NEW COMPATIBILITY WITH WINDOWS 7 AVAILABLE
3/26/11 Changes to AuditWare's installation procedure have made AuditWare usable "out of the box" for at least one version of Windows 7, thanks to a new version of AuditWare Utilities now available for download. Both Lotus 1-2-3 and the AuditWare program now install and run without the user needing to make changes to file properties or do other edits when running the 32 bit, professional version of Windows 7. All new installation disks mailed from the AuditWare company or created by users after installing the new utilities will have the new capability.

NEW "OPTIMUM FUND BALANCE" SCHEDULE FOR TEXAS SCHOOLS NOT EFFECTIVE TILL 2011
10/18/10 Update 14 of the Texas Education Agency's Resource Guide contains a new "Fund Balance and Cash Flow Calculation Worksheet" with a new line 12 and a two month average of cash disbursements on line 5. Be aware that this new schedule is NOT EFFECTIVE UNTIL FISCAL YEAR 2011! The old schedule is to be used this year per Paul Moreno and Rita Chase of the TEA. However, schools wanting to use the two-month average on line 5 may do so without TEA criticism, per Paul Moreno.

GENERAL UPDATE OF ALL PRODUCTS IN THE MAIL
10/15/10 An update of all products dated 10/15/10 is being mailed today on CDs to users of all AuditWare products.

GENERAL UPDATE OF ALL PRODUCTS IN THE MAIL
10/21/09 An update of all products dated 10/17/09 is being mailed today on CDs to users of all AuditWare products.

MAILING OUT FOR PDF CONVERSION SERVICE
10/12/09 Today we mailed out the forms necessary for submitting audit reports to us for converting into PDF files and submission to the Texas Education Agency. If your firm didn't get one, give us a call and we'll email you a copy.

SEFA SCHEDULE REVISED
9/30/09 The processes surrounding the Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA) have been changed to allow identification of non-cash federal assistance. This was prompted by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) establishing separate federal program codes (K-Codes) for the cash and non-cash amounts of four federal programs related to food service and providing a seminar this summer suggesting how they could be presented on the SEFA. AuditWare will not be fully implementing their suggested presentation this year but will monitor it to see if it is made official (required) next year. Some of the problems with their presentation are that it does not deal with a subtotal for each CFDA, nor for each pass-through entity. It totals to the cluster, but there are a number of other clusters thoughout the SEFA which have differing characteristics.

The current changes included in the updates of the AuditWare Engine and the Audit I.S.D. product yesterday allow for differentiation of cash and non-cash amounts by adding "(Non-cash) to the titles of non-cash amounts when entering data in the FieldWork SEFA Input (under GoTo, Input, Other_Input). Also, a new setting has been added to the Individual Fund category of settings for omitting a fund from the SEFA. This allows for entering the cash and non-cash amounts in the SEFA input and not have the trial balance duplicate that data.

GENERAL UPDATE OF ALL PRODUCTS IN THE MAIL
8/31/09 An update of all products dated 8/30/09 is being mailed today on CDs to users of all AuditWare products.

TEXAS SCHOOL "K-CODE" LIST UPDATED
8/20/09 The list of "K-Codes" used by Texas school districts on the SEFA, Exhibit K-1, has been updated by TEA as of August 19th. See the Documents for Download section of the Downloads page for the list in either PDF or Excel format.

"PRODUCT YEAR" CHANGED TO 2009 FOR ALL AUDITWARE PRODUCTS
4/1/09 The "product year" was changed to 2009 and passwords established for all three AuditWare products and updates of each product dated 4/1/09 were published to this site (see the Downloads page). Since the version numbers of the products represent how many years they have been in existence, it is notable that some of them turned over some pretty big milestones. AuditWare for California School Districts turned 10. AuditWare for Local Governments turned 12 and Audit I.S.D. for Texas School Districts turned 20 years old!

ANNUAL RENEWALS FOR ALG PRODUCT DUE APRIL 30TH
3/30/09 Statements were mailed in today for the annual renewal fee for users of AuditWare for Local Governments (ALG). Renewals are due by the end of April. If you have misplaced your statement, let us know and we'll fax you another copy.

SEVERAL INTERESTING AUDITWARE CHANGES LATELY
2/16/09 While AuditWare doesn't get a lot of use this time of year by auditors, we have been busy lately adding features and improving processes. The AuditWare Engine has been updated 7 times so far since January 1st. See the "Engine Changes" page for details.

ANNUAL RENEWALS FOR SCHOOL DISTRICT PRODUCTS DUE JANUARY 31ST
1/21/09 Statements were mailed in early January for the annual renewal fee for users of AuditWare's two school district products, Audit I.S.D. for Texas School Districts and AuditWare for California School Districts. Renewals for both products are due by the end of the month. If you have misplaced your statement, let us know and we'll fax you another copy.

