PSAS - Specific Topics

Overview:

In their daily practice, professionals encounter such a broad diversity of situations that every day can bring new and specialized topics that rarely arise in the profession but that practitioners can greatly benefit from understanding.

This workshop examines the application of complex areas in the PSAS. You will learn strategies for applying general standards to the real world. The workshop explores common areas of complexity that appear frequently in practice that raise discussions between accounting professionals and auditors using mini-case studies, shorter collaborative discussion exercises, and real-world examples. The workshop includes a brief refresher on some of the most recent standards and changes to come.

This course is being offered to allow you to: 

• Strengthen your knowledge of general PSAS concepts and an understanding of applying the PSAS Handbook for researching complexities of real-life situations
• Improve your understanding of some of the more complex areas of the PSAS Handbook to allow you to engage in more meaningful discussion and analysis when such issues in these specific areas arise in your work
• Provide awareness and knowledge of significant changes coming to the PSAS Handbook so you can plan for these changes on a timely basis

Course Content:

In this course, you will gain knowledge about the following topics: 

• Asset retirement obligations, and liabilities for contaminated sites
• Government transfers, including issues and differences in application
• Controlled entities, including specific examples of different situations and relationships
• Tangible Capital Assets including Public Private Partnerships
• Leased tangible capital assets, with government as a lessee and a lessor
• Financial instruments and hedging, including the impact of the Statement of Re-measurement Gains and Losses
• Common issues for local and senior governments
• What’s new in the PSAS Handbook? A brief overview of all current projects underway is also provided

Learning Objectives:

Upon completing this course, you should be able to: 

• Describe the more complex areas of PSAS 
• Analyze complex real-life situations and apply PSAS standards
• Apply the PSAS Handbook to the common areas that are controversial in practice  

Who Will Benefit: 

• Preparers of public sector financial statements (CFO, Director of Finance or Managers)
• Auditors of public sector financial statements (Partners, Senior Managers, or Managers)
• Board members of public sector entities