Q:  How does CAFR-2000 differ from some of the other GASB 34 solutions out there?
A:  First of all CAFR-2000 is not just a GASB 34 solution, it is a total CAFR financial reporting tool. We of course can't speak to all that is available because we don't know just what is available. We have found as rule so far with some products they have actually only addressed the new reporting formats without really addressing the underlying work or record keeping that supports the reports. We have talked to some governments that are using some of these other options. Those products have chosen to employ an nationally distributed report writer that many users have said is 'somewhat complex' to 'need to be an IT professional' to use effectively. Also, these other products haven't provided the ability to roll the GASB 34 activity forward to the new year. Several governments have indicated they keep track of their GASB 34 activity 'off-line' and plug into spreadsheets at then end. CAFR-2000 is designed to allow the user to make the original establishment of the GASB 34 basis and roll that activity forward each year, then doing any appropriate reversals and JEs for any new activity effectively becoming their GASB 34 G/L. We don't know of another product that provides all of the features that CAFR-2000 does in such a standard, convenient and consistant manner. We of course reiterate the fact that we do not know of everything available, but we do try to keep up with as much as possible.

Q:  How can CAFR-2000 save me time & money on my audit?
A:  There is of course no guarantee that you will save any money on your audit but you should see some time & effort savings which some clients have told us has saved them money. Some of our clients have told us because of the ease of getting info out of, and the history and tracking of JEs in CAFR-2000 has simplified the audit. Some have also indicated they produce all of the work papers for their auditors with CAFR-2000. Some clients have stated that on their next RFP for the audit the capabilities of CAFR-2000 will have to be taken in to consideration and as such they expect their next fixed price engagement to be less money.

Q:  We have already developed our reports in Excel and converted to GASB-34, what benefit would there be in moving to CAFR-2000?
A:  As time goes on we are hearing from more and more finance departments that the Excel spreadsheets get harder to manage from year to year especially after the GASB-34 conversion. Many governments have already converted and probably submitted to GFOA their first GASB-34 statements. What you may find in the second year is that the production of the Entity-wide statements isn't as easy as you may have wanted because the previous year's GASB-34 entries/info is not in a convenient place for manipulation or retrieval. CAFR-2000 actually becomes your GASB-34 G/L and keeps all of the activity in the same database for convenient access and reporting. Remember GASB-34 is a separate basis of accounting and most other software packages are not designed to keep more than one basis of accounting BUT CAFR-2000 is. The bottom line is that as Excel spreadsheets become more difficult to manage over time CAFR-2000 becomes easier.

Q:  I already have Crystal Reports , can't I do everything that CAFR-2000 does with that?
A:  Possibly,we don't know all of the capabilities or limitations of Crystal Reports. There are many features that we have added to CAFR-2000 that are specifically designed to assist you in preparing your data for financial reporting such as a full journal entry process. The biggest issue with developing a similar application in Crystal would be just that, DEVELOPING. You in a sense would be going thru a complete project development process such as we have done in creating CAFR-2000. We just recently talked with an entity that has a data processing support staff that wants to do this for them, they told us that their people have given them an estimate of 600 hours to develop the reports but didn't have a time extimate on building the Crystal database or getting the data into the Crystal Reports system. We feel that this type of endeavor may not be the best use of an entity's time and resources as we have not heard of any of our clients spending any where near this amount of time to implement CAFR-2000.

Q:  If I were to use CAFR-2000 when is the best time to implement & how long should it take?
A:  As in most software products there can be many factors involved in deciding this issue. We believe the best time to implement is as soon as possible after completing your most current CAFR prior to changing to GASB-34. We would like to see you parallel your last CAFR as there are known values to work to and the prior year numbers will be very valuable in taking full advantage of the things CAFR-2000 can assist you with. Many things can affect the time to set up and implement CAFR-2000. The number of funds and detail that you decide to import into CAFR-2000, the number of people and hours you are willing to commit to the project and how well you understand the reporting changes will impact setup time. Setup will be more tedious for some than others as we have found there are no two entities the same. We want to see you get off to a good start so you will realize the most 'time and effort' savings in the future as possible, ideally we don't want to see you wait till the last minute.

Q:  My linked spreadsheets seem to work just fine, what advantage would CAFR-2000 have?
A:  One of the most common comments we get from our users is that when they go to parallel the prior year's data they quite often can't reproduce the exact results that they published in their last CAFR. The reason for this is usually because at the last minute they make some change and just 'plug' the numbers, if you use CAFR-2000 you would have to go out of your way to by-pass the system, otherwise a complete trail & history is in the system to show how all of your numbers were derived.

Q:  Are CAFR-2000's reports 'canned' or pre-defined?
A:  No, CAFR-2000 provides the user the ability to define their reports exactly the way they want to see them. We have found thru many years of experience, that although the format for the CAFR reports is standard in nature, that no two entities present their reports exactly the same.

