Glossary

CAFR Statement of Net Position for State and Local Governments

Written by Nils R. | Jul 9, 2021 7:00:00 AM
What is a CAFR Statement of Net Position Reports? Statement of Net Position Reports are considered a standard component of Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFR) and are used by Financial Managers and Accounting teams to present the difference between the entity's assets plus deferred outflows of resources and its liabilities, plus deferred inflows of resources that represents its net position. Some of the main functionality in this type of annual report component is that it is parameter driven and has full formatting capabilities. It has three main components: 1) Net investment in capital assets, 2) Restricted net position, and 3) Unrestricted net position. In the screenshot shown below, the columns are set up with two main sections of the government entity: 1) Primary government and 2) Component units. You find an example of this type of report below. Purpose of Statement of Net Position Reports Public Sector organizations use Statement of Net Position Reports as a standard template in their CAFR. When used as part of good business practices in Accounting departments, a government entity can improve its accuracy of producing the CAFR and reduce labor effort and cost, and it can reduce the chances that mistakes happen by eliminating manually created reports. Example of a Statement of Net Position Report Here is an example of a Statement of Net Position. It is always one of many individual reports within a CAFR package. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Example of a CAFR Statement of Net Position for State and Local Governments[/caption] You can find hundreds of additional examples here Who Uses This Type of Annual report ? The typical users of this type of annual report are: CFOs, controllers, accountants. Other Reports Often Used in Conjunction with Statement of Net Position Reports Progressive Accounting departments sometimes use several different Statement of Net Position Reports, along with basic financial statements, notes to basic financial statements, required supplementary information, statistical tables and other management and control tools. Where Does the Data for Analysis Originate From? The Actual (historical transactions) data typically comes from enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems like: Microsoft Dynamics 365 (D365) Finance, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (D365 BC), Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics SL, Sage Intacct, Sage 100, Sage 300, Sage 500, Sage X3, SAP Business One, SAP ByDesign, Acumatica, Netsuite and others. In analyses where budgets or forecasts are used, the planning data most often originates from in-house Excel spreadsheet models or from professional corporate performance management (CPM/EPM) solutions. What Tools are Typically used for Reporting, Planning and Dashboards? Examples of business software used with the data and ERPs mentioned above are:
  • Native ERP report writers and query tools
  • Spreadsheets (for example Microsoft Excel)
  • Corporate Performance Management (CPM) tools (for example Solver)
  • Dashboards (for example Microsoft Power BI and Tableau)
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