Instructor

The Island Government Finance Officers' Association winter meeting took place in Honolulu, HI, from December 12-14, 2023. The goals of the meeting were to review the current status of single audits for insular governments, including anticipated delays and ongoing strategies to catch up and issue timely audits; discuss challenges that have arisen during the audit process and identify potential solutions to improve future audits; review insular government finance office performance measures and discuss potential modifications and reporting; review changes to regulations and/or funding sources which may impact insular government financial operations; review forthcoming GASB standards and plan for their timely implementation; and identify key takeaways from the week for each insular government and develop follow-up activities to ensure that the insights gained from the meeting are effectively applied in each government.

VIEW ADDITIONAL DETAILS

A new GASB accounting standard has recently became effective that alters the historical landscape of how lease accounting has always been performed.  GASB 87 not only does away with the methodology of previous accounting for leases, but also introduces new concepts for what a lease is, and even more importantly what is not a lease, and also provides new guidance on how to determine the true “term” of a lease for accounting and financial reporting purposes. 

VIEW ADDITIONAL DETAILS

A new GASB accounting standard has recently became effective that alters the historical landscape of how lease accounting has always been performed.  GASB 87 not only does away with the methodology of previous accounting for leases, but also introduces new concepts for what a lease is, and even more importantly what is not a lease, and also provides new guidance on how to determine the true “term” of a lease for accounting and financial reporting purposes. 

VIEW ADDITIONAL DETAILS

This course provides a comprehensive framework to equip the participants with the skills and knowledge necessary to conduct effective audits of governmental entities.  We will start with an introduction to governmental audits, governments audit standards and guidelines, and then take the participants all the way through the audit process with tips and tricks for concluding and reporting the results.

VIEW ADDITIONAL DETAILS

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board is issuing new standards and summarizing existing standards.  This fast-paced session will provide auditors, financial statement preparers, and financial managers with the latest updates on what changed, what stayed the same, and what you may need to do differently (or keep doing) in light of the standards. We'll cover the important changes and review status of everything from GASB 87 to this year's new codifications in GASB 99.  If you prepare, use, or audit government financial statements, you won't want to miss this session!"

VIEW ADDITIONAL DETAILS

The Performeter is an analytical tool that takes a government’s financial statements and converts them into useful and understandable measures of financial performance. The Performeter uses financial ratios and a copyrighted analysis methodology to arrive at an overall rating of 1-10, which indicates the overall financial health and performance of a government. Since 2002, PITI-VITI has been developing Performeters annually for each of the insular areas. As a result, multiple years of cumulative data is now available for each government. In addition to being able to track overall scores, the Performeter can also be used to track individual trends within ratios: Net Position, Fund Balances, Revenue Dispersion, Intergenerational Equity, etc. This session will describe the Performeter tool, highlight recent results by insular area, and consider next steps for island governments' financial health and performance.

This session will also take a detailed look into more recent GASB standards that have been issued and are either applicable or will be in the near future, including GASB 87 on Leases, GASB 96 related to Subscription-Based Information Technology Arrangements (SBITA), Statement 94 on Public-Private or Public-Public Partnerships (P3s), Statements 100-103, and including the financial reporting model improvements. In addition, this session will take a look at the future of standard-setting and where the GASB will most likely be going next.

VIEW ADDITIONAL DETAILS

This session will discuss the various types of audits that are currently performed, why each type of audit has a specific purpose, the various standards that apply to audits, the various reporting requirements, and some basic auditing techniques related to various transactions classes, account balances, disclosures and other events.

VIEW ADDITIONAL DETAILS

The Performeter is an analytical tool that takes a government’s financial statements and converts them into useful and understandable measures of financial performance. The Performeter uses financial ratios and a copyrighted analysis methodology to arrive at an overall rating of 1-10, which indicates the overall financial health and performance of a government.

Since 2002, PITI-VITI has been developing Performeters annually for each of the insular areas. As a result, multiple years of cumulative data is now available for each government. In addition to being able to track overall scores, the Performeter can also be used to track individual trends within ratios: Net Assets, Fund Balances, Revenue Dispersion, Intergenerational Equity, etc.  This session will describe the Performeter tool, highlight recent results by insular area, and consider next steps for island governments'  financial health and performance.

VIEW ADDITIONAL DETAILS

Several new GASB accounting standards have recently became effective that alter the historical landscape of how lease accounting has always been performed (GASBs 87 and 96).  In addition, a new GASB accounting standard has also been issued related to the accounting and financial reporting of public-private and public-public partnerships (GASB 94).  

VIEW ADDITIONAL DETAILS

Several new GASB accounting standards have recently became effective that alter the historical landscape of how lease accounting has always been performed (GASBs 87 and 96).  In addition, a new GASB accounting standard has also been issued related to the accounting and financial reporting of public-private and public-public partnerships (GASB 94).  GASB 87 not only does away with the methodology of previous accounting for leases, but also introduces new concepts for what a lease is, and even more importantly what is not a lease, and also provides new guidance on how to determine the true “term” of a lease for accounting and financial reporting purposes.

VIEW ADDITIONAL DETAILS

The Island Government Finance Officers' Association summer meeting took place in Portland, OR, from May 27, 2023, to June 1, 2023.  The goals of the meeting were to review the current status of single audits for insular governments from FY20 to FY22, including anticipated delays and ongoing strategies to catch up and issue timely audits; discuss challenges that have arisen during the audit process and identify potential solutions to improve future audits; review insular government finance office performance measures and discuss potential modifications and reporting; discuss key issues presented at the GFOA Conference and their applicability to the U.S. affiliated insular governments; connect with GFOA's Federal Liaison Center to discuss current issues around ARPA, IRA, and IIJA; review changes to regulations and/or funding sources which may impact insular government financial operations; review forthcoming GASB standards and plan for their timely implementation; and identify key takeaways from the week for each insular government and develop follow-up activities to ensure that the insights gained from the meeting are effectively applied in each government.

VIEW ADDITIONAL DETAILS