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The Model Financial Statements (MFS) guidance material/templates includes tiered and reduced financial reporting for local governments aligned with the State Government’s reform agenda.

This reduces the annual reporting burden for local governments, particularly smaller local governments.

The MFS incorporates the reporting requirements under the Australian Accounting Standards and Local Government (Financial Management) Regulations. However, the size of the local government will determine whether there is a requirement to report on all the activities or whether sections that are not applicable are to be removed.

The MFS are based on proposed regulation changes that are currently being drafted, with gazettal anticipated by 30 June 2023, and provide a reduced version for smaller local governments. They are provided in pdf and excel versions.

The MFS are a guide to the common functions and activities of local government, therefore, all local governments will still need to review their version, and:

• add any transactions or activities not covered
• remove any sections that might not be applicable, for example investment property.

The guidance materials to support financial statement preparation have been published as a reference guide to the MFS.