Meeting Minutes
Department of Financial Services
Chart of Accounts Project
Meeting Name:
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DFS Chart of Accounts Project
SUS Inter-Institutional Committee on Finance and Accounting
October 14, 2011
8:30 am
Homewood Suites, Orlando, Florida
Attendees: There were 35 Inter-Institutional Committee on Finance and Accounting (ICOFA) attendees
signed in for the meeting. The Department of Financial Services (DFS) was represented by Elwood
McElhaney and Christina Smith. Elwood McElhaney provided an overview of the project:
1. The Legislature has requested that the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) develop a means of
“obtaining detailed, uniform reporting of governmental financial information to enable
citizens to view compatible information on the use of public funds.”
2. The CFO will develop a standard Chart of Accounts (COA) for this purpose.
3. Agencies will be required to report financial information using these accounts, but will not
be required to adopt these accounts for daily management purposes. Existing financial
information may be mapped to the final COA adopted by the CFO. We anticipate the ability
to submit the required information electronically.
4. The CFO will conduct workshops to solicit input through June 30, 2013.
5. A draft of the COA will be published on July 1, 2013, for comments. We do not anticipate
many comments or complaints at that time, as we hope to resolve most of the issues prior
to publishing the draft. The comment period will close on October 31, 2013.
6. The CFO will present the following items to the Governor, President of the Senate, and
Speaker of the House by January 15, 2014.
a. The recommended COA; and
b. The estimated cost of adopting and implementing the Uniform COA.
7. Agencies will be asked to provide implementation cost estimates.
McElhaney reviewed the most recently published Auditor General Audit Reports for the 11 universities
and summarized the accounts that were used. The summary was distributed and discussed. The
reporting structure of the universities is very similar, which will simplify this process. McElhaney
explained that he does not feel there is a need to use classified accounts (current vs. non-current), since
the task is to develop a COA and not to present GAAP-based financial statements. The proposal will
likely be to merge the current and non-current assets into a single group of asset accounts, and to do
the same with the liabilities and revenues. The attendees concurred.
McElhaney stated that it is anticipated that the difficult part of this process will be to develop
recommendations for reporting expenditures. Guidance received so far from Legislative staffers is to
include fund, organization structures under the agency level, and details regarding the types of
expenditures that were made. The universities still use the state object codes for expenditure
classifications, and it appears they would be agreeable to using these codes for expenditure
classifications. McElhaney stated that the state standard object codes will probably be expanded
because of this project.
The reporting frequency will have to be addressed by the Legislature when, and if, they pass an
implementing law. Initial discussions have centered on the monthly reporting of balances.
1. The universities recommended quarterly reporting as an alternative.
2. There was general discussion concerning the idea that most balance sheet account balances
are only trued up as of the balance sheet date. Interim balance sheet balances will be
relatively useless.
3. There was discussion regarding the anticipated organizational level of reporting, and the
effect on reporting costs as the reporting level goes deeper into the organization.
ICOFA will form a subcommittee to develop recommendations for reporting their financial information,
and present them to DFS sometime after their next meeting in February 2012. The CFO will take all
proposals to the Legislative staff for review and comments. McElhaney will provide the link to the DFS
Bureau of Local Government reporting requirements to Brad Bennett for review and distribution to the
ICOFA membership. This is an annual reporting process, and is not necessarily recommended for this
COA exercise. The reporting requirements include component units of the universities. This caused
concern in both obtaining the information and reporting on it. McElhaney reinforced that this is a
requirement in the law and must be addressed.
There was discussion about the costs of implementation. ICOFA will be asked to provide us with
estimates, but it will be very difficult to audit or verify the estimates. The universities should be
prepared to justify their estimates to Legislative inquiries. The implementation costs will vary based on
other decisions that are made regarding the level of reporting. The cost will increase as the project gets
deeper into the organization structure. The project team will work to clarify the levels of reporting once
the recommendations of the universities are received. It is anticipated that the CFO would not be
opposed to receiving multiple cost estimates based on different reporting structures.
