Meeting Minutes
Department of Financial Services
Chart of Accounts Project
Meeting Name: DFS Chart of Accounts Project
Meeting Group: Central Florida Chapter of the Florida Government Finance Officers
Association
Date: August 17, 2012
Time: 1:00 pm
Location: Orlando, Florida
Requestor:
Attendees:
There were 44 attendees, which included 23 county employees, 16 city employees, and
5 others (CPA firms and consulting companies).
Discussion: The Department of Financial Services (DFS) was asked to give a presentation on the Chart of
Accounts project to the Central Florida Chapter of the Florida Government Finance Officers Association
(FGFOA). Elwood McElhaney represented DFS at the meeting.
Mr. McElhaney reviewed the May 8, 2012, presentation that was given to the FGFOA in Orlando. The
presentation covered a review of the law, the progress to-date, and our future plans. The Draft Chart of
Accounts was presented, which was followed by considerable discussion of how it was developed and
how it relates to the current reporting structure that is used by the Bureau of Local Government. Those
in attendance appear to have their existing accounting records set up to report using the Bureau of Local
Government chart of accounts, and recommended that it be adopted as a statewide standard. There
wasn’t much feedback when Mr. McElhaney suggested that it be mapped into a higher level chart of
accounts. The attendees were concerned about the proposal to sub-classify travel costs into in-state,
out of state, and foreign travel. There was also some disagreement with the policy of including
employee mileage reimbursements in the travel classification.
Mr. McElhaney discussed a plan to solicit representatives from the various user groups to work to refine
the Draft Chart of Accounts and to develop estimates of the implementation costs. A recommendation
was made that DFS expand the solicitation to include members from each of the county constitutional
officers, since attendees from those offices were not confident that the county clerks would adequately
represent their interests.