Assignment
I. Title:
Assistant Controller in Your Home Town
Preparefund financial statements for a city, state or county government.
II. Introduction:
Governments have much in common with businesses; however, differences between the two environments are significant. The use of fund accounting for city, state, or county governments is based on the specific needs of these individual entities and the users of the entities' financial information. The standard setting board for city, state or country governments is the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB. For information about these standards go toGovernmental Accounting Standards Board.)GASBStatement No. 54 of the Government Accounting Standards Board -Fund Balance Reporting and Governmental Fund Type Definitions can also be viewed through the GASB link.
In a prior learning demonstration, you created a set of financial statements that conformed to United States'GenerallyAccepted Accounting Principles (U.S. GAAP). Now, you will draw upon your knowledge of governmental accounting to perform professional research and prepare the following governmental financial reports:
a. City's Fund Balance Sheet
b. City's Statement of Fund Revenues, Expenditures, and Other Changes in Fund Balances for the four city funds
Furthermore, you will demonstrate your abilities to communicate effectively and apply judgment/critical-thinking skills.
As you complete this Learning Demonstration, focus on the following items, which are tied to, and will help you to demonstrate, the following goals and competencies:
Goal 1: Communication: Learners demonstrate ability to communicate clearly both orally and in writing.
o Competencies:
1.1 Organize document or presentation clearly in a manner that promotes understanding
1.2 Develop coherent paragraphs or points so that each is internally unified and so that each functions as part of the whole document or presentation
1.3 Provide sufficient, correctly cited support that substantiates the writer's ideas
1.4 Tailor communications to the audience
1.5 Use sentence structure appropriate to the task, message and audience
1.6 Follow conventions of Standard Written English
Goal 2: Critical Thinking: Learners demonstrate ability to apply logical, systematic decision-making processes to formulate clear, defensible ideas and to draw ethical conclusions.
o Competencies:
2.1 Articulate and frame the issue
2.2 Collect and evaluate information
2.3 Evaluate the underlying causes or conditions of elements contributing to an issue
2.4 Use systems thinking to arrive at a decision in the context of an issue
2.5 Apply ethical principles when determining actions.
Goal 3: Quantitative Reasoning: Learners demonstrate the ability to use mathematical operations and analytical concepts and operations to address problems and to inform decision-making
o Competencies:
3.1 Construct models that represent real-world problems or processes
3.2 Develop visible representation of data
3.3 Analyze data using mathematical/algebraic operations
3.4 Use calculated results to inform the problem or process
Goal 4: Leadership, Facilitation, and Collaboration: Learners lead, facilitate, and collaborate with a variety of individuals and diverse teams to achieve organizational objectives.
o Competency
4.1 Demonstrate an ability to plan a particular objective or goal
Goal 5: Technical Competencies in Financial Accounting: learners demonstrate an applied understanding of professional accounting standards, transactional accounting, the closing process, financial reporting, compliance with regulatory agencies, and financial analysis. Learners apply competencies to for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, and local, state, and federal, government agencies via contextualized learning demonstrations to perform authentic professional tasks in financial accounting.
o Competencies:
5.1 Professional accounting standards: learners demonstrate an applied understanding of professional accounting standards for domestic and international for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, and local, state, and federal government agencies.
5.2 Measurement and reporting: learners demonstrate an applied understanding of transactional accounting associated using accounting standards relevant to for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, and local, state, and federal government agencies.
5.3 Disclosures and compliance: learners demonstrate an applied understanding of fund and financial reporting requirements to assess compliance with applicable accounting and government rules, regulations, and laws.
5.4 Communication and Decision Making: learners demonstrate an applied understanding of assisting for-profit, not-for-profit, and government stakeholders in understanding the fund and financial analyses to facilitate more effective decision making.
Case Specifications:
Your role in this learning demonstration is to serve as the Assistant Controller for a small city government where your professor holds the position of Controller. As the Assistant Controller,you help the Controller with the financial affairs of the city. The responsibilities of Controller and the Assistant Controller include conducting audits, managing investments and debt, preparing financial statements, and providing leadership on policy issues pertaining to the City's financial health.You are responsible for preparing the financial statements and other documentation that need to be filed with the city's fund financial statements.
The city recently hired you as the Assistant Controller. Youare learning the roles and responsibilities of your position and feel confident you can prove yourself to the Controller within the first six months. Having done well in your accounting classes in college, youare eager to apply your accounting studies to the real world. It is especially exciting to be working as a governmental accountant given your success in Governmental and Not-for-Profit Accounting class. Despite having earned an A, you remain nervous about your abilities to "do" accounting, especially for an entire government!
