Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statement 103, Financial Reporting Model Improvements, specifically addresses management discussion and analysis, unusual and infrequent items, and the proprietary fund statements, among other disclosure issues, and Statement 103 includes a detailed illustration in its Appendix (https://tinyurl.com/ysj65euf). GASB issued its most current guidance in December 2025—Statement 105, Subsequent Events—recommending consistency in the application of GASB Statement 56 requirements, after finding much diversity in actual practice. Most recently, GASB issued an exposure draft for public comment on its proposed “Statement on Infrastructure Assets,” and it is seeking comments on “The Structure for Communicating Generally Accepted Accounting Principles for State and Local Governments.”
This month’s column reviews three websites that offer handy resources and tools for governmental accountants and auditors.
GASB
The GASB website, at https://gasb.org, provides access to the accounting and financial reporting standards for US state and local governments, pronouncements, and a technical inquiry service, as well as information on projects and meetings. For example, one of GASB’s current projects is “Going Concern Uncertainties and Severe Financial Stress.” The GASB home page promotes discussion memoranda and exposure drafts on which the board is seeking comments, in addition to current projects, meetings, and GASB-related news.
The GASB Codification is now available on the GARS website, described below, and linked in multiple locations on the GASB website. Pronouncements, such as statements and implementation guides, are available in PDF format on the GASB website, and a handy web page format on the GARS website. On the GASB website, users can select full text, summary, status, and a short summary video. The public can submit requests for verbal interpretations on the application of GASB standards to specific circumstances through the GASB website.
GASB offers a new video series called “Understanding Government Financial Statements” (https://tinyurl.com/2ffavupu). The presentations are designed to help preparers, elected officials, citizens, accounting students, and other stakeholders to understand each section of governmental financial reports, as well as how to use the information. There are currently 16 videos that run five to ten minutes each on the Vimeo platform. Transcripts are available and users can auto play the complete set.
The first three introductory videos are the “Role of Government in Financial Statements,” “Linking to Personal Financial Statements,” and an “Overview of the ACFR [Annual Comprehensive Financial Report]” of a state or local government. Video 4 reviews the management discussion and analysis addressed in Statement 103. Video 5 addresses government-wide financial statements. Videos 6 through 8 focus on government funds, proprietary funds, and fiduciary funds financial statements. Videos 9 through 13 cover disclosures in the notes to the financial statements. Video 14 reviews budgetary comparisons. Video 15 discusses other supplemental information. Finally, Video 16 addresses the auditor opinion letter.
The GASB website presents an Educational Webinars & Videos page at https://tinyurl.com/482aekfv. The current video offering is archived from November 2025, the “Governmental and Not-for-Profit Accounting Webcast for Academics.” It runs around two hours and includes downloadable slides. It covers an overview on governmental accounting general news, teaching topics, and timely research ideas, followed by the same information for FASB topics. Although originally offered as CPE for accounting professors, it would also make a great “lunch and learn” for a CPA firm or student accounting club.
“Bridging the GAAP” is GASB’s podcast series, available at https://tinyurl.com/3bnf6fhr. The podcasts run around 15 minutes and are available on Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify, and YouTube, with transcripts available on the podcast web page. The series is currently up to 16 programs, with the most current being “Episode 16—Exposure Draft on Infrastructure Assets with Joe Wicklund, GASB Project Manager.” “Episode 3—GASB: Governmental Accounting Research System” summarizes the purpose of GARS, as well as the changes rolled out in 2023.
Governmental Accounting Research System
The Governmental Accounting Research System (GARS) provides access to US GAAP for state and local governments. GARS includes GASB’s codification, original pronouncements, and other resources and tools. It is easily accessed from the GASB website or directly at https://gars.gasb.org. GARS has been free to access since 2023, and accounts are no longer required, allowing for a wider range of users. The fully free version was updated for upgraded navigation, search, print, and copy/paste features. The home page also includes a link for help topics that address features and functions of the GARS website.
A navigation bar on the left side of the web pages connects to codification, original pronouncements, comprehensive implementation guide, other references, tools, and archive of older editions. Original pronouncements include a status tool, so that users can verify effective dates. Navigation works in the user’s choice of an easy drill down process, or an advanced search tool. The navigation bar stays in the same place, so it is simple to move around the website. A source tracing tool identifies where content is presented across the collections. A handy print feature is available at the bottom of all web pages.
Government Finance Officers Association
The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) is an association of public finance officials at the federal, state, and local level. Its website at https://www.gfoa.org is targeted towards members, but there is also a nice selection of materials that auditors and educators will find useful. The “GAAFR: Governmental Accounting, Auditing, and Financial Reporting,” also known as the Blue Book, is available as a $200 e-book on Amazon and Apple; for that price, the reader obtains almost 2,000 pages of reference material and best practices.
The “Best Practices” section of the website offers a large number of materials under several categories such as “accounting & financial reporting,” “budgeting,” “capital planning,” and many others (https://tinyurl.com/4h898zce). The “accounting & financial reporting” topic groups the resources under auditing, accounting, internal controls, financial reporting, and grants management (https://tinyurl.com/zypx2a2f). Under the audit topic, external auditors might be particularly interested in the “audit procurement” recommendations for governments to select independent auditors in a competitive process. Similarly, “Internal Control Deficiencies in Audits” provides best practices that auditors can use to advise their governmental audit clients under the internal control topics.
GFOA’s “Materials Library” offers a variety of resources, including articles, case studies, research reports, videos, and tools and templates (https://tinyurl.com/3wfs6bth). One of the most recent tools and templates is “Governmental Accounting, Auditing, and Financial Reporting Appendix D,” which is available as a free 158-page downloadable PDF. It provides a complete and detailed example of an annual comprehensive financial report (ACFR), available at https://tinyurl.com/2tp4dcfn. The current edition is updated through GASB Statement 104 (Disclosure of Certain Capital Assets, issued September 2024).
