Significant Areas Addressed by Management
Cedar addresses the compliance of the guidelines of Government Accounting Standards Board in the city accounting reports.
Compliance to (GASB) regulations through the provision of an overview of its financial performance for the fiscal year
Accounting Policies Utilized by the City
The policies include
Analysis of financial statements
The policies of liabilities, assets, deposits and investments (Rodenbeck, 2013)
Statistical Section
The statistical section will cover the computational outcomes of the management decisions. For example
Depreciation of capital assets over the respective annual ranges
The effects of deposits and investments
Determining the values of the net assets, and its liabilities
How is the City doing?
Under this, the paper discusses the progress in the town. For example
The revenue generation from the property taxes and assessments, licenses and permits, (Rodenbeck, 2013).
Application of the revenue generated to aid developmental projects within the city.
Sources of Revenues
This discusses the possible areas where the city obtains revenues to finance public projects. They include
Tax revenue
Sale of City’s assets
Fines from city courts
Health And Social Services Funds
This section will examine the use of public funds allocated in the health and social sectors.
Assistance in health facilities in acquisition of health care equipment (Rodenbeck, 2013)
Paying health practitioners in terms of salary and other benefits
Funds For Public Works
These funds are used in the provision of public services which include
Road constructions
Building of public schools and health centers
Management of natural disasters
Circumstances and Journal entries
The circumstance in the paper will involve the outcomes and risk factors associated with undertaking public projects.
The journal entries will captures the auditing of expenditure of public resources by analyzing the revenues received and spend by each sector.
Significant Areas Addressed by Management
Cedar follows the Government Accounting Standards Board guidelines in the management and presentation of the financial status over time. The board requires the provisions of the narrative introduction, the overviews, as well as the analysis accompanying the financials basic statements (Rodenbeck, 2013). It exists in the form of Management’s Discussion Analysis (MD&A).Additionally; the company adheres to the (GASB) regulations through the provision of an overview of its financial performance for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2013.
Accounting Policies Utilized by the City
Noteworthy is that it gives an introduction of the basic financial statements analyzed by the management. In particular, the statement of the net position and statement of activities that provides the data about the activities of the city in general. The information about financing government activities appears in the Fund Financial Statements (Rodenbeck, 2013). Moreover, the city gives notes to the financial statements to give extra information necessary for an understanding of the data provided in the basic financial statements. Finally, the necessary supplementary information regarding the non-major special revenue as well as the capital projects Funds and the Internal Service Funds. The policies in the application in the city include the government-wide and fund financial statements, which give the net position and the statement of the activities. Through the policy enables the city to present its assets and liabilities, reporting the difference as the net position (Rodenbeck, 2013).
Additionally, the city is applying the policy of measurement focus, accounting basis, as well as the financial statement presentation. The government reports its financial statements using the measurement focus for economic resources based on the principles of accounting.
Finally, the city applies the policies of liabilities, assets, and net position, to inform about the deposits and investments, receivables and payables, inventories as well as prepaid items, and restricted assets and its capital assets (Rodenbeck, 2013).
Statistical Section
It is evident that there is a depreciation of capital assets, in most of the useful lives, ranging from the computer equipment, office equipment, vehicles, Parking lots, furniture, and traffic signals over the respective annual ranges selected for the study. Additionally, the adoption of a cash reserve policy that shows the amounts like the general fund, refund fund, sewer fund, street funds, and storm fund water fund (Rodenbeck, 2013).The statistics section also exposes the deposits and investments for the city, making the entire system transparent and manageable. The statistics section also gives the values of the net assets, and its liabilities as well as $ 163,936,827 and $ 138, 633 respectively. The specific values for other financial activities also exist in the open.
How is the City doing?
The revenue generated by the city results from the property taxes and assessments, licenses and permits, use of money and property, the intergovernmental activities, charges for services, fines, and forfeitures, and Miscellaneous (Rodenbeck, 2013). The collective revenue undergoes subdivisions to the various other sectors of the economy, where they spent in public safety, public works, health and social services, culture and recreation, and community and economic development. Therefore, the revenue generated aids the developmental processes within the city, in diverse respects in its economy.
Sources of Revenues
The various sectors of the economy get funds from the revenue strictly for the execution of their roles, for example, the revenue for tax revenue follows specific guidelines that foster transparency. The Cedar Falls must publicize its revenue and the resultant expenditure for transparency purposes (Rodenbeck, 2013). Additionally, money allocated for public works must serve the purpose regardless of the shortages arising in any other part of the economy, and any changes in the expenditure protocol must be public and recorded to aid in the process of auditing the expenditure.
Health and Social Services Funds
The funds offer assistance in health facilities by enabling the acquisition of equipment like the x-ray radiography machines that are important in health centers (Rodenbeck, 2013). It is by use of the same money that the government pays health workers, as well as buying enough stock for all public facilities in the city, enough for the entire fiscal year. Therefore, the funds for health and social services get to serve the intended purpose, without diversion to other uses via concealed mechanisms
Funds For Public Works
They fund tasks like road constructions, the air conditioning services for public institutions like schools, as well as paying workers in the same sector (Rodenbeck, 2013). Moreover, the expenditure of the same funds follow a given criterion and the records of every transaction be recorded for future reference and being able to account for any misappropriation.
Infrastructure
The infrastructure in the region includes the streets and roads, the electricity utility, the water utility, and the communications utility (Modlin, 2016). The Cedar Falls Utilities are for the prevention of floods in the region whenever it rains. The utilities are a vital component of the city because some of them attract tourists, hence fetching a good amount of revenue for the region.
Circumstances and Journal entries
Finally, some of the circumstances involve the adoption of a budget of the general fund by the civil council with the estimated revenues, the appropriations, and the approved transfers (Modlin, 2016). The journal entry entails a subdivision into two sections, among which sometimes include the General Fund on the left side, indicating the estimated revenues and the government activities on the right-hand side shows the budget entries either reported or not reported. Secondly, the Cedar Falls city council tend to have the property taxes receivables on the general fund left the side of the entry, and what it expects to collect in a given period recorded on the right side. For instance the entries to the general fund, involve the specific date for the transaction, and the debit entry comprises of transactions relating to the cash, tax receivable delinquent, and the inventory supplies. However, the entries to the credit side include the transactions such as the allowance for the uncollectible taxes-delinquent, accounts payable, the fund balance assigned for the encumbrances as well as the unassigned fund balance.
References
Modlin, S. (2016). Increasing Creasing Transparency and Efficiency: An Examination of County Government Note Disclosures. Public Administration Research, 5(2), 59.
Rodenbeck Jennifer. (2013). City of Cedar Falls Iowa; Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, for the year ended June 30, 2013.
