Moving from the Financial Management System to Government Finance Statistics - ARCHIVED

The government finance statistical program is designed to measure and analyze the economic dimensions of the public sector of Canada

Statistics Canada, in cooperation with representatives of all levels of government and with the academic and business communities, developed the Financial Management System (FMS) over the last 65 years. The FMS was founded on a modified-cash based system of accounting. Recently, Canadian governments have decided to move from that modified-cash based accounting system to an accrual based accounting system. In addition, an internationally accepted Government Finance Statistics (GFS) manual has been developed. This article outlines the move to Government Finance Statistics.