Preconference Seminars

Arrive Early and Maximize Your Learning with These Focused Sessions

Preconference Seminars will take place on Friday, June 26 and Saturday, June 27 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago (151 E. Wacker Drive). 

Ready to plan your preconference sessions? We’ve organized tracks to make it easy. Stick with a track or mix and match sessions to fit your goals. Every option delivers insights you can put to work immediately. Click here to view Preconference Tracks.

Register here for Preconference Seminars, the full conference, and Tuesday’s Finale Event in one streamlined process. Click here to view seminar fees. 

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Back to Basics: An Overview of Personnel Budgeting

1:00 pm–5:00 pm | 4 CPE Credits | Hyatt Regency Chicago

For many organizations, the complexity of personnel budgeting is compounded by legacy administrative systems, competing stakeholder interests, unique rules, high visibility, uncertainty, and the overall size of the budget. However, not all governments struggle. GFOA has released updated best practices on this topic to help guide finance professionals.

In this session, speakers will discuss the importance of an organized position control structure and strategies for collaboration between finance, budget, human resources, payroll, and other departments. They will also explore ways to simplify budgeting related to salaries and wages, overtime, benefits, taxes, leave, retirement, and more.

This session will cover how to address common personnel budgeting challenges when preparing the current operating budget, offer tips for monitoring and managing expenses throughout the year, and provide considerations for performing long-term planning scenarios to inform future decisions.

Choose Your Own Adventure: A Guide for Managing Internal Services

1:00 pm–5:00 pm | 4 CPE Credits | Hyatt Regency Chicago

Along the journey to establish policies and procedures, finance professionals face a series of challenging decisions related to managing internal services—the activities a government undertakes to support its own operations. While there are no clear right or wrong answers, the strategy chosen will have implications for budgeting, financial reporting, and ongoing management of these functions.

This session will feature an interactive discussion on the pros and cons of establishing internal charges, deciding whether to create separate funds, selecting appropriate cost allocation and budgeting strategies, and communicating these decisions across the organization.

Attend this session to explore different options for managing internal services such as finance, procurement, information technology, fleet management, and more. Learn about the advantages and disadvantages of each approach and identify the best path forward for your organization’s internal services strategy.

Establishing, Enhancing, and Effectuating Your Debt Policy

1:00 pm–5:00 pm | 4 CPE Credits | Hyatt Regency Chicago

GFOA recommends that every government develop a debt policy to guide its debt issuance and management practices. This session will help governments create, evaluate, and refine the key elements of their debt management policies and practices.

Speakers will focus on developing a debt policy for planning debt issuance (primarily for capital projects), understanding the right debt products for your needs, selecting key professionals to assist with issuance (such as municipal advisors, bond counsel, and underwriters), choosing issuance methods and bond structures, and meeting federal tax and disclosure requirements.

Attend this session to learn how these essential elements interact with market practices and discover ways to incorporate GFOA’s Best Practices into your debt management program.

Talk ACFR To Me

1:00 pm–5:00 pm | 4 CPE Credits | Hyatt Regency Chicago

Communicating financial information with both internal and external audiences can be a challenging task for staff preparing an Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR). While incredibly detailed, the ACFR format is not always user-friendly for non-accountants.

This session will explore how the ACFR can be used to tell your government’s story. Speakers will provide an overview of the ACFR, focusing on the Management’s Discussion and Analysis (MD&A), government-wide statements, governmental and proprietary fund financial statements, and the statistical section.

Attend this session to better understand the current ACFR structure, how it has evolved, its limitations, and how governments can improve both their ACFR and other financial disclosures, such as the Popular Annual Financial Report (PAFR) and web-based dashboards. Speakers will also discuss the MD&A content requirements under GASB Statement No. 103, Financial Reporting Model Improvements.

Bye-Bye, Big, Boring Budget Books: Hello, Compelling, Concise, Clear Communications!

8:30 am–12:30 pm | 4 CPE Credits | Hyatt Regency Chicago

For years, local governments have communicated their budgets using the same basic format: a comprehensive budget book that includes summaries of revenues and expenditures by fund and department, lists of positions by department, expenditures broken down by department and line item, and a collection of other information, including financial policies, capital plans, department business plan summaries, community demographic information, economic trends, and more. This approach emphasizes comprehensive transparency but lacks a narrative structure that effectively tells the story of how the budget will impact the community.

