Fundamentals of Advanced Accounting 5th Edition by Joe Ben Hoyle,Thomas Schaefer,Timothy Doupnik

Exercise 51

Search the Internet for the official website of one or more state or local governments. After reviewing this website, determine whether the latest comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR) is available on the site. For example, the most recent comprehensive annual financial report for the City of Sacramento can be found at www.cityofsacramento.org/cafr/ and the comprehensive annual financial report for the City of Phoenix can be found at http://phoenix.gov/citygovernment/
financial/reports/cafr/index.html. Use the financial statements that you locate to answer the following questions.
Required
1. How does the audit opinion given to this city by its independent auditors differ from the audit opinion rendered on the financial statements for a for-profit business
2. A reconciliation should be presented to explain the difference between the net changes in fund balances for the governmental funds (fund financial statements) and the change in net assets for the governmental activities (government-wide financial statements). What were several of the largest reasons for the difference
3. What were the city's largest sources of general revenues
4. What was the total amount of expenditures recorded by the General Fund during the period How were those expenditures classified
5. What assets are reported for the General Fund
6. Review the notes to the financial statements and then determine the number of days the government uses to define the end-of-year financial resources that are viewed as currently available.
7. Did the size of the General Fund balance increase or decrease during the most recent year and by how much