Footnotes

Merritt Research Services recently added the Community College sector to CreditScope. This enhancement includes financial data for over 200 standard credits in the Community College sector. These credits had been included in the Public Higher Ed sector prior to this change. If you are not seeing this information in CreditScope, please check the date of your most recent software system update by clicking on the [Help] button on the top menu bar of your screen. Then, click on [About CreditScope]. In the resulting pop-up box, check the line that reads: "Invest.exe date." In order to see this...

Category: CreditScope, Merritt Data

Merritt Research Services recently enhanced the "Taxpayers" data available in CreditScope. We now have the ability to provide data for more than one year for the Top Ten Taxpayers. The user has the option to view the Top Ten Taxpayers by clicking on Taxpayers to see data for all years of Top Ten Taxpayers or clicking on the hyperlink "Most Recent Taxpayer Summary" which will only show data for the most recent year. The Top Ten Taxpayers data will be stored under "Taxpayer" in the Credit Detail Screen. With this revision, Merritt will begin to provide historical data for Taxpayers in the...

Category: CreditScope, Merritt Data

Merritt Research Services recently added the following fields to CreditScope for Pension Data and will be providing data on these fields respectively: Total Percent Contributed of ARC for all pension plans in the City, County, School District, Special District and State sectors. Total Participants in each Pension Plan with the following breakout: Employee Participants, Retiree & Beneficiary Participants and Terminated Employee Participants, along with the ratio "% Retiree Participants". The Participants will be provided for single employer pension plans in the City, County, School...

Category: CreditScope, Merritt Data

A reporting entity uses the regulatory basis of accounting when the entity is subject to a governmental regulatory agency's jurisdiction. The regulatory basis of accounting is a comprehensive basis of accounting other than accounting principles generally accepted in the United States. Regulatory basis accounting rules and guidelines vary from one regulatory agency to another. The regulatory basis of accounting is used in about four percent of the City, County and School District credits in CreditScope. The majority of the regulatory basis of accounting credits in CreditScope are put in...

Category: Accounting

Merritt Research Services recently released its 2013 municipal audit timing report, revealing that, on the whole, municipal bond issuers continue to substantially lag their corporate counterparts in completing their annual audited financial statements. As in the past, this year's audit timing study also continued to show a significant variance among municipal bond sectors - and among individual issuers within each sector. While relatively slow audit times among municipal bond issuers has been a longstanding complaint in the municipal bond market, the concern is being echoed in even wider...

Category: Report, Merritt Data

The modified cash basis of accounting is a hybrid of accrual and cash basis accounting. Modified cash basis uses the cash basis of accounting but then modifies certain aspects of the cash basis of accounting. For example, using the modified cash basis of accounting, an entity may choose to capitalize property, plant, and equipment and record depreciation expense and accumulated depreciation. In a pure cash basis, depreciation and accumulated depreciation would not be recognized, but a cash disbursement would be shown on the income statement for the property, plant and equipment that was...

Category: Accounting

Merritt Research Services has added more demographic data to CreditScope from the U.S. Census Bureau. The demographic data added under the Census Bureau includes Births & Deaths, Migration, and Birthplace Data. The Births & Deaths section includes the number of births and deaths for a specific year, along with the natural increase which is derived from subtracting deaths from births. Migration Data includes the total net migration in or out of the specific geography and is further broken down into international and domestic migration for a specific geography. Birthplace Data...

Category: CreditScope, Demographics, Merritt Data

Infrastructure assets are long-lasting capital assets that add value to land and tend to be part of a larger system. Some common types of infrastructure assets are bridges, dams, tunnels, streets, sidewalks, water mains, and lighting systems. Infrastructure assets are accounted for under capital assets as either non-depreciable, depreciable or both. The approach for reporting infrastructure assets can vary from one government to another, as allowed by accounting standards. Infrastructure assets can be reported using the following approaches: Traditional Depreciation Approach -...

Category: Accounting, CreditScope

Merritt Research Services has recently acquired updated information related to the Generating Units detail included in the Power Info on the Credit Detail Screen for Retail Electric and Wholesale Electric credits. This data is sourced from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, a statistical agency housed under the U.S. Department of Energy. The following fields are available for Generating Units: GU ID, GU Name, Unit Code, Type, Source, Op Status, MW Nameplate, I.S. Year, MW Util-Owned, and %Util-Owned. A more detailed description for each of these fields is available by right- clicking...

Category: CreditScope, Merritt Data

Cash basis of accounting recognizes revenue at the time when cash has been received, and recognizes expenses when cash has been paid. Cash revenues may not be recorded at the same time that expenses were used to raise those revenues. For example, an entity may not have received cash for performing a service during a specific reporting period, but may have incurred expenses that will result in future cash revenues to be reported during a later reporting period. Or, in another instance, an entity might receive a cash payment for services rendered during a particular reporting period, but has...

Category: Accounting