2023 Annual Conference Sessions: Accounting and Financial Reporting
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Sessions for Sunday, May 21
Without You Here: Accounting for Compensated Absences
GASB’s new guidance on compensated absences provides a unified recognition and measurement model for all types of compensated absences. This session will explore the various types of leave that organizations provide to their employees, including the use of undifferentiated paid time off (PTO), and will discuss the proper accounting, reporting, and disclosure for all types of compensated absence obligations.
Fiduciary Activities
Since the effective date of GASB Statement No. 84, Fiduciary Activities, in 2018, some governments have had difficulty in identifying fiduciary activities, including fiduciary component units, for accounting and financial reporting purposes. This session will provide a review of the GASB guidance and focus on the more than fifty-five Implementation Guide questions and answers that GASB has issued to assist governments with properly identifying, accounting, and reporting for these types of activities.
Sessions for Monday, May 22
Accounting and Auditing Year in Review
The Accounting and Auditing Year in Review is a perennial favorite for attendees and staple for GFOA's conference program. Speakers will provide a comprehensive overview of the key developments in accounting, auditing, and financial reporting that affect state and local governments. Topics include recently promulgated standards and upcoming implementations with related practice issues, as well as developments related to current GASB projects likely to affect preparers and auditors in the near future.
Addictive Revenue? Accounting for the Opioid Settlement
In 2022, most states entered into a multi-billion-dollar agreement to settle lawsuits with major manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of opioid drugs. The funding will be disbursed to participating states over the next eighteen years, and many local governments in participating states have started receiving these funds. In this session, speakers will answer frequently asked questions related to revenue recognition requirements and identifying qualifying remediation expenditures.
Common Errors from GFOA's Certificate of Achievement Program
Do you explain fund balance correctly, prepare required supplementary information appropriately, use the term market value, or present deb t schedules consistently? GFOA's Technical Services staff reviews over 4,000 Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports (ACFR) each year and has identified common errors. This session will address those common deficiencies noted in reviews and provide recommendations for improving the quality of ACFRs in general. Speakers will also emphasize "asterisk" items on GFOA's checklist and those that most frequently result in award denials.
Rethinking Financial Reporting
GFOA knows government finance officers face substantial opportunity costs with their time. Time spent on general purpose external financial reports is time not spent on other forms of decision support and public engagement. With this in mind, GFOA is rethinking financial reporting. This research initiative will examine whether lengthy, technical financial reports published many months in arrears are the most effective way to build trust with constituents and if producing these reports is a good use of the finance officer’s time, particularly if they are not providing accountability to the public. Come to this session to learn more about the research and weigh in on the benefits of traditional financial reporting.
Sessions for Tuesday, May 23
ARPA Closeout: Gearing up for December 31, 2024
December 31, 2024, the final date to obligate your ARPA funds, is quickly approaching. Yet new spending categories are still being fleshed out. What does your government need to do to prepare for spending the last of your ARPA funds? Speakers in this session will identify key dates, discuss the potential for upcoming announcements, and answer questions from attendees as we approach the end of the covered period.
Up in the Air: Accounting for Subscription-Based Information Technology Arrangements
GASB Statement No. 96, Subscription-Based Information Technology Arrangements (SBITAs), significantly revises the accounting and financial reporting requirements for cloud computing arrangements and other SBITA contracts. This session will assist participants in understanding the requirements of GASB Statement No. 96, building off of their current understanding of the financial reporting requirements for leases under GASB Statement No. 87, which utilizes a similar conceptual framework. This session will also review example journal entries and disclosures under GASB Statement No. 96, provide best practice recommendations regarding implementation, and discuss implementation challenges that governments have encountered thus far.
Explaining Governmental Accounting to Non-Accountants Without Making Them Dizzy
Government financial reports are designed to meet the needs of a broad variety of users, most of whom are not accounting professionals. Unfortunately, for many non-accountants, the first reaction to encountering financial statements is likely to be confusion or worse, misunderstanding. This session is designed to equip accounting professionals with a practical and proven approach for explaining governmental financial statements to non-accountants.
Marketing Your Financials: How to Get Others Interested in Your Financial Data
Do you struggle to get others to pay attention to financial and budgetary reports? Do you want to move beyond transparency efforts that do little but take staff time to produce? How can efforts to communicate financial information actually promote accountability and work towards building trust? In this session, you will learn tips on how to get individuals–internal stakeholders, the public, and elected officials–interested in your financial story to improve understanding of your financial position, encourage engagement, and promote more effective decision making.
Sessions for Wednesday, May 24
Hidden Costs of Free: Accounting for Federal Grants
Preparing for a single audit can be daunting! Collecting information from various departments and tracking the federal expenditures and related revenues all weigh down the process, on top of working with the auditors. This session will review generally accepted accounting principles for grants, best practices for internal grant accounting, and how to complete the Schedule of Federal Expenditures. Attendees will also learn about single audit requirements and dive deeper into ARPA grant compliance.
Capital Assets Accounting
Capital assets are often the largest single element on a government’s statement of net position and represent an area of accounting and financial reporting that is very different for governments than the private sector. This session will focus on key topics such as which costs should be capitalized when capital assets are acquired, constructed, developed or improved, governmental fund accounting for transactions, internal control over capital assets, and other events related to capital assets.
