commingling of funds

We're a small local government that manages and owns a majority in a joint venture. There's a suggestion that we combine the books and treat the JV as a program. Not a problem keeping the information separate within the accounts, except the idea is to move all the cash into one bank account. All I can find in GASB on the subject is trust fund pools, which this isn't. We've only had one fund until now, so I'm not sure if this is a standard practice. Is it standard? And is it a good idea?

Reply to
deddleman
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I can tell you how it should be done by the book, but someone in this group who has more real-life experience with government accounting could discuss what is actually practiced:

Unless the small government and JV are so closely related that they are substantially the same, albeit legally separate, you are supposed to report the JV in a single column (component unit), apart from the data of the small government (discrete presentation).

If the government owned less than a majority of the JV, it would have to record it as an asset and report gains and losses on an equity (percentage owned) basis. However, you did state that the government managed and owned a majority of the JV.

It would make sense to keep the cash in the same fund bank account the government used to invest in the JV.

Reply to
Rocinante

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