Welcome Support Plan Newsletters Webinars Seminars Q&A Hotline Resources
		Last site update: Nov. 15, 2008 WELCOME Welcome to Ontario's Municipal PSAB/Asset Management Website. Beginning with fiscal year 2009, municipalities must report on their tangible capital assets and move from modified to full accrual accounting. The Municipal Finance Officers' Association (MFOA) and the Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario (AMCTO) have forged a strategic partnership to assist municipal staff implementing the changes. The website is designed to serve as an information clearing house. What's New? Webinar Training Materials Posted (Nov. 15, 2008): The training materials for all six webinars that MFOA and AMCTO presented in 2008 to help municipal staff who missed the "in-class" seminars are now available on our website. Sustainable Communities Asset Management (Oct. 2, 2008): The Ontario Water Works Association (OWWA) and the Water Environment Association of Ontario (WEAO) are offering a workshop on building sustainable communities through comprehensive asset management on November 13 in Concord. The workshop will cover the fundamentals of the asset management framework, its key components, developing business processes, implementing a successful implementation program, and more! Click here to register. Accrual Accounting 101 (Sept. 22, 2008): Cash accounting, modified accrual accounting and accrual accounting - accountants use these terms, but what do they really mean? Municipalities are being forced to move to full accrual accounting. How is this different from current practice? Our newsletter no. 39 explains it all for non-accountants. Asset Amortization vs. Sustainability (Sept. 14, 2008): Does tangible capital asset accounting as mandated by PSAB by itself ensure proper capital financing? As explained in our latest newsletter, No. 38, the answer is no, but the new rules will trigger a major shift in thinking. Calling All TCA Policies (Aug. 18, 2008): We are currently collecting examples of municipal capital asset policies for sharing on this website (on the relevant Webinar page - click here). Click here to contribute your municipality's policy. Making the Transition to TCA Accounting (Aug. 1, 2008): Our latest newsletter, No. 37, explains what Public Sector Guideline 7 (PSG-7) means for the presentation of tangible capital assets in a municipality's financial statements, including those for 2008. Deflator Study vs. BVC (July 23, 2008): When historical records are lacking, current values must be discounted to come up with estimates for the opening balances of tangible capital asset accounts. The MFOA/AMCTO Deflator Study and the Book Value Calculator are two tools available. Newsletter No. 36 compares them. Q&A Hotline Service Updated (July 19, 2008): Since its launch in fall 2007, the online PSAB Q&A Email HOTLINE Service has fielded hundreds of questions. The answers to the most common questions have been posted on the website. The latest summary is June 30. Asset Pools on an Ongoing Basis (July 18, 2008): Newsletter No. 35 explains this concept, using the municipal library's book collection as an example. How to Work with Your Auditor (July 12, 2008): Your 2009 financial statements will be different from any you have prepared before. There will be modifications to existing statements plus two new statements – the Statement of Changes in Net Debt/Financial Assets and the Statement of Operations. How will you get your auditor to give you an unqualified audit opinion? Newsletter No. 34 provides suggestions. Benchmarks & Standard Values (July 7, 2008): What are these exactiy and how can they help in describing, classifying and valuing assets for your initial asset inventories? This newsletter provides answers. PSAB Budgeting Training Complete (June 27, 2008): The in-class training to help the municipal sector prepare for accounting and municipal budgeting in a PSAB world is complete. The training took place in six centres across Ontario - London, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Kingston, Richmond Hill and Timmins. The presentation material has been posted for those not able to attend. Important TCA Announcements (May 23, 2008): PSAB has issued a draft of a new Statement of Recommended Practice on the Assessment of Tangible Capital Assets. PWGSC has launched Phase 2 of the Book Value Calculator. Our latest newsletter has the details. Newsletter Explains Segmentation (May 20, 2008): As of the current year, 2008, Ontario municipalities must "segment" - break down by organizational or functional area - their financial reporting. The latest MFOA/AMCTO newsletter lays out the why's and how's. Two New Newsletters Released (May 5, 2008): Our latest newsletters answer two key questions in the mind of every municipal finance practitioner. How do you account for assets transferred to or from other governmental entitities? And what exactly do I have to have done by December 31, 2008? TCA Accounting Software Newsletter Released (Apr. 16, 2008): What accounting software will you need to store your TCA data, maintain current records and report accurately in a timely fashion? This newsletter explains that there is no simple answer, and certainly no magic bullet. It doesn't examine or assess specific packages, but explores some of the generic issues that municipal finance practioners face when selecting accounting tools. Spring Seminar Registration Opens (Apr. 9, 2008): MFOA and AMCTO have announced the details of five in-class seminars that will be held in May and June to further assist municipal treasurers with the shift to full accrual counting. The seminars will focus on PSAB accounting and municipal budgeting. Click here to register now! Municipal Drains Newsletter Released (Apr. 8, 2008): The question of municipal drains should be dealt with in the inventory of tangible capital asset has been raised in the email hotline and in the training sessions. Are municipal drains municipal assets? Newsletter No. 17 provides an answer to this question. Webinar Registration Opens (Apr. 4, 2008): As previously announced, MFOA and AMCTO will be offering online webinars from spring to fall 2008 designed to meet the training needs of municipalities that are not yet fully into the PS 3150 implementation process or are looking for a refresher of TCA fundamentals. Click here to register now! Feds Release Book Value Calculator (Mar. 19, 2008): The federal government is making the Book Value Calculator (BVC), a software program orginally developed to facilitate putting federal tangible capital assets on the books, available for municipal use. The BVC incorporates deflation indices and betterment rates to produce estimates of current gross book value based on historic cost, as well as current net book values, asset betterments, amortization and remaining asset life. It can produce estimates where historical records are lacking. In the wake of a request from MFOA and AMCTO last fall, Public Works & Government Services Canada has posted an updated BVC at www.bookvaluecalculator.com. A fee will be charged for using it. The BVC and other such tools (e.g., the Deflator Index Report) may be useful to municipalities as they and their auditors consider appropriate. 2008 Support Program (Mar. 17, 2008): The associations have announced the shape of the 2008 support program. This will include continuation of the newsletters and online Hotline as well as online webinars targeted to municipalities not yet fully into the process plus in-class seminars dealing with "advanced" topics in the spring and fall. Revised Deflator Report (Mar. 16, 2008): MFOA and AMCTO recently released a Deflator Study to help municipalities estimate original costs as part of the exercise to comply with PS 3150. The report has been updated and a few wording problems, corrected. The tables in Appendices B and C are now different. Please discard the original report in favour of the revised version. The report is now accompanied by a spreadsheet to facilitate dealing with a large number of assets. Flora & Fauna Newsletter (Feb. 25, 2008): The subject of the latest PSAB newsletter is “Flora & Fauna — What about Trees and Polar Bears?" PSAB Readiness Survey (Feb. 20, 2008): The results of the the recent survey to determine how ready Ontario municipalities are for the move to accounting for tangible capital assets are in. Close to half of Ontario’s municipal treasurers participated. 93% of respondents said they are at least somewhat familiar with the new rules (up from 64% in a May 2006 survey), while 59% said that their municipality is somewhat prepared for the conversion (up from 10% in the previous survey).
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