Financial Reports & Forecasts

A “Annual Comprehensive Financial Report” or ACFR (formerly known as the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report - CAFR) is the financial report of a state, municipal or other governmental entity that complies with the accounting pronouncements (government Generally Accepted Accounting Principles – GAAP) promulgated by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB).

An ACFR is compiled by a state, municipal or other governmental accounting staff and audited by an external AICPA-certified accounting firm utilizing GASB pronouncements.  New Albany Plain Local School District’s CAFR was audited by the Ohio Auditor of State audit team, and compiled by the Treasurer with the assistance of the Kennedy, Cottrill, Richards CPA firm.

The ACFR will be submitted to Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) for review. The GFOA established the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting Program (CAFR Program) in 1945 to encourage and assist state and local governments to go beyond the minimum requirements of generally accepted accounting principles to prepare comprehensive annual financial reports that evidence the spirit of transparency and full disclosure and then to recognize individual governments that succeed in achieving that goal.

Reports submitted to the ACFR program are reviewed by selected members of the GFOA professional staff and the GFOA Special Review Committee (SRC), which comprises individuals with expertise in public-sector financial reporting and includes financial statement preparers, independent auditors, academics, and other finance professionals.

The District also uses the ACFR to meet SEC requirements for periodic disclosure, as recommended by the Government Finance Officers Association. GFOA recommends using the ACFR as the disclosure document for providing information useful to existing and potential investors in the secondary market and meeting the obligation to provide annual disclosure for the secondary market, as required by Rule 15c2-12.

These forecasts are living documents that are used as planning tools for school districts and communities. They are a five-year projection of school district operational revenues and expenditures, which are based upon a snap shot of today that has been adjusted to reflect all known activities of the future along with certain assumptions and predictions of what may happen.