Discusses the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, a formal response to major corporate and accounting scandals, exploring its implications for higher education and promoting it as an opportunity both to reassess best practices for audit committees and executives and to refresh the ongoing dialogue with external auditors. (EV)

Personnel responsible for telecommunications systems need a way to ensure pursuit of the right technology at the right time does not lead them away from considerations of the right price. A three-step method of historical and monthly reviews offers a straightforward means of regaining control of expenditures and tracking costs. (MSE)

It is argued that colleges and universities can use direct allocation costing to provide quantitative information needed for decision making. This method of analysis requires institutions to modify traditional ideas of costing, looking to the private sector for examples of accurate costing techniques. (MSE)

Two accounting strategies for classifying college or university endowment losses are compared: reduction of permanently restricted net assets and reduction of unrestricted net assets. The approaches differ in their effects on classification of net assets only when capital losses on endowment investments bring the fund below the level required in…

Discusses insights from the Institutional Operating Measures Forum, sponsored by the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) and the National Postsecondary Education Cooperative. Discussions continued the debate about the value--and the feasibility--of a standard operating measure for colleges and universities.…

This article describes activity-based costing (ABC) and how this tool may help management understand the costs of major activities and identify possible alternatives. Also discussed are the traditional costing systems used by higher education and ways of applying ABC to higher education. (GLR)

A discussion of the Financial Accounting Standards Board's new accounting standard No. 117, which concerns colleges and universities as nonprofit organizations, looks at new provisions and reporting requirements. Methods for producing the required cash flow statement are outlined, and the use of cash flow ratios is examined. (MSE)

In addressing the Governmental Accounting Standards Advisory Board, the National Association of College and University Business Officers' president urged the accounting standards boards to work together to establish a multiyear accounting research agenda for higher education. (Author/MSE)

Summarizes highlights of the Government Accounting Standards Board's proposed standard for college and university accounting, known as GASB 35. Topics addressed include enterprise fund financial statements, reporting of state appropriations, segment reporting, effective dates, and infrastructure assets. (MSE)

A university's financing choices cover many shades of gray. Some off-balance-sheet financing uses no debt capacity, while others represent or imply full financial commitment. Many others fall in between. The choices made by a number of institutions in financing facility expansions or improvements are discussed, and the Moody's Investors Service…

Appropriate accounting treatments for state and local student aid programs are examined from the viewpoint of both the restricted funds group and the agency funds group. It is suggested that they should be treated as restricted funds, possibly in a separate category encompassing all state, federal, local, and private grants designated for student…

A research team answers questions about implications of new Financial Accounting Standards Board rules for reporting health and other nonpension retirement benefits. Business and human resources officers are urged to address the issue soon because action taken early can lessen the impact of the rules' impact and improve cost management.…

Many university athletics departments are running significant deficits, making critical full reporting on all expenses, by sport. Anything less than full disclosure by sport of all related expenses misleads institutional leaders, students, alumni, and legislators into believing that football and men's basketball teams can bankroll…

A discussion of federal cost accounting standards (CAS) chronicles briefly the history of CAS, notes other pertinent regulations applicable to higher education, summarizes the initial standards drafted for colleges and universities, and examines disclosure statement requirements and implications of noncompliance. (MSE)

It is argued that recent changes in accounting standards only change the way in which institutions of higher education report finances, not necessarily the way transactions are accounted for. While fund accounting may no longer be an appropriate term for the accounting approach used, it represents appropriate concepts of stewardship and…