An Introduction to GAAP Financial Reporting (BFR 201)
The Bureau of Financial Reporting is responsible for the preparation of the State’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR). This report presents the State’s financial position, employing Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), on both a full accrual and modified accrual basis, and has received the GFOA Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for seventeen consecutive years. Standards prescribed by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) are employed in the preparation of the report, and this course will provide an overview of the most important GASB standards as well as key reporting methodologies and procedures.
An Introduction to GAAP Financial Reporting will be of interest to State agency managers and staff engaged in accounting or auditing and interested in the preparation of GAAP financial statements. The process of preparing GAAP financial statements will be discussed along with a presentation of the ways in which the Bureau of Financial Reporting interacts with various agencies to collect information included in the CAFR. An overview will be provided of key sections of the CAFR, such as: Management’s Discussion and Analysis, the Basic Financial Statements, Notes to the Basic Financial Statements and the Statistical Section.