IPSAS Adoption General Guidance

Mastering the Transformation

Deloitte (2004) Mastering the Transformation New Public Management Accrual Accounting and Budgeting: Guidance booklet on change management for public sector adoption of accrual accounting and budgeting.

Study 14 Transition to Accrual Basis

IFAC PSC (2003) Study 14 Transition to the Accrual Basis of Accounting: Guidance for Governments and Government Entities. 'The PSC believes governments and government entities will find the Study useful as they deal with the many and complex technical, systems and cultural issues necessary to implement an accrual system. The Study identifies key requirements of IPSASs. It also identifies other sources of useful guidance on issues not dealt with by IPSASs.'

Successful Implementation of Accrual Accounting

The International Consortium on Governmental Financial Management (2004) Public Fund Digest Volume IV, No. 1, 2004: This volume contains several useful articles including Hassan Ouda's article 'Basic Requirements Model For Successful Implementation Of Accrual Accounting In The Public Sector.'

Governments' Adoption of Accrual Accounting and Budgeting

Fédération des Experts Comptables Européens (2003) The Adoption of Accrual Accounting and Budgeting by Governments (Central, Federal, Regional And Local): Includes key factors for successful adoption of accrual accounting.

Accounting Education.Com

This website provides free news and information on world-wide accounting developments including public sector accounting developments. IFRS and IPSAS relevant news articles are reported here. Registration provides 'Double Entry' e-mail alerts on recent news items.

Public Fund Digests

This website links to the Public Fund Digest series of journals. These online journals share experiences of and research on public sector organizations financial management improvements, with a strong focus on adopting accrual accounting. Recent articles include information on lessons learnt in adopting accrual accounting, workplan for transition to accrual accounting, impact on financial reports of applying IPSAS, deficiencies of cash accounting, accrual budgeting issues, and guidelines for implementation of new ERP systems.

ACCA International Public Sector

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants is an International Accountancy Body. This website provides information about public accounting issues and includes access to the ACCA's International Public Sector Bulletin. Recent Bulletin articles cover guidance on ERP procurement, financial management reforms in developing countries, and assessment of French-based systems of budgeting and accounting.

Understanding the information: 20 Questions About Government Financial Reporting

This Canadian guidance describes the basic fundamentals of accruals based financial reporting and explains how to interpret the resulting financial information. It was produced for elected officials, when the Canadian Government changed its accounting to full accruals. The accounting rules adopted by the Canadian Government are very similar to IPSAS.

UK Government Accounting and Budgeting

Useful United Kingdom Government (Treasury) websites provided by Sir Andrew Likierman in response to a question at the Task Force-Finance and Budget Network meeting, August 2006. They cover: guidance to government departments on accrual accounting, the UK Government's Accounting Manual, information about (whole of government) consolidated accounts, and accrual budgeting.

NAO (1997) Good Practice: Financial Audit and Corporate Governance Guidance

When United Kindom government entities first adopted accrual accounting, the National Audit Office (NAO) produced guidance, which includes useful insights into a variety of different issues including materiality, reporting entity boundaries, establishing opening balances for assets and liabilities and audit trails. Although some of the specifics must be treated with care, because of differences between IPSAS and UK Government financial reporting requirements, these is still readable and useful guidance.

NAO IPSAS Compliance Guide - December 2007

The National Audit Office (NAO) of the United Kingdom has produced this IPSAS Compliance Guide in order to support IPSAS Adoption by the United Nations World Food Programme. (The WFP is audited by the NAO.)

NAO - IPSAS: Preparing for Audit - Oct 2007