Q:  Will CAFR-2000 create the note disclosures?
A:  CAFR-2000 allows the user the ability to create the financial report part of a note discosure. In the case of a small note the verbage can be placed in the report also, in the case of notes with a large amount of verbage one might want to create the dialog part of the note in WORD and link or copy the financial part to the doc.

Q:  What is CAFR-2000™?
A:  CAFR-2000 is a state-of-the-art report presentation tool, designed exclusively for governments and public entities, so that preparation of the financial statements for the CAFR should be easier, less time consuming and camera ready.

Q:  Is CAFR-2000 a spreadsheet?
A:  No. CAFR-2000 has some features of a spreadsheet and utilizes Microsoft® Excel in the final report presentation, but is actually a database program that stores a government’s accounting data for any number of years and reports on that data based on the user’s specifications.

Q:  If CAFR-2000 utilizes MS Excel how would I benefit by using CAFR-2000 instead of setting up my own linked spreadsheets?
A:  CAFR-2000 provides a more cohesive and comprehensive manner with which to produce reports. Linked spreadsheets can be cumbersome and complicated to maintain when changes need to be made such as required by GASB Statement No. 34. Changes in any CAFR-2000 report will not affect any other report. CAFR-2000 has been specifically designed to have the report definitions be mostly generic in nature, in other words by following our recommendations on set-up one user can leverage another user’s report definitions with a minimal amount of modification.

Q:  Does CAFR-2000 comply with GASB Statement No. 34?
A:  CAFR-2000 provides specific adjustment journals in which to record your adjustments to take your numbers from the modified accrual basis to the full accrual basis as required by GASB Statement No.34. Any other reporting requirements can be met thru proper report definitions.

Q:  Will CAFR-2000 help me in a Certificate program?
A:  Although CAFR-2000 cannot guarantee success in any certificate program, it can certainly help. The whole design of the system is to make it easier to create reports that conform to certain standards and require less maintenance year to year. We also feel that by using the 'Properties' in our system as they are designed will cause the user to think more about where and how some accounts are used in their accounting system and possibly cause changes there that can only help keep track of things better.

Q:  Is CAFR-2000 only for CAFR financial reports?
A:  No. CAFR-2000 is specifically aimed at the financial professional preparing a document for publication, but it will work very well for anyone needing to prepare their general purpose financial statements. We have one client that has loaded 10 years of history so that it will be easy to look at any particular spending history/pattern when it comes to budget time.

Q:  Does CAFR-2000 give me a way to report several funds as one?
A:  Yes. CAFR-2000 allows the user to group or roll together any number of funds or accounts as the user see necessary.

Q:  How does CAFR-2000 work?
A:  CAFR-2000 allows you to maintain a database of your chart of accounts (or some summarized version of your chart of accounts) identifying each account, by account number and a series of ‘properties’ describing how those accounts are used for reporting purposes. This database is structured to hold and maintain, in a broad sense, three sets of books. You can bring into CAFR-2000 your ‘cash’ basis numbers, if applicable, make the necessary journal entries to take those numbers to the ‘modified accrual’ basis and then make the appropriate journal entries to take them to the ‘full accrual’ basis. These three sets of numbers reside in the database concurrently allowing you to report on any set of numbers for any accounting period in any year. The subsequent execution of a report definition will place information from your database into an Excel spreadsheet that is nearly camera ready for producing you CAFR.

Q:  Is CAFR-2000 an accounting system?
A:  No. CAFR-2000 has several functions and features that operate very similar to an accounting system but these are provided only to facilitate the efficient storage and retrieval of all the data regarding any particular account you wish to place on a report. They also help in keeping the data in sync i.e. journal entries to show adjustments to accounts, both debits & credits so as not to let a fund get out of balance.

Q:  What are the system requirements for CAFR-2000 ?
A:  Answer: CAFR-2000 will run on Windows® 98/ME/NT4.0/2000 with approx. 25 Megabytes of free disk space, for best results we recommend a system with a Pentium III or AMD Athalon class processor of 500mhz or higher and 128 Megabytes of RAM or more. As in most things relating to computers, size and quantity effect performance, the larger and faster your computer the better the performance. Please view the System Specifications page for more detail.

Q:  How much training does CAFR-2000 require?
A:  CAFR-2000 provides a manual describing the steps necessary to start using the software and how to use each function. CAFR-2000 is like any other software product, the amount of training required will be dependant on the prospective user's computer literacy and knowledge of how the financial reports are supposed to be structured and time table that you wish to be up and running. We have attempted to provide a product that requires no on-site training, but as in anything else personal guidance will be more effective. We provide three levels of training options: 1. Remote Training - live WebEx session spanning approximately 8 weeks, 2. On-site Training - personnel from our office will come to your site and over a period of 2 or 3 days instruct your staff, using your real data, in the use of the software (requires some telephone set up time prior to the actual training), 3. Custom Setup & Training - Our staff will perform the majority of fund level setup for you and the conduct an on-site training as described above. As these are options and not required we do recommend at the least the Remote Training. Proper setup and sufficient training will greatly enhance the success and long use of the product.