TEA REQUIRING GASB 45 IMPLEMENTATION THIS YEAR
11/7/08 We have just learned that the Texas Education Agency is requiring all school districts to implement GASB 45 (OPEB) this year! Click here to see the memo from Rita Chase regarding the matter on the TEA web site. Click here to see the suggested note disclosures posted on the TRS web site. We have revised AuditWare today to add that note, as well as adding associated questions to the questionnaire. An update to our Audit I.S.D for Texas School Districts product is now available on the Downloads page. An updated AuditWare Engine will also be required.

Paul Shaw called Rita Chase, TEA's Director of Financial Audits, today to ask whether TEA will require this year's audit reports to be revised and resubmitted if they do not include the GASB 45 disclosure. She replied that those districts will receive a comment to the effect of "be sure it is included next year" but they will not require a revision and resubmission this year.

VISTA INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS POSTED
10/18/08 We have added a document to the Downloads page providing instructions for installing AuditWare when using the new "Vista" version of Windows. See the final document under "Documents for Download." It is in PDF format.

INFO ABOUT PDF SERVICE IN THE MAIL
9/29/08 Recently we sent out information and order forms for our service which converts the annual audit report for a Texas school district into PDF format and then submits it to the Texas Education Association's T.E.A.S.E. website.

SUCCESSFUL AUDITWARE SEMINARS ARE A WRAP
8/20/08 We have completed another successful round of seminars and we thank all of you who attended. Seminars were held this year in two California locations and eight Texas locations.

FIRST OFFICIAL AUDITWARE SHIPMENT OF 2008 IN THE WORKS
5/29/08 Within a few days we will be mailing  out CDs to our clients containing all products for which their 2008 renewal fee has been paid. This is the first official version of 2008.

2008 SEMINAR REGISTRATIONS POURING IN
5/12/08 Our clients must like our new half-day seminars at a reduced price as well as our locations, since our registrations to date for this summer's seminars are considerably above last year's at this point. Later this week we hope to send out our official mailing promoting the seminars.

2008 CLIENT YEAR ESTABLISHED FOR ALL PRODUCTS
4/15/08 The ability to change the client year to 2008 has now been enacted for our Audit I.S.D. for Texas School Districts product, our AuditWare for California School Districts product, and our AuditWare for Local Governments product and passwords established for all.

TEXAS DATAFEED SUBMISSIONS NOW FUNCTIONAL
12/22/07 The Texas Education Agency notified us by email today that their "Sybase" system has been reprogrammed and will now accept submissions of datafeed files from Texas school districts.

TEXAS DATAFEED SUBMISSIONS TEMPORARILY INOPERABLE
12/18/07 The Texas Education Agency announced today that users will get an "invalid schedule" error message when attempting to submit a datafeed file on it's "TEASE" web site until they are able to correct a computer programming problem. They are hopeful the problem will be solved by January 2, 2008. The submission of PDF files is not affected by this problem.

MAJOR NEW FEATURE BENEFITS AUDITWARE USERS ON A NETWORK
12/2/07 A major new feature has been added in support of storing and accessing AuditWare client "archive" files on a remote computer in a computer network environment. AuditWare now prevents a network user from opening a client which is already in use by another network user. See "AuditWare Engine Updates" this date for more information.

TEXAS DATAFEED SUBMISSION REVISED FOR J-1
11/29/07 We received an e-mail today from Paul Moreno of the Texas Education Agency's Financial Audit Division announcing a revision in the requirements for the annual datafeed submission by Texas school districts to the TEA. The change is that column 31 of the last line of Exhibit J-1, The Delinquent Tax Schedule, is now included in the datafeed file. That line has a data control code of 9000 and reports the portion of line 1000 paid into Tax Increment Zone under the Chapter 311 tax code. It is not applicable to all schools. The change is NOT retroactive. Files previously submitted will not have to be resubmitted as long as that line was included in the hard copy of the audit report and the PDF submission.

An update of the AuditWare Engine which includes this change was posted to the Downloads Page today. The Audit I.S.D. product will need to be downloaded as well unless you already have installed that version.

CALIFORNIA CONTROLLER REVISES THIS YEAR'S AUDIT REPORT
11/27/07 A letter from the California State Controller dated October 31, 2007 addressed to all K-12 LEAs revises the Schedule of Instructional time for this year's audit reports. The letter states "Section 19824(a)(7) of the audit guide requires that the instructional minutes listed on the Schedule of Instructional Time be shown by grade level instead of grade span. For example, the grade span of Grades 1-3 should now be shown individually as Grade 1, Grade 2, and Grade 3, with accompanying instructional minutes for each grade level." The default version of that schedule was also revised within AuditWare with an update of the California School District product published today. Thanks to Steve Yribarren of Jorge and Yribarren, CPAs in Selma, Ca for making us aware of this change and faxing us a copy of the letter.

