On March 23, 2021, three members of our public sector team provided public testimony to the GASB on several very significant GASB proposals. In part of what GASB is calling the “Big Three” in reference to three interrelated projects that take a comprehensive look at financial reporting for state and local governments, Plante Moran provided testimony on the proposed exposure draft, Financial Reporting Model, as well as a separate testimony on the preliminary views document, Revenue and Expense Recognition.
Plante Moran submitted separate comment letters to GASB on both these proposed standards at the end of February. As a result of their comments, Katie Thornton, Marie Stiegel and Michelle Watterworth were asked to appear before the GASB board to further discuss Plante Moran’s viewpoints on these due process documents and to address Board questions in an open Q&A session following their testimony.
Plante Moran has spent significant time understanding, analyzing, and responding to these new proposals. In turn, we have also provided training on these proposed standards to various organizations in order to educate others about these critical documents. We strongly encourage all governments to understand these very important proposals which hold the potential for significant changes to current accounting standards.
Our GASB involvement ensures that we stay ahead of emerging issues and allows us to deeply understand the practical application of standards. We regularly provide feedback to the GASB on proposed standards. We do this not just to maintain our expertise, but to act as an advocate for our clients and provide a voice during the standard-setting process. The leader of our national public sector technical team, Michelle Watterworth, is the chair of the AICPA State and Local Governments Expert Panel.
