The FTR is due seven months after year end with no extensions, and it must use audited numbers when an audit is available. In practice the audit and the FTR run side by side. A routine that works:
Before the audit is final
- Clear suspense and clearing accounts (1080, 2180, 4980, 5980). Anything left will land on an "other" line and draw questions.
- Check coding. Look for expenditures with no function and no department default, revenue coded to a function it does not belong to, and capital outlay or principal posted in proprietary funds. The CACOA validation rules list these.
- Balance interfund activity. Transfers in equal transfers out; due to and due from agree; advances agree.
- Post the conversion entries for governmental activities to the government-wide ledger (fund 980): capital assets and depreciation, debt, compensated absences, and the GASB 68 and GASB 75 pension and OPEB entries.
When the audit is final
- Post audit adjustments as journal entries to the ledger, not as overrides in the report. The report then matches the audited statements by construction, and next year starts from the right balances.
- Run the crosswalk against the post-closing trial balance and review each form against the audited statements: total revenues, total expenditures by function, fund balance by classification, and net position for each enterprise.
- Tie the debt forms (31-35) to the debt schedules and the audited long-term debt note.
- Explain differences. Where the FTR and the audited statements differ by design (fund 980 activity, classification differences), keep a short reconciliation with the working papers.
Filing
- Enter or upload the report in LGRS. Compare each form with the prior year and look into large swings.
- Sign the cover page electronically in LGRS, or print, sign, and mail it.
- Send the audited financial statements to the State Controller.
- Save the filed report with the trial balance, crosswalk version, and reconciliation, so next year's preparer can see exactly how each number was built.
After filing
Note what took longest and fix it in the ledger, not in next year's report: a new code, a better department default, a local detail code that declares an FTR line. That is how the report gets faster every year.