Trọng tâm chính của văn bản này là việc chuẩn bị báo cáo tài chính bên ngoài mà là một thách thức trong số các báo cáo của chính phủ, kế toán cho các tổ chức phi lợi nhuận, kiểm toán chính phủ, và thuế của các thực thể được miễn | 56 Chapter 3 of fund . governmental funds and then only to the fund-basis statements this does not mean it is inconsequential. Recall that every general purpose government will have at least a General Fund and the General Fund is commonly the largest fund when measured in terms of government expenditures. Further since most tax revenue is received by the General and other governmental funds these funds are of particular interest to taxpayers. Before describing exactly what the modified accrual basis is it may be useful to describe what it is not. The modified accrual basis is not equivalent to the cash basis. Governmental funds record receivables . taxes receivable and recognize revenues before collection which is not true of a cash-basis system. Similarly governmental funds record many liabilities . salaries payable and accrue expenditures when payable rather than waiting until payment occurs. The modified accrual basis is also not merely a light version of the accrual basis differing only in its failure to recognize long-term assets and liabilities. The modified accrual basis is a distinct system of accounting that contains financial statement elements that appear nowhere else. Among these are expenditures and fund balances. At the same time the modified accrual basis contains other elements that are shared with the accrual basis such as assets and liabilities. Although revenues appear in the financial statements of accrual and modified accrual funds revenues follow different recognition criteria between the two bases. Finally there are no expenses in modified accrual funds. The following sections describe the account structure and recognition criteria for governmental funds. The modified accrual basis evolvedArJpaigJ dOmandEoEccaSilIhbllStEivcJ eiiKlic resources and is therefore closely tied to the budget function. Budgetary accounting is illustrated in the appendix to this chapter. MODIFIED ACCRUAL ACCOUNTS Balance Sheet Accounts Illustration 3-1 .