This morning the Controller called you into his office to say he thinks highly of you and is willing to provide the support you need for your first assignment. He wants to make sure you get off to a good start in preparingyour first fund financial statements for the city. Over coffee in his office, you and the Controller discuss an approach you can use to prepare the year's fund financial statements.To get started,youboth agree the first step is to gather the requirements of the fund financial statements.
• Gathering the requirements of the fund financial statements:
To feel fully prepared for your first task, youdecide to refresh and update your knowledge about fund accounting for a city government. After speaking with and seeking guidance from your new colleagues, you decide to start at the most basic level and work your way up to understanding the specifics of GASB 54. To begin, review this brief overview of fund accounting paying close attention to journal entries used to explain the basic accounting processes for a city government provides. For a more comprehensive review and in-depth understanding of fund accounting, review the following resources:
o GASB: Summary of Statement No. 34: Basic Financial Statements-and Management's Discussion and Analysis-for State and Local Governments
o GASB Summary of Statement No. 54: Fund Balance Reporting and Governmental Fund Type Definitions
o Journal of Accountancy: Balancing Governmental Budgets Under GASB 54
o The State of Washington: Generally accepted accounting standards.
Next, view a four-minute podcast presentation of GASB Chairman Robert H. Attmore discussing issues relating to GASB Statement 54, Fund Balance Reporting and Governmental Fund Type Definitions. Feeling ready to move to a higher level of understanding, you review a sample of account titles and financial statement formats prepared by GASB: The User's Perspective: Touring the Financial Statements, Part III: The Governmental Fundsbefore readingStatement No. 54 of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board.
Having reviewed fund accounting resources and sample account titles in the financial statements for fund accounting, you are feeling more confident, but still aren't sure about the latest requirements regarding which financial statements must be included in fund financial statements.You check in with the Controller, and he directs you to this GASB Website because it provides the financial statements that comprise the fund financial statements.
In addition, you need to know the accounting basis the city uses to recognize transactions.After reviewing information on the various accounting basis, and reading more about the city's accounting policies, you discover the city has adopted a modified accrual basis of accounting, which GASB defines as:
The basis of accounting in which transactions are recognized when they occur with specifically identified modifications to reflect the current financial resource flows measurement focus. These modifications include the fact that expenditures are recognized in the period in which they are expected to require to use current financial resources, revenue is not recognized until it is available to pay current obligations, and certain long-term liabilities are not recognized until due and payable.
In addition, the city mainly adopted a measurement focus on short-term financial assets and liabilities. Thus, capital assets and long-term liabilities are excluded from the balance sheet, and net changes in short-term financial assets and liabilities would be recognized as revenues or expenditures.
Analyzing the city's transactions:
Like all accounting systems, the first step is to analyze the city's transactions for the year and prepare journal entries. You recall learning in your governmental accounting class that you need to pay particular attention to the fund to which you will record each journal entry.
To get started, the Controller wants to ensure you have a good understanding of fund accounting. He asks you to prepare a memo with a list of governmental funds and your rationale for selecting each specific fund to record transactions items "a" through "g" below. The Controller plans to review yourlist, make suggested changes, and return the memo with corrections. Upon receiving the corrected memo, you will prepare the appropriate journal entries in correct form for transactions "a" through "g" below using Word or Excel format journal entries with debit and credit columns.
This is the first year of operations for the city - 20X4. The following transactions are summarized for the city this year:
A. The city levied $9,000,000 of general property taxes, $8,800,000 of which has been collected. It expects to collect the balance shortly after the end of the year. These taxes are unassigned; they can be used for any legitimate city purpose. You believe these taxes should be recorded in the general fund, but you decide to double check by reviewing the GASB's following website: Touring the Financial Statements, Part III: The Governmental Funds noting the explanation for general funds.
B. The City received a state grant of $200,000 to purchase computers. This grant is restricted by the state for a specific purpose. You need to determine in which fund you should record (categorize) the state grant for the purchase of the computers. You remember reading in GASB Statement No. 54 that governmental fund balance information is reported in five different classifications (nonspendable, restricted, committed, assigned and unassigned). Further, you decide to read the Fact Sheet about Fund Balance Reporting and Governmental Fund Type Definitions.
C. The City issued $12,000,000 in long-term bonds to construct a city building. The proceeds must be used for the intended purpose. You are unsure of the fund in which you record the proceeds of the long-term bonds, designated to construct a city building; however, you remember the major types of expenditures: operating, capital, debt service, and intergovernmental charges.Capital expendituresrelate to the acquisition of capital assets (such as the city building). You recall that such expenditures may be recorded in the General Fund, Special Revenue Funds, or Capital Projects Funds, depending on the source of funding. You review the National Center for Education Statistics Government-wide Reporting requirements for types of expenditures and accounting treatments.
