Cash Or Cash Equivalent Basis in the United States

Cash or Cash Equivalent Basis in the Federal Budget Process

Meaning of Cash or Cash Equivalent Basis in the congressional and executive budget processes (GAO source): The basis whereby receipts are recorded when received and expenditures are recorded when paid, without regard to the accounting period in which the receipts are earned or the costs are incurred. “Cash” generally refers to payment by cash, checks, or electronic funds transfers. “Cash equivalent” refers to the use of an instrument or process that creates a substitute for cash. For example, when the government issues a debt instrument of any kind in satisfaction of claims, the transaction is recorded as simultaneous outlays and borrowing—the outlays when the debt instrument is issued, not when it is redeemed.

Resources

See Also

• Federal Appropriations
• Entries about the United States Budget Process in the Encyclopedia (including Cash or Cash Equivalent Basis)
• Public Debt

Further Reading

• Legislatures and the budget process: the myth of fiscal control

  (J Wehner, 2010)

• Reconcilable Differences?: Congress, the Budget Process, and the Deficit (JB Gilmour, 1990)
• Fiscal institutions and fiscal performance

  (JM Poterba, J von Hagen, 2008)