Internet Case—Budgetary Comparison Statements; Budget Basis Compared with GAAP. Refer to Case 3—1 for instructions about how to obtain the CAFR for a city of your choice. Using that CAFR, go to the required supplementary information (RSI) section, immediately following the notes to the financial statements, and locate the budgetary comparison schedule (note: this schedule may be titled schedule of revenues, expenditures. and changes in fund balances—budget and actual) for the General Fund and major special revenue funds. If this schedule is not included in the RSI, then the city you have selected is one that elects to prepare an audited statement of revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balances budget and actual as part of the basic financial statement. Also, locate the GAAP operating statement for governmental funds called the statement of revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balances— governmental funds in the basic statements (note: this statement does not contain any budgetary information). Examine the schedule and/or statements, as the case may be, and prepare a brief report that responds to the following questions.
a. Are revenues and/or expenditures presented in greater detail in the budgetary comparison schedule (or statement) than in the GAAP operating statement? If so, why, in your judgment, is this the case?
b. Do actual revenues on the budgetary comparison schedule agree in amount with those on the GAAP operating statement? If they differ, is there an explanation provided either in the notes to the financial statements or notes to the RSI to explain the difference? What explanations are provided, if any?
c. Do actual expenditures on the budgetary comparison schedule agree in amount with those on the GAAP operating statement? If they differ, is there an explanation provided either in the notes to the financial statements or notes to the RSI to explain the difference? What explanations are provided, if any?
d. If no differences were noted in either b or c above, go to item e. If differences ‘were noted was there a notation in the heading of the budgetary comparison schedule/statement indicating ‘Non-GAAP Budgetary Basis” or an indication of budget basis in the column heading for actual revenues and expenditures?
e. Does the budgetary comparison schedule/statement contain a variance column? If so, is the variance the difference between actual and original budget or the difference between actual and final budget?