The New Blue Book

Thisspring.the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) released a new edition of its classic "Blue Book," Governmental Accounting, Auditing, and Financial Reporting (GAAFR).The first Blue Book was published some 75 ago, in 1936. Subsequent editions appeared in 1951, 1968, 1980, 1988, 1994, 2001, and 2005, making this this latest version the ninth edition. This newest GAAFR has been completely rewritten and significantly expanded, with comprehensive coverage through GASB Statement No. 66, Technical Corrections - 2012.

WHAT'S CHANGED SINCE 2005?

The last edition of the GAAFR was released in 2005. Since then, a number of significant developments have taken place that significantly affect accounting, auditing, and financial reporting for state and local governments:

* The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) issued 21 statements, two technical bulletins, and three concepts statements. Meanwhile, the GASB's staff continued to offer extensive guidance on a broad range of technical issues by means of annual updates to the GASB's Comprehensive Implementation Guide.

* The Government Accountability Office (GAO) revised Government Auditing Standards (commonly known as the "Yellow Book").

* The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) of the Treadway Commission issued detailed guidance on the monitoring component of its comprehensive framework of internal control.

* The GFOA issued or updated 19 best practices or advisories that directly relate to governmental accounting, auditing, and financial reporting.

As a result of these developments, among other things:

* A completely new approach is now in effect for classifying the components of fund balance in governmental funds.

* Important limitations have been placed on the use of the special revenue fund type.

* The rules for identifying component units and incorporating their data into the report of the financial reporting entity have been substantially modified.

* Governments must now distinguish assets from deferred outflows of resources and liabilities from deferred inflows of resources.

In addition, the GASB has provided a wealth of detailed guidance on a variety of specialized topics, including termination benefits, pollution remediation obligations, intangible assets (including computer software), derivatives, and service concession arrangements (that is, public/private and public/ public partnerships, or PPPs).

WHAT'S NEW ABOUT THE BOOK ITSELF?

All the recent editions of the GAAFR have used a 8 W x 11 " format to accommodate the reproduction of a complete illustrative comprehensive...