Comprehensive Annual Financial Report is the official report of a state depicts the financial condition of that state. This report is compiled annually and comprises the funds and component units of a state. It enlists the statement of revenues, expenditures, and also the changes in fund balance.
· Major elements of the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report:
This two important elements of Comprehensive Annual Financial Report are the balance sheet and the cash flow of the state. Balance sheets are made using assets, liabilities and fund balances liabilities and fund balances. Cash flows are of different types :
1) Cash flows from operating activities,
2) Cash flows from non capital financing activities,
3) Cash flows from capital and related financing activities,
4) Cash flows from investing activities.
So by taking all these things into consideration the Comprehensive Annual Financial report is computed and that's why the name suggests as “comprehensive”.
Interpretation of Comprehensive Annual Financial Report:
Satisfactory result can be computed by comparing current statistics with those of previous years, and with current reports from other cities as well. While comparing, certain things has to be taken into consideration such as whether the government of those cities are of same level or type or not and if the government categorize things in the same way or not etc. By using trend data for these governments rather than depending upon the current-year data these comparisons can further be extended and so is the financial report.
· Usefulness of Comprehensive Annual Financial Report:
Comprehensive Annual Financial report gives the statement of revenues, expenses, and changes in retained earnings. It provides the information about the governments fiscal conditions, e.g the major revenue sources, outstanding debts etc, for the last 10 years of a state.