Governmental GAAP Practice Manual (2008)

Governmental GAAP Practice Manual: Including GASB-34 Guidance demonstrates, in a detailed manner, how governmental entity can implement the complex standards established by GASB-34 through a worksheet approach. (A companion publication, Governmental GAAP Guide, discusses financial accounting and reporting standards necessary to prepare the basic external financial statements of a governmental entity.) The emphasis of Governmental GAAP Practice Manual is on the process of preparing financial statements. Chapter 1 of the Governmental GAAP Practice Manual provides a detailed analysis of the interrelationship between the modified accrual basis of accounting and the accrual basis of accounting. Included is a comprehensive checklist of transactions and events that typically require a worksheet entry. Starting in Chapter 2 is a comprehensive illustration that continues through the remaining chapters of the book. For governmental funds, a variety of transactions are illustrated and journalized in Chapters 2 through 6, which result in a year-end trial balance for each individual fund based on the modified accrual basis of accounting. In Chapter 14, these trial balances are used as the basis for developing the information needed to prepare the fund financial statements. Chapter 16 illustrates the worksheet methodology for converting the information to the accrual basis. A similar approach is used for proprietary funds and fiduciary funds. Chapter 17 uses the information developed in previous chapters to present management's discussion and analysis, notes, and other required supplementary information mandated by GASB-34.