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Don Phillips column about Amtrak accounting

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[quote user="Overmod"] [quote user="Sam1"]As per the external auditor's report, Amtrak keeps its books in accordance with, "accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America", which is frequently referred to as GAAP.  It's standards, which are promulgated by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, are codified in FASB Statements, Interpretations, FASB Staff Positions, Technical Bulletins, and EITF Abstracts.  These are the standards that govern Amtrak's accounting, although it may adhere to some government accounting standards. [/quote] Just as a reminder for those 'not in the know' -- FASB and FASAB are two very different organizations.  FASB is general accounting, and FASAB is Federal application.  It is a matter of discussion which of these is more applicable to determining a proper form of GAAP for Amtrak as a 'quasi-public' (and therefore by implication quasi-Federal) organization, but anyone considering the issues should look at BOTH when discussing the issue. [/quote] What you say is true.  My impression is that the biggest difference between public company accounting and government accounting is that the latter uses fund accounting.  Otherwise the overwhelming majority of the principles are the same. Amtrak's Balance Sheet has an owners equity (capitalization) category just like a business.  It does not have a general fund like a government agency.   The key point is neither Amtrak's management or anyone else just makes up their own accounting rules as they go along.  Management must follow generally accepted accounting principles and practices or be called out by the external and internal auditors.  I have read nearly every Amtrak financial report for the last eight years.  I don't recall the auditors every issuing anything other than a clean audit report.  The audit community (external, internal, private, government, etc.) has gotten a few black eyes over the years.  And people out of the know like to generalize the outliers to the whole.  All up, however, auditors do a pretty good job.  They get it right most of the time, frequently to the chagrin of management.
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