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Government and Not-for-Profit Accounting: Concepts and Practices
The objectives of this, the ninth edition of Government and Not‐for‐Profit Accounting: Concepts and Practices, remain unchanged from those of the previous editions. Above all, the text aims to make students aware of the dynamism of government and not‐for‐profit accounting and of the intellectual challenges that it presents.
Government and not‐for‐profit accounting has changed dramatically in the past few decades. For certain, the nature and activities of governments and not‐for‐profit organizations and the transactions in which they engage will continue to evolve. Therefore, so too must the corresponding accounting. In addition, significant events that raise important and difficult accounting questions—such as the global pandemic that started in 2020, the financial crisis of 2007–2008, shifts in the health‐care marketplace caused by federal policy shifts—will also inform accounting in practice.
For the most part, the accounting issues faced by governments and not‐for‐profit organizations are far less tractable than those encountered by businesses. Businesses have the luxury of directing attention to profits—a metric that is relatively easy to define—inasmuch as the overriding objective of businesses is to earn a profit. Governments and not‐for‐profit entities, by contrast, have broader, much less clear‐cut goals. They must determine not only how to measure their performance but also what to measure. Hence, the accounting profession is almost certain to be dealing with fundamental questions throughout the professional careers of today's students, and the pace of rapid change will continue unabated.
Obviously, we intend for this text to inform students of current accounting and reporting standards and practices—those with which they might need to be familiar in their first jobs. More important, however, we want to ensure that they are aware of the reasons behind them, their strengths and limitations and possible alternatives. We are more concerned that students are prepared for their last jobs rather than their first. The text aspires to lay the intellectual foundation so that the students of today can become the leaders of tomorrow—the members of the standard‐setting boards, the partners of CPA firms, the executives of government and not‐for‐profit organizations, and the members of legislative and governing boards.
Courses in government and not‐for‐profit accounting are just one element of an accounting program and, indeed, of a college education. Therefore, we expect that this text will lead not only to an awareness of the issues of government and not‐for‐profit accounting, but also to a greater understanding of those in other areas of accounting. Almost all issues addressed in this text—for example, revenue and expense recognition, asset and liability valuation, the scope of the reporting entity, reporting cash flows—have counterparts in business accounting. By emphasizing concepts rather than rules and procedures, we hope that students will gain insight into how and why the issues may have been resolved either similarly or differently in the business sector.
Moreover, we trust that this text will contribute to students' ability to read, write, and “think critically.” To that end, we have made a special point of designing end‐of‐chapter problems that challenge students not only to apply concepts that are presented in the text but also to justify the approach they have taken and to consider other possible methodologies.
Needless to say, many students will use this text to prepare for the CPA exam. We have endeavored to cover all topics that are likely to be tested on the exam—an admittedly difficult goal, however, now that the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) does not publish past exams. We have also included approximately 20 multiple‐choice questions in most chapters as well as several other “CPA‐type” questions. In addition, this text will be useful to students preparing for the Certified Government Financial Manager exam (CGFM) and other professional certification exams in which matters relating to government and not‐for‐profits are tested.
This edition of the text obviously addresses significant pronouncements of the major authoritative boards issued since the publication of the eighth edition. No less importantly, however, it adds a discussion of the approach to standard‐setting of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). Thus, in Chapter 5 we describe the Board's “hierarchical” decision process by which, in determining whether an item should be reported as a balance sheet or flows statement account, it asks a series of questions as to whether the item satisfies certain agreed‐upon definitions of accounting elements. As part of that discussion we also emphasize that, despite a prevalent misconception on the part of both students and practitioners, the “matching principle” has no place in GASB's conceptual framework. Instead, government accounting is concerned with “interperiod equity,” not matching. Then, in Chapter 11 we point out some of the limitations of the extant accounting and reporting model, for example, it is still paper rather than computer based, it excludes budgetary reporting from its scope, and it fails to provide information on service efforts and accomplishments.
Among the new GASB pronouncements that are discussed in the text is Statement No. 96, Subscription‐Based Information Technology Arrangements (in Chapter 8) that requires governments to account for various types of computer services similarly to leases. Also focused upon is Statement No. 94, Public‐Private and Public‐Public Partnerships and Availability Payment Arrangements (in Chapter 9) that deals with the often complex arrangements by which governments finance infrastructure projects.
Shortly before this edition went to press, the GASB issued an exposure draft (almost certain to be adopted as a standard) proposing that the term “Comprehensive Annual Financial Report” (CAFR) be replaced with “Annual Comprehensive Financial Report” (ACFR). As commonly pronounced, the acronym CAFR is a derogatory term in South Africa. Accordingly, in this text we use the proposed terminology throughout.
In the not‐for‐profit arena, since the previous edition was published, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued ASU 2020‐07 specifying how noncash contributions should be accounted for and disclosed in notes. This improvement is covered in Chapter 12. In addition, as set forth in Chapter 14, in the past healthcare organizations recorded bad debt expenses for revenues that could not be collected. The FASB has now ruled that they must account for them as implicit price concessions, that is, similarly to other types of discounts they provide. Chapter 14 also clarifies recent guidance for charity care.
With respect to federal accounting (Chapter 16), the text now includes a lengthy discussion of the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board's (FASAB's) Statement No. 59, Accounting and Reporting of Government Land (which as the text went to press has not yet been given the required approval by the Office of Management and Budget). This seemingly radical pronouncement would remove land from the balance sheet, mandating instead extensive note disclosures. The chapter also addresses Statement No. 56, Classified Activities (which has proven controversial) and Statement No. 54, Leases: An Amendment of SFFAS 5, Accounting for Liabilities of the Federal Government and SFFAS 6, Accounting for Property, Plant and Equipment.
In Chapter 16, unlike in its counterpart in previous editions, we do not include illustrations of the financial statements of either the federal government at‐large or of any individual departments. Instead, we include Internet links to the actual reports in which they appear. Insofar as virtually all users of the text will either be reading an electronic version of the book or otherwise have ready access to computers, we believe that the benefits of seeing an entire actual report rather than merely reprinted and reformatted statements drawn from the report far outweigh any minor inconvenience the students might experience in viewing the report.
We continue in this edition to include three or four “Questions for Research, Analysis, and Discussion” to most of the chapters pertaining to state and local governments although several have been revised from the prior edition. Many of these questions were drawn from technical inquiries submitted to the Governmental Accounting Standards Board or the Government Finance Officers Association. These are intended to enrich the typical government and not‐for‐profit accounting course. Students are, in effect, called on to address the types of issues that are commonly faced by government accountants and their auditors. For most of these questions, students will have to look beyond the text to the standards themselves and to the various interpretative pronouncements and implementation guides published by the GASB. For others, they will have to exercise their own good judgment. These questions do not necessarily have “correct” answers. Instructors with whom we spoke found these questions to serve as the basis for spirited class discussions. Hence, we have retained them for this edition.
Ketersediaan
| Call Number | Location | Available |
|---|---|---|
| 657. 835 GRA g | PSB lt.1 - B. Wajib | 1 |
| Penerbit | New York John Wiley & Sons., 2022 |
|---|---|
| Edisi | 9 |
| Subjek | Nonprofit accounting Governmental accounting, |
| ISBN/ISSN | 9781119803874 |
| Klasifikasi | 657. 835 |
| Deskripsi Fisik | vii, 780 p. : ill. ; 30 cm |
| Info Detail Spesifik | - |
| Other Version/Related | Tidak tersedia versi lain |
| Lampiran Berkas |
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