What does management's discussion and analysis mean on the CPA exam?
Management's discussion and analysis. A narrative overview management provides ahead of the financial statements. For a government it is required supplementary information, not part of the audited statements.
Defined against GASB 34.
Which CPA exam sections use management's discussion and analysis?
Management's discussion and analysis appears in the BAR section of the CPA exam.
Other terms defined against GASB 34
- capital assets: In GOVERNMENTAL reporting, long-lived assets such as land, buildings and infrastructure.
- enterprise fund: A proprietary fund used where a government charges outside users for goods or services, run on the full accrual basis like a business.
- full accrual: Recognizing revenue when earned and expense when incurred, and reporting every asset and liability including long-term ones.
- governmental activities: The part of a government's operations financed mainly by taxes rather than by fees, reported on the government-wide statements on the full accrual basis.
- governmental funds: The funds that account for tax-supported activity, reported on the modified accrual basis with a current financial resources focus.
- internal service fund: A proprietary fund that supplies goods or services to other parts of the same government on a cost-reimbursement basis, such as a motor pool.
- modified accrual: The basis for governmental fund statements: revenue when measurable and available, expenditure when the liability is incurred.
- required supplementary information: Schedules a government must present outside the basic statements, such as budgetary comparisons and pension trend data.
Other names for management's discussion and analysis
MD and A, MD&A
Related terms
- financial statements: The formal set an entity publishes: balance sheet, income statement, statement of cash flows, statement of changes in equity, and the notes.
- variance analysis: Splitting the gap between budget and actual into causes, typically price and quantity, so that the responsibility for each can be located.
- other information: Financial and non-financial information included in the annual report outside the audited statements.
- management's specialist: An expert management uses to help prepare the financial statements, such as an actuary or an appraiser.
- analytical procedures: Evaluations of financial information by studying plausible relationships among financial and nonfinancial data.
- description of the system: Management's account of the service it provides and the controls around it.