Introduction to Governmental Accounting & Reporting

This 4-day (3 mornings + 1 full day) course is an introductory course for participants with little or no knowledge of governmental accounting. It provides an overview of governmental accounting systems and includes a basic introduction to accounting principles, internal controls, and documentation requirements. It is helpful for participants who have completed a college accounting course but have found it difficult to transfer that knowledge into a heavily computerized environment. In-class exercises enable participants to record journal entries, post them to the general ledger, and prepare financial statements. Note: This course “builds” from each day to the next. Participants should plan to attend the entire course or risk becoming lost because they have skipped a session.

 The structure of this course calls for half-day and full-day classroom instruction over a period of four days. The instructor will be available to work with individual participants at their work sites during the afternoons on issues and problems related to the content of the training.

What You Will Learn

After successful completion of this course, participants will be able to:

1. Practice the basic elements of double-entry bookkeeping in posting transactions to T-accounts, journals and ledgers.
2. Follow transactions through the entire accounting cycle, from analyzing, recording, posting, drawing a trial balance, and constructing financial statements.
3. Understand basic concepts of internal control as they apply to the accounting cycle and good accounting practice. 
4. Understand unique features of governmental accounting including the use of funds.

Who Should Attend

Personnel from governmental departments and agencies, and component units including accountants, grant and program managers, procurement, budget and administrative staff.

Health & Safety Protocols

For all on-site training in the insular areas, the Graduate School USA's Pacific and Virgin Islands Training Initiatives (PITI-VITI) works closely with local training hosts to ensure that participants, instructors, and training support staff enjoy a safe learning experience. Please note the following:

• Full details of PITI-VITI's health and safety guidelines are available here.
• Local health and safety guidelines for the government of CNMI, which will be hosting this training, is available at https://chcc.gov.mp/.
• Please contact PITI-VITI Admin at [email protected] with any questions or concerns.

Tuition Fees

With funding support from the United States Department of the Interior, Office of Insular Affairs, courses are available free of charge for government accountability professionals within the insular areas. The course fee is waived and there is no cost to register and attend, Professionals who do not meet the above criteria, please contact [email protected].