Governmental Auditing Standards Board (GASB) has issued Statement No. 54 to be effective for financial statements for periods beginning after June 15, 2010.  Among other things, this statement refines the definitions of governmental funds in an effort to improve consistency on how fund types are reported.

The changes to the General, Debt Service, and Capital Projects funds are minor and, in most cases, simply reflect the new terms used for fund balances classifications.

The current definition for Special Revenue Funds (SRF) is a fund "to account for the proceeds of specific revenue sources (other than capital projects) that are legally restricted to expenditure for specified purposes". 

The revised SRF definition is "to account for the proceeds of specific revenue sources that are restricted or committed for specific purposes other than debt service or capital projects".

Governments should conduct a review of their current governmental funds, particularly their special revenue funds, to insure that those not meeting the revised SRF definition are instead reported as part of the general fund.  For some governments, reporting existing special revenue funds as part of the general fund could have material impact on the fund balance.   This will be a key review and reporting area for governmental auditors.