BARS Manuals have been updated!