How does #dcgov record bad debt? The accountants have spoken

A questions was raised in one of my earlier blog posts about where #dcgov records bad debt and where can it be found for analysis? I have consulted our accounting brains and have an answer for those interested:

In a nutshell, there are two types of outstanding debt:

1) Outstanding receivables (such as tax liability, etc.) are recorded as
revenue budgets. Currently CFOINFO does not display revenue budgets,
but we are planning on adding the revenue budgets module in the near
future. In the mean time, details on revenues and outstanding receivables (accruals) can be found by contacting the DC OCFO at cfo.dc.gov.

2) Bad debt that is considered un-collectable is recorded as part of the
Yearly CAFR process once the fiscal year has been closed. This debt is
recorded as a budget expenditure line item in the “Expense Not Budgeted –
Other” category (See attached screen shot filtering on
this expense category in the detailed report).

Keep in mind that bad
debt is only one of several line items within this category. Further detailed breakdown of this information can be sought by contacting the OCFO at cfo.dc.gov.
However, the category does provide a high level estimate of such
expenditures for DC.

You will notice from the screen shot that no “Expense not
budgeted-Other” expenses have been recorded for FY10 or FY11. This is
because such expenses will not be recorded for FY10 until after the fiscal
year is over. FY11 budget is only “proposed” so such expenses cannot be
recorded until they actually occur.

I will be happy to provide further details as needed.

Also check out our new iphone app now available at cfoinfo.dc.gov