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?
Your favorite State Auditor’s Office is all over social sharing interesting tidbits about our work, staff, podcasts, breaking news…and of course our unofficial mascot, Theo the Wonder Corgi (duh).
Follow along on your favorite social media listed here, and remember to visit our SAO Social Media page in the future for the most updated links. Happy scrolling!
A new year has begun, which means it's time for cash-basis governments to close out last year and begin preparing annual financial reports. Annual reports for local governments with fiscal year ending 12/31 are due to the Office of the Washington State Auditor by May 30, 2026.
Here in Washington, local leaders go by many names – Councilmember, Commissioner, Mayor and many more. Regardless of your title or the size of your local government, leadership plays a key role in ensuring your government’s cybersecurity success. Fortunately, our Center for Government Innovation has updated its cybersecurity guide for Washington’s leaders.
Since 2016, Washington’s governments have reported more than $37 million of lost public funds as a result of cyberfraud, sometimes referred to as phishing, spearfishing or business email compromise schemes. In these schemes, an external threat actor contacts the government, appearing to be a known source such as an employee, upper-level manager, vendor or other business associate. Government staff are convinced to redirect valid payments to the external threat actor, or to purchase gift cards and provide them with the card numbers.
The Office of the Washington State Auditor has investigated many losses of public funds that governments could have detected sooner – if only someone had looked at their bank statements. Whether you are a finance professional, a department head, or even an elected or appointed official, regularly reviewing your monthly statements can greatly increase the odds of deterring and detecting fraud.
Whether from yearbook sales, prom tickets or direct donations, the money raised by Associated Student Body (ASB) groups are public funds.
The Washington Association of School Business Officials (WASBO) is hosting its annual conference this week in Spokane and SAO representatives will be there in person, sharing the latest news on financial reporting and auditing issues specifically for schools
Originally published October 2, 2024
Updated October 4, 2024
Originally published September 4, 2024
June 27, 2025
This blog post was originally published in September 2024. We've recently updated the It Starts with Policy Guide for the 2025 reporting year. You can find the new guide in SAO’s Resource Library. We've also updated the links in this post for your convenience.
What’s new?
We've added recommended policy guidance for AI use.
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