Government auditing and accounting is a highly specialized discipline with its own standard-setting body, its own financial reporting framework, and regulatory obligations that differ substantially from commercial accounting. CPA firms that serve municipalities, school districts, transit authorities, housing authorities, and special purpose entities operate under the standards of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) and must produce Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports (ACFRs) that meet both GASB requirements and the Government Finance Officers Association's (GFOA) certificate of achievement standards.
Layered on top of the ACFR is single audit compliance under the Office of Management and Budget's Uniform Guidance (2 CFR Part 200), which applies to any entity that expends $750,000 or more in federal awards in a fiscal year. Managing the administrative workflow surrounding these engagements—document requests, schedule preparation, coordination with the entity's finance staff, and deadline tracking—consumes significant non-audit time.
A governmental accounting virtual assistant handles that coordination and document management work, allowing government auditors and accountants to focus on the technical judgments that require GASB expertise and governmental audit experience.
GASB Standards and the ACFR Preparation Challenge
GASB has issued more than 100 standards since its formation, covering topics ranging from pension accounting (GASB 68) and OPEB (GASB 75) to lease recognition (GASB 87) and subscription-based IT arrangements (GASB 96). Each new standard creates fresh data collection and disclosure requirements that government finance offices must implement—often with limited staff—and that auditors must verify.
ACFR preparation involves assembling financial statements, notes, management's discussion and analysis (MD&A), statistical tables, and introductory material according to GFOA standards. The GFOA reports that over 4,500 governments participate in its Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting program annually, with each submission requiring a detailed compliance review against the program's checklist.
A virtual assistant supports ACFR preparation by maintaining the document checklist, tracking the status of each schedule and note from the entity's finance team, coordinating review comments between auditors and client staff, and ensuring that all components are assembled and formatted prior to submission deadlines.
Single Audit Coordination Under the Uniform Guidance
Any government entity that expends $750,000 or more in federal awards must undergo a single audit, which includes testing of major federal programs and issuance of findings and questioned costs. Managing the single audit engagement requires extensive coordination: identifying major programs, gathering federal award schedules, compiling prior-year findings, and coordinating with program administrators across multiple departments.
A virtual assistant manages the Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA) coordination workflow—requesting award data from the entity's grants management team, reconciling award expenditures to accounting records, and tracking the status of corrective action plans from prior-year findings. The single audit deadline under the Uniform Guidance is nine months after fiscal year-end, and missed deadlines can affect an entity's federal funding eligibility.
The AICPA's Governmental Audit Quality Center (GAQC) has emphasized that engagement quality in single audits depends heavily on the completeness and organization of client-prepared documents. Virtual assistants ensure that document gathering begins early and proceeds systematically.
Pension and OPEB Data Collection
GASB 68 and 75 require that governments report their proportionate share of pension and other post-employment benefit (OPEB) liabilities on their balance sheets. Collecting the actuarial reports, census data confirmations, and employer allocation schedules from pension systems and OPEB trusts is a recurring annual task that requires persistent follow-up.
A virtual assistant manages this data collection: sending requests to pension administrators, tracking receipt of actuarial reports and employer allocation schedules, and maintaining a log of open items by client entity. For government accounting firms that serve dozens of entities each with separate pension plan memberships, this coordination task alone can consume dozens of hours during the engagement season.
Government accounting firms that deploy virtual assistants improve their capacity to serve public sector clients, maintain consistent engagement timelines, and deliver the high-quality ACFRs and single audit reports that public entities depend on to maintain federal funding and demonstrate fiscal accountability to their citizens.
Sources
- GASB, Standards and Guidance: https://www.gasb.org/standards
- GFOA, Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting: https://www.gfoa.org/cafr
- AICPA Governmental Audit Quality Center (GAQC): https://www.aicpa.org/resources/landing/governmental-audit-quality-center