Every year, for the past fourteen years, Truth in Accounting has released its Financial State of the States report which examines the financial status of the fifty states. This year our report was released on October 11, 2023. One of the data sets we reviewed is the auditors’ reports. Did the state receive an unmodified report for  their Annual Comprehensive Financial Report? Last year I wrote an article for Accounting Today explaining which states did not meet auditing standards for 2021. This is a follow-up to that article.

The accounting profession has long been a cornerstone of financial stability and responsibility, but in recent years, a growing number of individuals have been leaving the field. This exodus is prompted by a multitude of challenges, ranging from the stringent 150-hour rule to issues of low compensation and arduous working hours. This first part of this article delves into the intricacies of these issues and how they are transforming the industry. The second part looks at why it is worthwhile to still consider the accounting profession regardless of the challenges.

"The trend toward digitization of government data has been affirmed as a priority by the passage of recent legislation, the Financial Data Transparency Act."

Deferred Inflows, deferred outflows, oh my! 
Have you ever looked at a governmental annual comprehensive financial report and wondered what is going on?  

The “Government-wide” or consolidated financial statements are similar to business financial statements. There are a few, but we will discuss only two here. READ MORE

If you are a government employee, have you ever questioned whether your pension is funded? You would assume that as a state employee, you can trust your pension has the funds to pay its retirees. As of 2022, that is often not the case. READ MORE

Part Four of Four 

If you read the last three Truth in Accounting blog posts on the functions and importance of XBRL for investors and the SEC, you should not doubt that improving disclosure in governmental financial statements would make it easier for users. Users include citizens, policymakers, and elected officials. The current stagnant pdf documents are cumbersome and take an excessive amount of time to retrieve information. The bottom line is we need information disclosure modernization. READ MORE