A guidebook on consolidated financial statement at municipal level : case company City of Vantaa

Consolidated financial statement is regulated by accounting law and it is monitored by accounting authorities. Corporations’ parent companies must prepare it by law. The structure of consolidated financial statement varies: municipalities must follow different regulations than for example international corporations. The similarity is that a consolidated financial statement is highly complicated to prepare. This thesis presents a consolidated financial statement for a municipality. The case company is a Finnish capital area municipality, City of Vantaa. The thesis is supervised by the corporation accounting team at the Economy Service Center. The purpose of the thesis is to prepare a detailed training manual, a guidebook, to the case company. The guidebook allows employees to work more independently and efficiently when preparing the consolidated financial statement. It aims to support employees’ previous experience of consolidated financial statement. First, the thesis introduces the consolidated financial statement at a municipal level. Secondly, it studies how to write an accurate guidebook and lastly according to these instructions, the guidebook is prepared. The guidebook is prepared in tight cooperation with the corporation accounting team and it was visualized and structured according to their wishes. The guidebook is found in the appendices of the thesis. The corporation accounting team is pleased with the result. It ended up to be versatile and accurate as to its contents but also visually attractive. The guidebook is a useful tool to the case company and the thesis was a great learning experience for the author. Although the thesis does not necessarily provide a basis for further research it may bring value for future students