The composite activity of analyzing, recording, summarizing, reporting, and interpreting the financial transactions of governmental units and agencies. The term generally is used to refer to accounting for state and local governments, rather than the U.S. federal government. H I J K

The composite activity of analyzing, recording, summarizing, reporting, and interpreting the financial transactions of a governmental entity.

In general, accounting is designed to capture financial transactions and report on financial performance. State and local governments have their own set of rules apart from business. While there are many differences one major one is that governments focus heavily on judging legal compliance and business focuses on profit and loss. Future changes in standards may blur the distinction and add a commercial set of accounting rules to the traditional compliance rules.