COMPREHENSIVE ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORT (CAFR) PROJECT

Purpose:

Most larger governments prepare a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report or CAFR.

The CARF is the official annual report that is prepared as a matter of public record as it provides information beyond the minimum reporting requirements of general purpose financial reporting.  The purpose of this project is to understand the information provided in a CAFR and analyze that information to assess the fiscal health of a governmental entity.

Part 1:

STEP 1:  Obtain a recent comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR) for a state or local government.

1.) Letter of Transmittal—Review the capital-projects related discussions and presentations. 

a. Summarize and describe the nature of the information in the Letter of Transmittal.  

b. Who would be primarily interested in a Letter of Transmittal? 

c. Which were the most significant general government capital projects? 

d. Which planned capital projects were discussed?

2.) Management Discussion and Analysis—

a. Summarize and describe the nature of the information in the MD&A. 

b. Who would be primarily interested in MD&A?

c. What discussions and analysis relate to general capital assets?

3.) Financial Statements—

a. What were the major types of Capital Project Funds revenue, other financing resources, expenditures, and other financing uses?  

b. What funds are reports as major funds?  

c. How are the presented?

d. What types of reconciling items are included in the reconciliation of fund balance and changes in fund balance in the governmental fund financial statements and net position and changed in net position for governmental activities in the government-wide financial statements?

4.) Describe the different reporting options used in the government-wide financial statements.  Answer one of the following two questions:

a.) How many blended components did you identify?  For what reason(s) were the component units blended?

b.) How many blended discretely presented components did you identify?  For what reason(s) were the component units discretely presented?

Materials and Technology Needed n/a

Criteria for Assessment Guidelines:  Your answers need to be complete and you should expect to have a minimum of 3-4 sentence on each of these items.  Answers may vary, but I would guess that 8-12 pictures would be appropriate.  You will need to include screenshots in order to show explicitly what you are using from the CAFR to justify your responses