Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB)

What is the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB)?

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) is an independent, private sector organization that develops and issues accounting and financial reporting standards for U.S. state and local governments. GASB is the source of the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), and the board’s mission is to promote clear, consistent, transparent, and comparable financial reporting.GAAP are a common set of accounting principles, standards, and procedures that companies must follow when they report on their financial standing. United States GAAP represents the accounting standards set by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and adopted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Why is GASB important?

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) is important because it helps public organizations prove to citizens that they are accountable and compliant. The mission of GASB is to establish and improve financial accounting and reporting standards to provide useful information to investors and other users of financial reports. GASB educates stakeholders on how to understand and implement those standards most effectively.

Since its inception in 1984, GASB has published a list of pronouncements, including Statements of Governmental Accounting Standards, which are broken down into Concept Statements, GASB Interpretations, GASB Technical Bulletins, and GASB Implementation Guides.

How does Clearwater Analytics help?

Clearwater Analytics allows its users to receive automatically generated GASB disclosures. Clearwater creates GASB 31, 40, and 72 reports at the click of a mouse. With our intuitive and user-friendly platform, users can easily customize disclosure reports and other standard balance sheets, income statements, and roll-forward reports.

With Clearwater, you can group data on multiple levels, write formulas, pivot, and add or remove data points. Accounting information can be pulled into varying types of reports and tied to risk and performance information, allowing for a complete picture of your investments.

Learn more about how Clearwater Analytics can help with investment accounting and reporting by scheduling time to speak directly to an expert.