Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting (COA) Program

Awards

Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting (COA) Program

The GFOA established the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting Program (COA) in 1945 to encourage and assist state and local governments to go beyond the minimum requirements of generally accepted accounting principles to prepare annual comprehensive financial reports that evidence the spirit of transparency and full disclosure and then to recognize individual governments that succeed in achieving that goal. The goal of the program is not to assess the financial health of participating governments, but rather to ensure that users of their financial statements have the information they need to do so themselves.

Important Announcements

  • Turn Around Time: The COA program’s objective is to complete reviews within six months of receiving applications. However, a backlog had developed as a result of the implementation of the Awards Management System and due to unusual submission/review patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic that have lengthened the turnaround time for our award decisions. Our recent turnaround time has been averaging up to and sometimes over eight months; however, we are now successfully working through the backlog. While it is expected to take a few years to completely eliminate the backlog, please know that we are progressing toward – and are committed to – timely award decisions. Thank you for your patience as we resolve this temporary backlog.
  • Calculation of the Net Investment in Capital Assets Requirement: Please note that GFOA’s Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting Award Program (COA) will begin requiring all applicants to submit the calculation of the net investment in capital assets they report for governmental activities and business-type activities, as applicable, on their government-wide statements of net position. The requirement will be effective for all COA applications submitted on or after March 1, 2022. For more information, please see the letter the letter that was recently sent to program participants. The calculation of the net investment in capital assets submission may be made in any appropriate format and a calculation template is available.
  • If you receive the below error message when attempting to log into the AMS Forms page or Repository Laserfiche page (and you have successfully logged in previously), please try clearing your browser's cache/cookies. Use a new web browser. Microsoft Edge doesn’t work with our system. We recommend using Firefox or Chrome. Use either of the following links to access our system directly : https://lf.gfoa.org/Forms (AMS forms) or https://lf.gfoa.org/laserfiche (Repository Laserfiche Page). If the issue persists, kindly use the Contact Us form for further assistance. Your patience is greatly appreciated!

Program Information

Using GFOA’s Awards Management System

Certificate applications are processed through GFOA’s Awards Management System (AMS). Each government submits its annual comprehensive financial report and application in the AMS and retrieves its results in the system once the review is completed.

Reviewer Information

  • Become a Reviewer

    Learn More

  • Update Your Volunteer Profile and Preferences

    Update

  • Completing Reviews Using GFOA's Awards Management System

    View Instructions

  • Current members of the Special Review Executive Committee

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  • FY2023 COA Volunteer Reviewers

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Note: For logging in to the AMS, a volunteer reviewer’s username is his or her GFOA member number. See FAQs for more information.

List of Winners

GFOA congratulates the award winners for preparing an Annual Comprehensive Financial Report that meets the strict requirements for the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting

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Related Award Programs

If you have questions about the Certificate Program or about the AMS, please contact GFOA.

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