neoaccounting

by Sarah Sheen FCPFA, Technical Manager, CIPFA Local authority accountants are facing numerous changes in financial reporting requirements with an ever changing policy landscape and a need to balance this, ensuring that the information they provide is easily understood by their key stakeholders – and all against a backdrop of resource constraint. How can they manage and be prepared for some of the key financial reporting challenges they are facing? Challenge one – how to make local authority financial statements accessible to their stakeholders A regular refrain across sectors is that IFRS financial statements are too long and too complicated. This situation is exacerbated in local authorities as financial performance is measured on a fiscal basis as well as the accounting basis. Changes to the 2016/17 Accounting Code have addressed this issue. The new Expenditure and Funding Analysis has brought these two reporting frameworks together in a way which promotes accountability...