Announcements

It's an understatement to say that COVID-19 has presented significant challenges this year. We have witnessed its devastating effects physically, prompting us to take extra health precautions and increase virus testing. At the same time, it's important to take precautions fiscally to ensure local governments maintain financial health. With decreased revenue and increased costs, local governments must be especially vigilant and use reputable resources and tools to inform them when making difficult financial decisions.

The BARS Manuals (GAAP and cash) are being updated beginning December 14, 2020.

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 2020 and forward.

If you need anything from the BARS Manuals for fiscal year 2019 accounting and reporting, please visit the applicable BARS Manual and download your copy today.

How do you download your copy?

GAAP BARS Manual:

Today, we published an interactive report on special education funding in Washington, as authorized under Enhanced Second Substitute Senate Bill 5091. Special education helps about 143,000 Washington students succeed in our school system.

The State Auditor's Office is changing some of the emails we send every week to better align with cybersecurity best practices.

Beginning the week of Nov. 9, emails we send related to the publication of audit reports no longer will contain attachments nor embedded links. We are working to reduce the number of potential targets for attack by cyber-criminals while maintaining timely communication with you.

Email messages that alert recipients when we publish reports will now have two features:

Today, the Office of the Washington State Auditor declared three small local governments unauditable, placing them on the path for possible dissolution. Each of the governments had gone for years without either filing its annual financial reports or cooperating with independent audits, both of which are required by law.

These three governments received a report on unauditable government.

The Center for Government Innovation of the Washington State Auditor's Office is hosting virtual get-togethers to discuss resources, guidance and more that we have developed this past year.

Registration is now open for these no-cost sessions, and are open to all Washington state local government staff and elected officials.

Follow these links to register for your preferred timeslot:

Photo of Alexandra Johnson and Auditor McCarthy taken in May 2018

Last year, our goal was to maintain the local audit hourly billing rate for two years, through 2021. Although we did not plan for the fiscal challenges of a pandemic, we have determined that, by changing some of our operations and making internal cost adjustments, we will be able to meet our goal and leave the rate unchanged from 2020. However, if any unforeseen significant costs (i.e., COVID-19 or legislative funding changes) occur that we cannot adjust for, a billing adjustment may be necessary.

In May, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) voted to delay implementation of several new accounting standards. The decision by GASB took effect immediately, and came in response to requests by governments across the country grappling with the coronavirus pandemic.