Part I - Organisation of this manual

This manual has been structured to provide a sequence of discussion of the concepts, sources and methods used in the compilation of GFS. The following structure has been used:

• Chapter 1: Introduction - (this chapter) discusses the nature of the GFS and the purpose and organisation of this manual.
• Chapter 2: Institutional units and sectors - discusses the scope and coverage of institutional units and sectors, including discussion on the concept of residence, types of institutional units, and the different institutional sectors.
• Chapter 3: Flows, stock positions and accounting rules - discusses economic flows in the context of transactions and other economic flows, the rearrangement of certain GFS transactions such as rerouting, partitioning, and reassignment, the economic stocks of assets, and the accounting rules used in the GFS.
• Chapter 4: The analytical framework - describes the ABS GFS analytical framework, discusses some of the input classifications and the statements that make up the GFS analytical framework.
• Chapter 5: The statement of operations - looks at the elements that relate to the GFS statement of operations, including the concepts of revenue and expenses, the net operating balance, transactions in non-financial assets, and the concept of GFS net lending (+) / net borrowing (-).
• Chapter 6: Revenue - examines the concept of revenue in detail, including revenue recognition, the time of recording of revenue and the detailed classification of revenue in the GFS.
• Chapter 7: Expenses - examines the concept of expenses in detail, including the time of recording of expenses, the treatment of certain expenses in GFS such as government payments to NPIs and superannuation, and the classification of expenses in the GFS.
• Chapter 8: The balance sheet - looks at the elements that make up the GFS balance sheet, describes the concepts of assets and liabilities, and discusses some other aspects of the GFS balance sheet including the treatment of debt in the GFS system.
• Chapter 9: Transactions in non-financial assets - examines the nature of non-financial assets, including the valuation, the time of recording and the classification of non-financial assets in the GFS system.
• Chapter 10: Transactions in financial assets and liabilities - examines the nature of financial assets and liabilities and the relationship between them, including the valuation, the time of recording and the classification of financial assets in the GFS system.
• Chapter 11: Other economic flows - discusses the concept of other economic flows in the context of holding gains and losses and other changes in the volume of assets and liabilities, and their classification in the GFS system.
• Chapter 12: The statement of sources and uses of cash - describes the definitions and classifications associated with the statement of sources and uses of cash in GFS.
• Chapter 13: Treatment of selected items - describes the treatment of various items that appear in the statement of operations and the balance sheet.
• Chapter 14: Data sources and methods of compilation - describes the data sources and the collection methodology used in the ABS GFS system, and the methods used in compilation of GFS data.
• Chapter 15: Data output - describes the statistical output of the GFS system.
• Chapter 16: Data quality - analyses the accuracy, reliability and timeliness of the statistics.
• Chapter 17: Relationships to other statistical systems - provides a broad description of the relationship of the AGFS15 with the IMF GFSM 2014, the ASNA, and the Australian accounting standard AASB 1049.
• Appendix 1: Classifications for compiling GFS
  • Part A: GFS classifications and framework - describes the GFS classifications and framework used in compiling GFS.
  • Part B: Supplementary information - describes the supporting information that appears as GFS input classifications, such as memorandum items, contingent liabilities, debt maturity, and a breakdown of own account capital formation.
  • Part C: Classification of the functions of government - Australia (COFOG-A) - describes the definitions and classifications contained in the COFOG-A.
• Appendix 2: Summary of changes from the Australian system of government finance statistics concepts, sources and methods, 2005 - describes the changes in the AGFS15 from the Australian System of Government Finance Statistics Concepts, Sources and Methods, 2005, as amended in 2010.
• Appendix 3: Departures from the international GFS standards - summarises the departures from the IMF GFSM 2014 in the AGFS15.

A glossary of terms used in the manual and index are provided at the end of this manual.