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.
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Important Announcements
- February 2024 Year End Due Date: For all February 2024 year end reports for COA, PAFR and CANFR your due date this year is September 3rd as August 31st falls on a weekend.
- 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 nine 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 letterthe 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.
Program Information
Eligibility
Award Criteria - Checklists
Fee Schedule
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.
Register Your Government in the AMS
Submit an Application
Request an Extension
Check Status of an Application
