2015 FIR Automation Tool (Alberta version) Released
- Darryl Parker
- What's New
- minute(s)Municipal government finance departments have another way to leverage their investment in CaseWare Working Papers by automating their Municipal Financial Information Return ("MFIR"). Each year, F.H. Black & Company Incorporated helps a number of governments across the country prepare not only their annual audited financial statements, but also other mandatory provincial reporting such as Alberta's MFIR. This week, FHB released the 2015 FIR Automation Tool (Alberta Edition) to assist in calculating the balances that appear in that Excel template using the same trial balance which generates the financial statements. Why Automating the MFIR with CaseWare is Important One of the hardests tasks in preparing the Financial Information Return is ensuring agreement with the audited financial statements. Hisotrically, every change arising from the audit had to be painstakenly chased through all of the schedules of the MFIR. That last minute adjusting entry from the auditor doesn't pose a challenge any longer. Just post the adjustment in your Working Papers file, and see its effect ripple through your financial statements, notes and schedules, as well as the related items on your automated FIR schedules. Changes in the 2015 MFIR Minimal The Ministry publishes a manual each year for the MFIR which notes any changes to the MFIR compared to prior years. Luckily, this year there are no changes to the MFIR Excel template at all - it is literally exactly the same set of lines and columns as the 2014 veresion of this report. The manual does note one important change to accounting policy: Liabilities for Contaminated Sites (PS3260). However, that change in policy will have an impact on the liabilities you report - not the format of your reporting them (at least with respect to the MFIR). Want to learn how you too can automate the MFIR? Sign up for one of our upcomming webinars to learn more.
the 2015 version of the FIR Automation Tool for Alberta municipalities has just been released.
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Ontario FIR Released for 2015
- Darryl Parker
- FIR
- minute(s)The New Year's holiday is always bittersweet for municipal finance department staff. Holiday cheer and family events, followed closely and harshly by the beginning of year-end season. However, it's particularly tough on our colleagues from the province of Ontario (unless you are like the City of Mississauga), which has the biggest set of provincial ministry reporting in the country . And sure enough today I loaded up the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing website and the 2015 Financial Information Return is there waiting for us to download and get started. The Ministry says the 2015 changes have been "minimal," but there are some interesting and important items for you to be aware of. What about those changes we've heard about? One of the changes with the 2015 Ontario FIR that immediately grabbed my attention is that the Ministry now requires the nature of cash to be disclosed on Schedule 54 - whether it is restricted, unrestricted or unallocated. Another change that may be cause for celebration for some - schedules 75A, 75B and 75C are no longer required for 2015. Those of us lucky enough to have attended the 2015 MFOA conference in Blue Mountain, Ontario heard lots of interesting FIR news from Jim Simos, the Coordinator of the Financial Information Return for the Municipal Finance Policy Branch of the MMAH. 2015 is the Ministry's pilot year for a revamped submission process. About 15 Ontario municipalities will be participating. Don't worry - Jim and the MMAH have already contacted the participants in the pilot so you should already know if you're affected. We are happy to announce that two of our clients who have automated the Ontario FIR with CaseWare, are participating in this pilot. This will ensure that our tool is compliant with the new ministry changes. For the other 400+ of you, it's business as usual - at least for one more year. Once the pilot is complete and any problems ironed out, get ready for a change to the way you do your 2016 return!
2015 Ontario FIR template was released by the Ministry with some important new changes that finance officers need to be aware of.
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