With many state and local governments closing their offices during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) issued an exposure draft entitled ‘Postponement of the Effective Dates of Certain Authoritative Guidance’ on April 15, 2020 to provide short-term assistance related to the implementation of new standards. With comments due on April 30, 2020 and an expected final statement to be issued in early May, this proposal seeks to postpone the effective dates of specific statement provisions and implementation guides by one year.

The following outlines the proposed effective dates, which are subject to change prior to the final statement issuance (click to enlarge image):

Please note, GASB also released the ‘Emergency Toolbox’ to address COVID-19-related issues in accounting and financial reporting. This toolbox includes generally accepted accounting principles for state and local governments that are may be of interest during this time.

Contact your KPM advisor for questions on how these changes may affect your government entity.