Local governments

Originally published May 26, 2022

Updated September 6, 2023

Local governments track many assets with multiple objectives in mind. Whether your objective is accurate and complete financial reporting or safeguarding public assets, tracking all of your government's assets can quickly become a pain.

Spring has sprung, and it's time to start cleaning up your financial records from years' past! Why not tackle the messy buildup in your vendor master file? This database file containing information about your government's vendors needs a periodic scrubbing.

Piggybacking is the ability to use another government's bid award without going through your own competitive process. It can be complicated, which is why we have updated our guide—Piggybacking under Washington State Law—to address your most common questions and alert you to changes in our guidance.

Before you go to the grocery store, do you make a list to ensure you purchase everything you need?

Washington's governments encountered special audit circumstances this year when it came to preparing the Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA). School districts were no different—and many of
you found yourselves facing a federal audit for the first time because the funding you received related
to the COVID-19 pandemic met or exceeded the federal government's threshold to require an audit.

We're firing up our #Gov101 series again! This time, we're featuring public utility districts, also known as PUDs.

For the next few weeks, we'll tell you all about these special purpose districts: how they're governed, how they get and spend public dollars, and how you can participate at your local PUD.

Our first video covers the types of services Washington's 28 PUDs provide to their communities and their governing structure.

We're excited to announce the release of new features in our Financial Intelligence Tool (FIT)! You'll now have access to more details about local governments' debt and liabilities and a direct link to helpful FIT resources. We've also launched our new live annual filing submission tracker and made several other enhancements for a better user experience.

Imagine you are planning an expensive Hawaiian vacation—your first in two years. One of the first things you check is whether any of the costs are refundable if something were to prevent you from going. When you learn you could lose your deposit if you pull out of the trip, you plan to buy trip insurance just to be safe. In other words, you've identified a risk and found a way to mitigate it.

You've heard the old adage that good food comes from quality ingredients. The same could be said about your government's annual report: it's only as good as the data that goes into it. As you prepare to file your annual report this year, remember that there are many consumers of your financial data and its accuracy is important.