After the COA discussion, the universities had a series of questions on other financial issues that were
discussed with Christina Smith. Issues discussed included documentation requirements on cost
reimbursement contracts and recent IRS rulings relating to employee cell phone allowances.
The presentation ended at approximately 10:30 AM.

MEETING AGENDA
◦ Introductions
◦ Review of Section 215.89, Florida Statutes
◦ Charts of Account Development Plans
◦ Discussion of Research and Requirements
◦ Questions & Answers
◦ Contact Information

SECTION 1. Section 215.89, Florida Statutes, is created to read:
215.89 Charts of account.—
(1) LEGISLATIVE INTENT.—It is the intent of the Legislature that a
mechanism be provided for obtaining detailed, uniform reporting of
government financial information to enable citizens to view
compatible information on the use of public funds by governmental
entities. The Legislature intends that uniform reporting requirements
be developed specifically to promote accountability and transparency
in the use of public funds. In order to accommodate the different
financial management systems currently in use, separate charts of
account may be used as long as the financial information is captured
and reported consistently and is compatible with any reporting
entity.
(2) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section, the term:
(a) “Charts of account” means a compilation of uniform data codes that are to be used for
reporting governmental assets, liabilities, equities, revenues, and expenditures to the Chief
Financial Officer. Uniform data codes shall capture specific details of the assets, liabilities, equities,
revenues, and expenditures that are of interest to the public.
(b) “State agency” means an official, officer, commission, board, authority, council, committee, or
department of the executive branch; a state attorney, public defender, criminal conflict and civil
regional counsel, or capital collateral regional counsel; the Florida Clerks of Court Operations
Corporation; the Justice Administrative Commission; the Florida Housing Finance Corporation; the
Florida Public Service Commission; the State Board of Administration; the Supreme Court or a
district court of appeal, circuit court, or county court; or the Judicial Qualifications Commission.
(c) “Local government” means a municipality, county, water management district, special district,
or any other entity created by a local government.
(d) “Educational entity” means a school district or an entity created by a school district.
(e) “Entity of higher education” means a state university, a state or Florida College System
institution, or an entity created by a state university or state or Florida College System institution.
(f) “State and local government financial information” means the assets, liabilities, equities,
revenues, and expenditure information that is recorded in financial management systems of state
agencies, local governments, educational entities, and entities of higher education.
(3) REPORTING STRUCTURE.—
(a) Beginning October 1, 2011, the Chief Financial Officer shall conduct workshops
with state agencies, local governments, educational entities, and entities of higher
education to gather information pertaining to uniform statewide reporting
requirements to be used to develop charts of account by the Chief Financial Officer. A
draft proposed charts of account shall be provided by July 1, 2013, to the state
agencies, local governments, educational entities, and entities of higher education.
(b) The Chief Financial Officer shall accept comments from state agencies, local
governments, educational entities, entities of higher education, and other interested
parties regarding the proposed charts of account until November 1, 2013.
(c) By January 15, 2014, the Chief Financial Officer, after consultation with affected
state agencies, local governments, educational entities, entities of higher education,
and the Auditor General, shall submit to the Governor, the President of the Senate, and
the Speaker of the House of Representatives a report recommending a uniform charts
of account which requires specific enterprise-wide information related to revenues and
expenditures of state agencies, local governments, educational entities, and entities of
higher education. The report must include the estimated cost of adopting and
implementing a uniform enterprise-wide charts of account.
Research and Requirements
◦ Summary of Accounts from audit reports
◦ Organizational reporting
◦ Expenditure reporting
 Question
& Answers
Contact Information:
Elwood McElhaney, CPA
Application Design and Support Process Manager
Division of Accounting and Auditing
304F Fletcher Building
200 East Gaines Street
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0353
850-413-5503
Elwood.McElhaney@myfloridacfo.com