U.S. CAFR Annual Financial Statement
A U.S. CAFR Annual Financial Statement is a U.S. government financial statements that ...
- AKA: CAFR Report.
- Example(s):
- Counter-Example(s):
- a U.S. Local Government Budget (such as a San Jose budget).
- a Massachussetts Schedule-A Report.
- a Government Budget, such as a City of Cambridge, MA budget.
- See: Government-Sponsored Enterprise, Government Financial Statements, Governmental Accounting Standards Board, Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Fund Accounting.
References
2016
- (Wikipedia, 2016) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_annual_financial_report Retrieved:2016-9-2.
- A Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) is a set of U.S. government financial statements comprising the financial report of a state, municipal or other governmental entity that complies with the accounting requirements promulgated by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). GASB provides standards for the content of a CAFR in its annually updated publication Codification of Governmental Accounting and
Financial Reporting Standards. The U.S. Federal Government adheres to standards determined by the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB). A CAFR is "compiled" by a state, municipal or other governmental accounting staff and "audited" by an external American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) certified accounting firm utilizing GASB requirements. It is composed of three sections: Introductory, Financial and Statistical. [1] It combines the financial information of fund accounting and Enterprise Authorities accounting.
- A Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) is a set of U.S. government financial statements comprising the financial report of a state, municipal or other governmental entity that complies with the accounting requirements promulgated by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). GASB provides standards for the content of a CAFR in its annually updated publication Codification of Governmental Accounting and
- ↑ 2005 Governmental Accounting, Auditing, and Financial Reporting, page 151
- (Wikipedia, 2016) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_annual_financial_report#Differences_between_a_general_budget_and_a_CAFR Retrieved:2016-9-16.
- The primary difference between a budget and a CAFR is a budget is a plan for a specific fiscal period (often a year) primarily showing where tax income is to be allocated. The CAFR contains the results of the period (year) with previous years accumulations. A CAFR shows the total of all financial accounting that a general purpose budget reports does not. The CAFR contains a section that provides a comparison of period budget and actual. Additionally, the CAFR gives a detailed showing of investment accounts by category reflecting balances over previous years, or in plain language using a personal example in comparison would be the difference between: Your house Budget for the year vs your statement of "Net Worth" covering the financial accounting over your life time. 1-year vs your lifetime.
A Government budget document is a blueprint for a "specific grouping" of government agencies' spending over the course of an annual financial period. General Purpose Budgets contain both the spending categories of specified units of government, such as school districts, social services, transportation, courts, police, fire, and park services; along with estimates of revenues expected to occur during the year, such as investment return; due from other funds, overrides of money from the previous year, and tax payments. They are usually more limited to the expected costs of running the aforementioned government operations through tax income as opposed to describing the status of any government fixed assets and investment wealth.
A CAFR is a report of the complete overall financial results not just for the year but what has accumulated since the inception of that local government of both those "specific groupings" of government agencies that appear in the current fiscal year General Purpose Budget and all other agencies and departments. These can be autonomous, enterprise (for example government or city owned golf courses), recycling, water, sewer, and financial management - often these agencies were created with the inception of that local, state or government. The CAFR provides information about all of these other government agencies that may have their own budgets and separate investment accounts but their financial holdings are not combined with the general purpose budget that the same government presents to the public. The CAFR, or as it is called in CANADA CanFR can be used along with a budget document to compare the organizations total financial standing to the annual general purpose budget. The CAFR is the complete showing of the financial investment and income records from all sources, that reflects what has developed over decades whereas a budget report is an inferior document to the CAFR being that it is primarily focused on what revenue is expected to be brought in and spent for just the year.
In contrast with the rules applying to governments, publicly traded US companies are required by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to provide their Annual Financial Report (AFR) to every shareholder each year. Government's accounting falls under GAP (Generally Accepted Procedures)overseen by GASB.org for government accounting. US Companies have their own standards of accounting which would not be accepted by the SEC if US Companies attempted to use local Government's GAP accounting. To view the GASB.org accounting changes in local government CAFR GAP accounting, a short version of each change going back to 1984 can be viewed here - [1]
- The primary difference between a budget and a CAFR is a budget is a plan for a specific fiscal period (often a year) primarily showing where tax income is to be allocated. The CAFR contains the results of the period (year) with previous years accumulations. A CAFR shows the total of all financial accounting that a general purpose budget reports does not. The CAFR contains a section that provides a comparison of period budget and actual. Additionally, the CAFR gives a detailed showing of investment accounts by category reflecting balances over previous years, or in plain language using a personal example in comparison would be the difference between: Your house Budget for the year vs your statement of "Net Worth" covering the financial accounting over your life time. 1-year vs your lifetime.
2015
- http://www.ofm.wa.gov/cafr/
- QUOTE: The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) is a thorough and detailed presentation of the state's financial condition. It reports on the state's activities and balances for each fiscal year.
The CAFR is presented in three sections:
- Introductory section - includes transmittal letter.
- Financial section - includes the independent auditor's report and contains management's discussion and analysis, government-wide financial statements, fund financial statements, notes to the financial statements, required supplementary information, combining financial statements, and schedules.
- Statistical section - includes additional financial, economic, and demographic information.
- QUOTE: The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) is a thorough and detailed presentation of the state's financial condition. It reports on the state's activities and balances for each fiscal year.