Current Issues in Finance / What is a Best Practice

At this session, GFOA Executive Director Chris Morrill will talk about what makes a best practice the “best.” He’ll also give a preview of the best practices that will be highlighted throughout the week and give an updated on GFOA’s member initiatives and research.

Tanya Garost, Chris Morrill,

0

Basic

Preparing an Accurate and Complete Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA)

While the federal funding environment continues to evolve, the responsibility for preparing a complete Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA) remains on the government finance staff. The SEFA is the main driver of the government’s Single Audit testing and should reflect the fiscal year expenditures related to all federal grants. In 2022, GFOA’s Accounting and Financial Reporting Committee approved a best practice on SEFA Preparation to assist governments with implementing a process for tracking grants to lead to a complete SEFA. This session will provide an overview of the best practice on SEFA preparation and a discussion from government finance officers on their experiences preparing SEFAs.

Learning Objectives

• Understand GFOA's recommendations for preparing a Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA)
• Leverage experiences from government preparers on how to structure their process for preparing an annual SEFA
• Assess your government's status on meeting GFOA's best practices for preparing a SEFA

Susannah Filipovic, Teresa Hicks, Kristine Brock, and 1 other

2 CPE credits

Basic

Achieving a Structurally Balanced Budget

Most state and local governments are required to adopt a balanced budget, but a budget that fits the legal definition of a "balanced budget" may not, in fact, be financially sustainable. GFOA advocates that governments go further than meeting the legal definition and develop budgets that are structurally balanced, where recurring expenditures are funded by recurring revenues. This session will provide an overview of GFOA’s Best Practice “Achieving a Structurally Balanced Budget,” highlight examples of local governments that have implemented the Best Practice, and provide a checklist you can use to assess if your government is meeting the Best Practice.

Learning Objectives

• Identify a structurally balanced budget
• Define recurring revenues, recurring expenditures, and reserves
• Outline the elements of a structurally balanced budget policy

Katie Ludwig, Laura Larsen, Deanna Lundahl, and 1 other

2 CPE credits

Basic

Modernizing Your Procurement Policies to Align with Best Practices

Governments can struggle to maintain a procurement function that aligns with best practices, incorporates new technologies and modern best practices, and complies with fundamental principles of customer service, transparency, competition, and compliance. GFOA continues to advocate for greater coordination between finance and procurement and is working to break down organizational silos, miscommunication, and confusion around fundamental issues in procurement. In this session, speakers will cover how to assess and improve your existing procurement policy and how to use available technologies to implement and sustain improvements to purchase requisition, purchase order, accounts payable, and p-card reconciliation processes.

Learning Objectives

• Define essential components of a procurement policy
• Explore how to use modern procurement systems to improve efficiency of standard procurement processes
• Improve compliance and efficiency of procurement processes

Mike Mucha, Dean Mealy, II,

2 CPE credits

Basic

Treasury Management and Investing

Building strong treasury operations is an important pillar of government finance. There are many key issues that build off and intertwine with each other, that entities must have a clear vision of these pillars as they review and strengthen an entity’s treasury office.

This course will discuss how key Best Practices related to receivables and payables functions; cash flow forecasting, and investment program management, all intersect and need to be well incorporated into government operations, both singularly and in concert with each other.

A review of the Best Practices, along with how they serve as building blocks for each other, and peer entity examples will be discussed throughout the course.

Learning Objectives

• Understand key best practices for the treasury office.
• Comprehend ways to have segments of treasury operations build off each other.
• Develop ways to review your operations to ensure that they are following best practices and can work together to ensure strong treasury operations.