This session will challenge you to rethink your organization's approach to its budget document and highlight the importance of answering simple budget questions using a clear, direct approach.

Caution! Construction Ahead: Navigating Complex Infrastructure Projects

8:30 am–12:30 pm | 4 CPE Credits | Hyatt Regency Chicago

Building and maintaining core infrastructure—such as roads, stormwater systems, water treatment plants, and parks—is an important responsibility for many governments. However, complex construction projects like these are risky and challenging, and finance professionals need to be prepared through thoughtful planning, effective communication, and strong project management practices.

Speakers will share case study examples and provide the knowledge needed to plan and manage multi-million-dollar infrastructure projects from the earliest conceptual stage through completion. Attend this session to learn strategies for securing funding, managing funding schedules, navigating complex procurement requirements, overseeing suppliers and contractors, collaborating with other government partners, and communicating effectively with the public.

Leading Beyond the Ledger: Building Leadership Skills for Finance Teams

8:30 am–12:30 pm | 4 CPE Credits | Hyatt Regency Chicago

Technical skills are the foundation of our work in government, but true effectiveness requires the ability to lead, influence, and implement best practices. Leadership competencies—such as excellence in communication, team building, and self-awareness—are essential for guiding teams and shaping decisions. These skills empower finance professionals to become trusted advisors and drive positive change within their organizations.

This session will help you define what leadership means in your organization and show you how to develop a custom set of leadership competencies tailored to your needs. Through practical examples and hands-on learning, you’ll leave equipped to build a leadership curriculum that supports both individual growth and organizational success.

Enterprise Funds Untangled

1:00 pm–5:00 pm | 4 CPE Credits | Hyatt Regency Chicago

Typically, governments operate very differently from private businesses, utilizing tax revenue and producing public goods and services rather than focusing on specific customers. However, governments must also manage enterprise operations that resemble private businesses—acquiring and managing customers, determining pricing strategies, collecting payments, and maintaining appropriate profit margins.

This session will focus on the strategies and tools that finance professionals and other leaders need to manage enterprise funds, including accounting and financial reporting, budgeting, marketing, communications, and customer service. Using examples of successful and unsuccessful enterprise funds, speakers will share insights on when to establish an enterprise fund, policies for setting fees, issuing debt, and managing business-like activities.

The session will also highlight the financial reporting changes governments will need to implement for fiscal years ending June 30, 2026, and later, to comply with GASB Statement No. 103, Financial Reporting Model Improvements.

Managing a Procurement Upgrade

1:00 pm–5:00 pm | 4 CPE Credits | Hyatt Regency Chicago

Public procurement is often misunderstood. While frequently viewed as a back-office function focused on navigating complex rules and time-consuming processes, it has the potential to be much more valuable. Leading organizations understand that modern procurement is a strategic function that can work across the entire organization to improve efficiency, risk management, access, business continuity, and customer service, both internally and externally.

In this session, speakers will provide case study examples demonstrating how governments of all sizes and types can benefit from strategically upgrading their procurement function. Learn the skill sets necessary to succeed in a modern procurement office and discover how to transform your procurement function to focus on outcomes, become a strategic partner within the organization, improve relationships with suppliers and community partners, and add value at all levels of government.

Rethink Your Budget Structure: Developing a Program Inventory

1:00 pm–5:00 pm | 4 CPE Credits | Hyatt Regency Chicago

The traditional government budget categorizes spending by line items such as “salaries and wages,” “materials and supplies,” or “professional services” and groups spending by department. While these categories can be useful for preparing financial reports or monitoring expenditures, they do not show how the government is using the public’s tax dollars to provide value to the community.

Assigning funding to programs or specific services, instead, promotes meaningful conversations about how best to allocate the government’s limited resources and how changes in service levels will impact desired outcomes. GFOA encourages governments to adopt a program-based approach to budgeting by first developing a program inventory—a comprehensive list of all the programs or services the organization provides.

This session will define key concepts in program budgeting, provide practical tools for starting your program inventory, and offer strategies for introducing this approach in your government, helping you move toward better budgeting and improved budget communications.

Looking to maximize your learning? Our subject matter experts have organized preconference tracks to make planning easy. Whether you follow a track or mix and match sessions, you’ll gain actionable ideas to bring back to your team and organization immediately.