The University is required to follow guidelines from the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB). However, GASB is most focused on state and local governments because public colleges and universities only represent a small fraction of government entities. The National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) fills the gap by issuing guidance on how public colleges and universities should account for transactions typically not addressed by GASB.
One recent notable NACUBO advisory is an update on presenting financial aid to students in audited financial statements. NACUBO's last issued a tuition discount advisory in 2000. Higher education has changed a great deal since then, and technology today makes things possible today that weren't 24 years ago. The advisory's goal is to bring more uniformity in how colleges and universities treat financial aid to students. The Controller's Office is partnering with the campuses to implement NACUBO's advisory. The new guidelines will have several benefits to UMASS including automating tuition reporting, possible integration with SPARC, consistency across campuses, and fewer accounts in PeopleSoft.
The University is required to adopt this new advisory for fiscal year 2025.