A. In accordance with generally accepted governmental accounting principles, the department of administration shall develop and prescribe for the use of all budget units a uniform accounting system so designed as to ensure compliance with all legal and constitutional requirements, including those respecting receiving, spending and accounting for public monies.

Terms Used In Arizona Laws 35-131

  • Action: includes any matter or proceeding in a court, civil or criminal. See Arizona Laws 1-215
  • Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
  • Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
  • Budget unit: means any department, commission, board, institution or other agency of this state receiving, expending or disbursing state monies or incurring obligations against this state. See Arizona Laws 35-101
  • Electronic funds transfer: The transfer of money between accounts by consumer electronic systems-such as automated teller machines (ATMs) and electronic payment of bills-rather than by check or cash. (Wire transfers, checks, drafts, and paper instruments do not fall into this category.) Source: OCC
  • Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
  • including: means not limited to and is not a term of exclusion. See Arizona Laws 1-215
  • Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
  • Month: means a calendar month unless otherwise expressed. See Arizona Laws 1-215
  • Supplemental appropriation: Budget authority provided in an appropriations act in addition to regular or continuing appropriations already provided. Supplemental appropriations generally are made to cover emergencies, such as disaster relief, or other needs deemed too urgent to be postponed until the enactment of next year's regular appropriations act.

B. The department of administration shall maintain complete, accurate and current financial records relating to state monies and to other public monies in the state treasury available to, encumbered by or expended by each budget unit, including trust monies or other monies not subject to appropriation, setting out all revenues, charges against all funds, fund and appropriation balances, interfund transfers, outstanding warrants, checks, electronic funds transfer vouchers and encumbrances, in a manner consistent with the uniform state accounting system, to prepare statewide financial statements in accordance with generally accepted governmental accounting principles.

C. Each month the department of administration shall prepare and submit to the governor a report summarizing by budget unit and appropriation or other fund source the information prescribed in subsection B of this section in a form that will most clearly and accurately set out the current fiscal condition of the state and shall furnish to each budget unit a report of its transactions by appropriation or other fund source in a form that will clearly and accurately show the fiscal activity and condition of the appropriation or fund source.

D. The responsible official for each budget unit shall monitor reports prepared pursuant to subsection C of this section to identify any projected total deficiency for the budget unit fiscal year. On a determination of a projected deficiency, the official shall take any action necessary to ensure continuing compliance with section 1-254 by notifying the governor, the speaker of the house of representatives, the president of the senate and the chairman of the joint legislative budget committee of the deficiency and the reasons for the deficiency. The initial notification of the deficiency shall be followed within ten business days by a report from the responsible budget unit official that includes the following:

1. A complete explanation of the causes of the deficiency.

2. A plan that ensures that the deficiency will be resolved within the fiscal year without supplemental appropriation and that includes the policy and programmatic implications of the deficiency and the plan.

3. A commitment to provide a progress report if the projected degree of deficiency changes substantially. The report shall include additional measures necessary to ensure resolution of the deficiency within the fiscal year.

E. On or before December 1 of each year, the director of the department of administration shall submit to the governor a complete report of the financial transactions of the preceding fiscal year and of the financial condition of the state at the end of that year with such comments and supplementary data as the director of the department of administration deems necessary to make the report complete and readily understandable. The report shall include all appropriated and nonappropriated monies in no less detail than the state general fund.

F. On or before February 1 of each year, the director of the department of administration and the state treasurer shall submit to the joint legislative budget committee a report explaining any differences between the department of administration’s estimate of the previous fiscal year’s state general fund ending balance submitted pursuant to subsection E of this section and the state treasurer’s estimate of the invested balance, including the state general fund share of that balance, as of June 30 of the previous fiscal year submitted pursuant to section 41-172.

G. In preparing the comprehensive annual financial report published in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, the department of administration shall include supplementary schedules that reconcile any differences between the state general fund as reported in the comprehensive annual financial report and the state general fund as reported in the annual financial report required by subsection E of this section. This reconciliation shall address revenues, expenditures and fund balances.

H. The director of the department of administration shall prescribe uniform classifications for assets, liabilities, receipts and expenditures and forms for the periodic reporting of financial accounts, transactions and other matters by budget units compatible with the reports required of the director of the department of administration under this section. Such records and accounts shall be maintained and reconciled by budget units. If required for reporting, the department of administration may establish or delete funds and budget units may maintain additional records for reporting to the federal government or other funding source.

I. Each organization that is included in the state’s reporting entity as defined by generally accepted accounting principles shall submit all necessary financial statements or information to the department of administration on a basis of accounting that is consistent with generally accepted accounting principles and that is in accordance with the policies and procedures of the department of administration.