Audits provide essential accountability and transparency over government programs. Given the current challenges facing governments and their programs, the oversight provided through auditing is more critical than ever. Government auditing provides the objective analysis and information needed to make the decisions necessary to help create a better future. The professional standards presented in this 2018 revision of Government Auditing Standards (known as the Yellow Book) provide a framework for performing high-quality audit work with competence, integrity, objectivity, and independence to provide accountability and to help improve government operations and services. These standards, commonly referred to as generally accepted government auditing standards (GAGAS), provide the foundation for government auditors to lead by example in the areas of independence, transparency, accountability, and quality through the audit process. This revision contains major changes from, and supersedes, the 2011 revision.

This Circular provides guidance for Executive Branch entities required to submit audited financial statements, interim financial statements, and Performance and Accountability Reports (PARs) or Agency Financial Reports (AFRs) under the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990, as amended (CFO Act), the Government Management Reform Act of 1994 (GMRA), and the Accountability of Tax Dollars Act of 2002 (ATDA). This Circular also provides general guidance to Government corporations required to submit Annual Management Reports (AMRs) under the Government Corporations Control Act. Why buy a book you can download for free? We print the paperback book so you don't have to. First you gotta find a good clean (legible) copy and make sure it's the latest version (not always easy). Some documents found on the web are missing some pages or the image quality is so poor, they are difficult to read. If you find a good copy, you could print it using a network printer you share with 100 other people (typically its either out of paper or toner). If it's just a 10-page document, no problem, but if it's 250-pages, you will need to punch 3 holes in all those pages and put it in a 3-ring binder. Takes at least an hour. It's much more cost-effective to just order the bound paperback from Amazon.com This book includes original commentary which is copyright material. Note that government documents are in the public domain. We print these paperbacks as a service so you don't have to. The books are compact, tightly-bound paperback, full-size (8 1/2 by 11 inches), with large text and glossy covers. 4th Watch Publishing Co. is a HUBZONE SDVOSB. https: //usgovpub.com

"Think of the federal government as a gigantic insurance company (with a side line business in national defense and homeland security) which only does its accounting on a cash basis-only counting premiums and payouts as they go in and out the door. An insurance company with cash accounting is not an insurance company at all. It is an accident waiting to happen." Peter R. Fisher, former Bush Administration Undersecretary of the Treasury "Our objective in preparing the fiscal year 2005 Financial Report of the U.S. Government is to give Congress and the American people a timely and useful report on the cost of the Federal Government's operations." John W. Snow, former Bush Administration Secretary of the Treasury "Scoring the budget on an accrual basis-the private sector norm and, I believe, a sensible direction for federal budget accounting-would better underscore the tradeoffs we face. Under accrual accounting, benefits would be counted as they are earned by workers rather than when they are paid out by the government." Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board "The significance of these accrual-based reports is that they show the implications of current budgetary decisions over a longer time horizon…. This information is therefore an important element of the debate about the real effects of governmental commitments." Paul H. O'Neill, former Bush Administration Secretary of the Treasury "[A] practical management tool for policy-makers and a source of useful information for the public about the assets, liabilities, and operations of the government." Lawrence H. Summers, former Clinton Administration Secretary of the Treasury "We believe that the publication of this financial report is an important step in providing the American public with useful information about their government's assets, liabilities and operations." Robert E. Rubin, former Clinton Administration Secretary of the Treasury In December 2005, the White House published its Financial Report of the United States Government-only 2000 copies were printed despite the purpose of the report being to explain the country's financial wellbeing to Congress and the American people. Now, for the first time, that report is widely published so the American people can see what's really going on with the nation's finances.

Federal financial reporting should assist in fulfilling the government's duty to be publicly accountable for moneys raised from the public and for their expenditure in accordance with applicable laws that establish the budget and other related laws and regulations. As a means to help achieve this objective, beginning with fiscal year 1998, executive agencies subject to the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act of 1990, as expanded by the Government Management Reform Act of 1994, were each required to prepare and submit for audit a Statement of Budgetary Resources (SBR) in addition to the other required financial statements.

International accounting standards tend to converge, as do auditing, enforcement and corporate governance, whereas trading of equity shares remains essentially national. The book provides a thorough analysis of what information investors really need, how financial accounting systems developed and their current requirements in major commercial countries, and examines current issues, particularly the benefits and costs a single or multiple accounting standards, the bases for accounting standards, and limitations to accounting disclosure in financial statements.