As has been previously announced, the State of Arizona Accounting Manual is undergoing a number of changes. The purpose of this overhaul is to make it better organized, more up-to-date, and easier to use. The official release of the updated SAAM will coincide with the implementation, however, before the official release, the GAO will be posting drafts of upcoming sections of the new SAAM upon which agencies and individuals are invited to comment. 

Let’s deal first with the new organization. SAAM will be divided into a number of broad topics, such as Travel, Fixed Assets, or Internal Controls. These topics are identified by a two-digit number, such as 50, 25, or 05. Within each topic are a number of sections, also identified by a two-digit number. Some representative sections in the Travel topic are 25, Meals and Incidentals, and 56, Untimely Filed Travel Claims. So, a SAAM section can be uniquely identified by its topic and section number as, for example, 4507, Payroll and Personnel, Employment at Multiple Agencies. 

As with everything else, the current organization of topics is still in a draft state and will, no doubt, encounter some changes over the coming months. Currently, the topics planned are: 

00 General Information 

05 Internal Controls 

10 Accounting and Reporting 

15 Accounting Transactions and Structures 

20 Current Assets 

25 Fixed Assets 

30 Liabilities 

35 Fund Balances 

40 Revenues and Receipts 

45 Expenditures, Expenses and Disbursements 

50 Travel 

55 Payroll and Personnel 

60 Budgets, Appropriations and Allotments 

65 Procurement and Purchasing 

70 Grants 

80 Miscellaneous 

90 Special Topics 

95 Lists 

When it comes to being up-to-date, we want to make SAAM current with the new systems being implemented as well as with technical pronouncements from the Government Accounting Standards Board and reporting requirements promulgated by the Federal Government. 

As to ease of use, we recognize that today most people don’t print out the entire SAAM, but rather refer to it online or only print out limited sections dealing with their immediate needs. Because of this, new SAAM sections are, for the most part, very targeted and somewhat smaller and more granular than has been the case. 

Again, these are drafts and many corrections, some of them recommended by you, may still be necessary. One example of a change that will have to be made is how we refer to the State’s principal accounting system. Whether it will be called AFIS, AFIS III, Advantage, or something else remains to be decided. 

The first two drafts to be posted deal with Internal Controls. Section 0505 is titled “General Internal Controls” and provides a background to the nature and necessity of internal controls. Section 0510 is titled “Internal Controls by Process” and applies some of the principles outlined in SAAM 0505 to individual process. 

These draft SAAM sections can be found on the Web at: 

          http://www.gao.az.gov/publications/SAAM/draft.asp. 

Comments, corrections, complaints and compliments should be emailed to [email protected]. Please include the number of the SAAM section in the subject line. Please, if at all possible, comment upon new drafts within thirty (30) days of publication.