Capital Planning

Capital Improvement Plans (CIP) are essential multi-year planning documents for the large capital investments for any government.  The current year of a governmental budget has both an operating and a capital budget.  What are the key components needed to effectively communicate a Capital Budget (the Capital Budget is Year 1 or the current year of the CIP)?  The Best Practice (BP) on Capital Budget Presentation walks though the building block components of both good Capital Planning and the ability to articulate and measure those components to both internal and external stakeholders.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) process
• Identify steps to ensure a complete Capital Planning Process
• Engage a successful and effective plan to communicate a Capital Budget

Collin Boothe, Kyle Wedberg, Ph.D.,

2 CPE credits

Basic

The Importance of Having a Robust Debt Policy

Governments and governmental entities can deliver capital projects important to their community by issuing debt through the capital markets.  GFOA recommends that entities have a robust debt policy that provides the framework for responsible debt issuance and management that adheres to the goals of the entity while also ensuring compliance with federal, state and local laws.

Having a debt policy sets the stage for understanding when issuing debt is appropriate, the key tenets of the debt issuance process, and ongoing management of the debt portfolio. This session will provide an overview of GFOA’s “Debt Policy” Best Practice showcasing the key components of a debt policy and the use of other debt management best practices in the development, ongoing review, and execution of a debt policy.

Learning Objectives

• Understand the basic components of a debt policy.
• Learn about other best practices related to the debt issuance process.
• Form a plan to ensure adhering to debt management best practices.

Risk and Reserves

Risk and uncertainty are unavoidable in government finance. Governments must deal with a growing list of threats to the community, including natural disasters, infrastructure failures, disease outbreaks, and public safety emergencies. Events like these can have a two-fold financial impact—increasing costs related to responding and decreasing revenues from an economic slowdown. Ignoring these events doesn’t make them less likely to occur; finance professionals need to ensure their organizations have adequate reserves in place to address them. This session will provide an overview of GFOA’s Best Practice “Fund Balance Guidelines for the General Fund,” highlight examples of local governments that have implemented the Best Practice, and provide a checklist you can use to assess if your government is meeting the Best Practice.

Learning Objectives

• Differentiate between budgetary fund balance, unrestricted fund balance, and reserves
• Explain the importance of reserves as a tool to mitigate risks
• Describe how to conduct a basic risk assessment
• Outline the elements of an unrestricted fund balance policy

Sustainable Funding Practices for Defined Benefit Pensions and Other Postemployment Benefits (OPEB)

The fundamental financial objective of government employers that offer defined benefit (DB) pensions and other postemployment benefits (OPEB) to their employees is to fund the long-term cost of the benefits promised to participants. It is widely acknowledged that the appropriate way to attain reasonable assurance that benefits will remain sustainable is for a government to accumulate resources for future benefit payments in a systematic and disciplined manner during the active service life of the benefiting employees. This session will provide an overview of GFOA best practices related to sustainable pension and OPEB funding and share examples of local governments that have put themselves on a path toward sustainability.

Learning Objectives

• Define the key components and considerations of a sustainable pension and OPEB funding policy
• Identify actuarial methods, timing, and other inputs that will impact the frequency and results of actuarial studies
• Review options to reduce volatility of annual actuarily required contributions

SM

Tina M Lausier, Scott McCarty,

2 CPE credits

Basic

Optional Q&A / Networking Session

Join us for an optional Q&A and networking session to further discuss the Best Practices Forum. This is an opportunity to talk to your peers about challenges and successes they’ve experienced when implementing Best Practices, pose questions, comments, or have a deeper conversation about anything you’ve heard in any of the sessions.

This event is not eligible for CPE credit.

Leadership Skills Needed to Implement Best Practices

Recognizing that local governments are facing unprecedented, concurrent, and interrelated challenges, such as aging infrastructure, evolving service expectations, retaining and recruiting staff, and keeping up with technology, the Government Finance Officers Association of British Columbia (GFOABC) has developed its Leadership Competency Framework. The framework, which outlines the competencies needed to demonstrate excellence in local government service delivery, is intended to help local government finance professionals assess themselves and others and identify and pursue a path to strategic financial leadership. At this session, you will learn more about each of the seven competencies and how to use the framework to assess yourself and others in your organization. 

Learning Objectives

• Identify the seven competencies in the GFOABC Leadership Competency Framework
• Provide examples of different levels of competence for each of the seven competencies
• Use the framework to assess your level of leadership competence