D. The City constructed the school building for $11,000,000. You decide to account for the construction of the school building as an expenditure, causing the City Controller'sasking for your justification in doing so. In gathering information from which to prepare a response, you note two things: 1) fund accounting follows the modified accrual basis of accounting and 2) fund accounting financial statements are the Fund Balance Sheet and the Statement of Fund Revenues, Expenditures, and Other Changes in Fund Balances.To prepare the memo to explain your decision to the City Controller, youbrowse the GASB Website in search of an authoritative explanation about the use of expenditure or expenses for fund accounting.
Knowing that GASB Statement No. 54 provides governmental fund requirements for constructing buildings, you search GASB for an explanation as to why capital assets and long-term liabilities are not included on Fund Balance Sheets. Further, you are interested in learning more about the nature of the Statement of Fund Revenues, Expenditures and Other Changes in Fund Balances.
E. The City incurred $6,000,000 in general operating expenditures, $5.5. millionof which has been paid.You review GASB No 54 and the GASB website to help you explain why the City uses the term expenditures instead of expenses for fund accounting.
F. Using its state grant, the City purchased computers for $100,000. As with the construction of the building, the City would recognize the acquisition as an expenditure. You must justify to the City Controller why the correct recording of the computers are expenditures, even though the City would record them as assets in a supplementary ledger or list. When the government-wide statementsare prepared, the computers would be recognized as assets.
G. The City transferred $1,100,000 from the general fund to the debt service fund to make the first payments of both principal and interest that are due the following year. Viewed as broken down into its components, this transaction is straightforward, involving simple entries to each of the two funds.You research which funds to use for this transfer using the GASB websites above and other websites that you find during your research.
Giving a memo to the City Controller:
Youprepare and deliver a memo to the City Controller (professor) to identify and explainwhy each transaction (A through G) should be correctly recorded in each specific fund. The Controller will review the memo and return it to you with suggested changes, if needed, regarding the correct funds to use for the transactions.
Journalizing transactions, posting to the general ledger, and preparing fund financial statements:
Once you receive the Controller's memo with corrections, journalize the transactions in the General Journal, post them to the General Ledger, and prepare fund financial statements. You will find blank templates of the journal, ledger, and financial statements in Appendices A through E.
Prepare and present a PowerPoint oral presentation:
The Controller (your professor) informs you that he is scheduling an oral presentation where you will explain the process you used to prepare the fund financial statements. He expects you to prepare a professional PowerPoint file for the presentation. In addition, the Controller states you should be prepared to answer questions regarding your methodology at any time during your presentation. He may invite your colleagues (other students) to the presentation as a means for you to receive constructive feedback regarding your presentation skills.
You thank the Controller for his help and leave his office with plans to get started. You go back to your office and start the steps to completion that you and the Controller outlined.
III. Steps to Completion
Step 1: Refresh and update your knowledge of fund accounting using the links provided throughout this learning demonstration.
Step 2: Research the latest GASB requirements for the fund financial statements.
Step 3: Review a summary of the modified accrual basis of accounting for governmental funds.
Step 4: Decide which funds you want to use to record transactions in "A" through "G" above and prepare a memo to discuss and explain your decisions to the City Controller.
Step 5: Upon receipt of the City Controller'sresponsewith corrections, journalize transactions A through G,using correct accounting format and paying particular attention to record the journal entries in the proper funds.
Step 6:Using Appendix B, post the journal entries to the general ledger.Assume all adjusting entries have been made.All accounts have a zero "0" beginning balance because this is the first year of the city's operations.
Step 7:Using Appendices D and E, prepare financial statements for the city using the correctfinancial statement formats.
Step 8:Prepare a PowerPoint presentation illustrating the process used to prepare fund financial statements. Your presentation must justify all assumptions you made and reference specific GASB principles.
The presentation should include a minimum of the following slides:
- Cover slide with your name,
- Summary of a modified accrual basis of accounting for governmental funds,
- Process you used to complete the learning demonstration,
- Research findings re: explain at least 2 newGASB standardsenacted within the past 5 years,
- Research findings re: explainat least 3 differences between corporate and government financial reporting,
- Research findings re: summarizeat least 3 differences between corporate and government disclosure requirements,
- Ethical standards of public vs. private accountants
o At the completion of a financial statement analysis, a government official was told the analysis resulted in highly irregular and suspicious ratios and trends. What unique ethical issues would the government official face, that a corporate officer would not?
- References
Input speaker's notes beneath each slide on your Power Point file, record a draft of your presentation, and post the recording draft in LEO for student feedback.
Attachment:- Project-Assignment.rar