Page 46 - 2018 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report - City of Winston-Salem

Fund Financial Statements

The fund nancial statements (Exhibits 3 through 10) provide a more detailed look at the City’s most signi cant activities.
A fund is used to maintain control over resources that have been segregated for speci c activities or objectives. Fund
accounting ensures and re ects compliance, or non-compliance, with related legal requirements, such as General
Statutes, grantor provisions, or the City’s budget ordinances. The funds of the City are divided into three categories:
governmental funds, proprietary funds, and duciary funds.
Governmental Funds. Governmental funds are used to account for most basic services and are reported as governmental
activities in the government-wide nancial statements. Governmental funds are reported using an accounting method
called modi ed accrual accounting, which provides a short-term spending focus. The relationship between government
activities (reported in the Statement of Net Position and the Statement of Activities) and governmental funds is described
in a reconciliation that is a part of the fund nancial statements.
The City adopts an annual budget for its general fund, certain special revenue funds, debt service fund and capital projects
funds as required by General Statutes. A budgetary comparison statement demonstrating compliance with the budget
ordinance is provided for the general fund in the basic nancial statements.

Proprietary Funds. The City has two di erent kinds of proprietary funds. Enterprise Funds report business-type activities that
are included in the government-wide nancial statements. Enterprise funds are used to account for water and sewer
utilities, solid waste disposal, stormwater management, parking, public transportation, and public assembly facilities
activities. Rate structures of enterprise operations, other than public transportation and public assembly facilities, are set,
insofar as practicable, to recover full operating costs plus depreciation and interest expense and to provide reasonable
working capital and other reserves. Internal Service Funds are an accounting device used to accumulate and allocate costs
internally among the City’s various functions. The City uses internal service funds to account for its central warehouse,
eet services, information services, workers’ compensation, health bene ts, dental and exible bene ts and employee
bene ts funds. These funds predominantly bene t governmental functions and have been included with the respective
governmental activities in the government-wide nancial statements. Risk Acceptance Management Corporation, a
blended component unit, predominantly bene ts business-type activities. It has been included within the business-type
activities in the government-wide nancial statements.
Proprietary fund nancial statements provide more detailed information than that presented in the government-wide
nancial statements and separate information for the water and sewer utility, solid waste disposal and Transit Authority
operations, which are major funds of the City.
Fiduciary Funds. Fiduciary funds are used to account for resources held by the government in a trustee capacity for others.
Because the resources of duciary funds cannot be used to support the government’s own programs, such funds are
speci cally excluded from the government-wide statements. The City uses duciary funds to account for the assets of
post-employment bene ts, which include the Winston-Salem Police O cers’ Retirement and Police O cers’ Separation
Allowance plans, and retired life and health programs.

Other Information. In addition to the basic nancial statements and accompanying notes, this report includes certain
required supplementary information in Exhibits 11 through 21. The purpose of Exhibits 11 through 21 is to provide the
information needed for nancial reporting and accounting of the Winston-Salem Police O cers’ Retirement plan, Police
O cers’ Separation Allowance plan, other Post-employment Bene ts Plans, and the Local Government Employees’
Retirement System plan.

40 2018 AN NUAL R E P O R T