TEXAS SEMINARS ARE HISTORY by Paul Shaw
8/7/07 Dolly and I arrived home in Phoenix yesterday after almost a month on the road. We had a great time seeing so many clients and friends at the Texas seminars in San Antonio, Longview, Weslaco, Corpus Christi, College Station, Fort Worth and Lubbock. In many of those cities we had two days of seminars. After the seminars we spent almost a week with my brother John and his wife Judy in Ruidoso, New Mexico before finally getting home.

CALIFORNIA SEMINARS ARE HISTORY by Paul Shaw
7/2/07 We had a great time at the California workshops! Dolly and I went one day early to the Tuesday San Diego seminar and enjoyed Mexican food in Old Town, a trip to La Jolla and shopping (and seafood) in Seaport Village. After the Visalia seminar on Thursday, we took a day or two on the California coast. We visited the Hearst castle and spent the night in San Simeon, took a drive up the Route 1 highway, looked at the Elephant seals on the way, backtracked to the South and checked out Morro Bay (delightful) and generally had a great time. On the way back to Phoenix we stopped for one night at Laughlin, NV and had a good time at the Golden Nugget. Not as fancy as Las Vegas but we liked the more small-town atmosphere. -- Paul

GENERAL MAILING IN PROGRESS
6/14/07 A general mailing to all AuditWare users who have paid their 2007 renewal fee began today with the shipment of the official 2007 versions of all AuditWare products on CDs. These are the same versions as are available for download on our web site, except that they are imbedded with the password for changing the year to 2007. Printed user manuals will be shipped under separate cover by Monday, June 18th.

SAS NO. 112 IMPLEMENTED IN AUDITWARE TODAY
6/9/07 Major changes were made today to the second and third auditor report to implement SAS No. 112, Communicating Internal Control Related Matters Identified In An Audit. The term "significant deficiency" is now used instead of "reportable condition" and is defined differently. The term "material weakness" is still used but it is also defined differently than before. The statement is required to be implemented for periods ending December 31, 2006 and later. If you are still working on an audit from an earlier date and have not yet created and finalized the auditor reports, it is important that you not install AuditWare versions dated today or later until you are finished with that audit report.

The single audit major program report provides somewhat of a quandary for auditors. At this writing the OMB has not provided or approved the wording for that report although the AICPA has provided a draft of the wording with the OMB's permission. PPC is recommending that the issuance of the report be delayed, if possible, until the OMB approves of the wording, but if that is not possible or practical, to use the AICPA's draft available on AICPA's web site as the wording. It is this draft wording which is being made a part of AuditWare today. We will either update AuditWare when an official version changes it, or let you know that the draft has become the official version.

NEW SCHEDULE REQUIRED IN CALIFORNIA AUDIT REPORTS
6/9/07 The 2006-07 K-12 Audit Guide calls for a schedule called "Local Education Agency Organization Structure." and that schedule was added to AuditWare today. It is similar to the one required prior to 2004 called simply "Organization" except that it requires somewhat more information. Required, at a minimum, are:
1) The date on which the local education agency was established, and for charter schools the date and granting authority of each charter;
2) The date and a general description of any change during the year audited in a school district’s boundaries;
3) The numbers by type of schools in the local education agency; 
4) The names, titles, terms, and term expiration dates of all members of the governing board;
5) The names, with their titles, of the superintendent, chief business official, and deputy/associate/assistant superintendents.

NEW AUDITWARE PRODUCT PLANNED FOR FLORIDA!
3/15/07 A major new AuditWare product is in the works which will be available to auditors of Florida cities, counties and special districts early this summer. "AuditWare for Florida Governments" (AFG) will be AuditWare's fourth product, joining "Audit I.S.D. for Texas School Districts," "AuditWare for California School Districts" and "AuditWare for Local Governments" (ALG). The Florida product will differ from ALG in that it will have Florida's state-wide chart of accounts for cities, counties and special districts built in!

Having the chart of accounts built in makes it possible to use AuditWare's powerful "Turnkey" command. That command allows all basic and combining financial statements to be created and/or printed with one keystroke or mouse click once the client's year-end trial balance data has been imported from a file (or keyed in manually when a file is not available). Make a few government-wide adjustments and the government-wide statements and reconciliations are included in the command as well.

WINDOWS "VISTA" PASSES INITIAL TESTS
2/8/07 For the past several days we have been testing the new Microsoft Windows Vista version to determine what problems, if any, will have to be solved to run AuditWare under that operating system. So far, it appears that AuditWare will run fine, but we're not ready yet to advise our users to rush out and buy it. At this point, the only minor inconvenience is that when AuditWare is initially installed on a Vista computer, one of the files must be right-clicked to set the properties and select "Run this program as an administrator." Subsequent AuditWare updates can be downloaded and installed without having to repeat that step. Also, each time you load AuditWare to run it, a screen appears which requires you to click an "Allow" box because you are running "unrecognized" software. Because Vista is so security conscious, many non-Microsoft software programs will likely generate that screen when loading them. Other than that, everything we have tested within AuditWare seems to run normally.

For older news, please go to our AuditWare Archieve page.