An enormous amount of effort goes into creating state and local financial reports, which are assembled according to the standards set by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB).

Accountants and auditors are well-trained to understand these Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) pages, but what about elected officials and other stakeholders who aren’t trained in utilizing these complex and intricate documents?

To help these users, the GASB has created a series of 16 five-to-ten minute videos to help communicate  “in straightforward laymen’s terms, the information contained in each section of a government financial report,” as well as how the information could be used, explained GASB Chair Joel Black in a release.

There’s nothing new about GASB’s efforts to provide this kind of information. But in the past, this has been done entirely in writing. Similarly to the enormously popular explainers on YouTube, these videos are narrated in a friendly, conversational tone. They’re relatively easy to follow – whether watched in sequence to get a full picture of financial reporting or individually for people who are concerned with understanding on specific area.

The first three consist of a basic introduction to government financial reports. The remaining thirteen cover topics including the Management Discussion and Analysis; Pensions and OPEB; Long-term Liabilities; capital assets and more.

To see the videos click here.

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