Monsen, Administrative Cameralistics

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International Journal on Governmental Financial Management – 2008 77

ADMINISTRATIVE CAMERALISTICS

Professor, Dr. Oecon. Norvald MonsenNorwegian School of Economics andBusiness Administration (NHH)Norvald.Monsen@NHH.NO

It should be obvious that the accounting problems are only possible toillustrate by using examples, which would require a not insignificant effort bythe interested reader.

(Mülhaupt, 1997, p. 2; translated from German)

Introduction

Cameral accounting is an accounting model, which was developed in the continentalEuropean German-speaking countries (Austria, Germany and Switzerland; see Buschor,1994) to be used in government organizations as an alternative to accrual accounting. Inthe previous issue of

International Journal on Governmental Financial Management,

Monsen (2008) presents this particular accounting model, consisting of two main versions,namely

administrative cameralistics

and

enterprise cameralistics.

Administrativecameralistics, the main version, was developed for use by core government organizations.These are primarily financed from tax revenues through the annual budget (agreed by parliament). Enterprise cameralistics was developed for use by government ownedenterprises. These are more similar to business enterprises (being market-financed) thancore government organizations.Use of cameral accounting, however, requires a thorough understanding not only of cameral accounting at a general theoretical level, but also at a technical or bookkeepinglevel. Most of the literature explaining cameral accounting, including cameral bookkeeping, is presented in German, so there is only a limited knowledge of this type of bookkeeping outside German speaking countries. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, toexplain cameralistic bookkeeping to a non-German speaking audience.Bookkeeping within administrative cameralisticsAdministrative cameralistics uses a cameral account, consisting of two sides:

Receipts

and

Payments

(see Table 1) as well as the principle of single-entry bookkeeping. This particular bookkeeping method can be referred to as the

single-entry bookkeeping method of administrative cameralistics

. The use of this bookkeeping method is outlined in thefollowing paragraphs, followed by detailed explanations using numerical examples.

78 International Journal on Governmental Financial Management – 2008

Table 1: The cameral account

Receipts PaymentsBalancesor residualdues b/f (BD)Currentdues(CD)Actuals(A)Balancesor residualdues c/f (B)Balancesor residualdues b/f (BD)Currentdues(CD)Actuals(A)Balancesor residualdues c/f (B).The column

Balances or residual dues brought forward

(BD

)

shows the amounts broughtforward from previous periods. On the receipts side outstanding claims are shown(compared with accounts receivable in double-entry commercial bookkeeping), and on the payments side obligations are shown (compared with liabilities). The BD-columnconstitutes an opening balance sheet, because outstanding amounts from the previous period are brought forward here. The column

current dues

(CD) shows the new claims onthe receipts side (compared to revenues) and the new obligations on the payments side(compared to expenditures). Entries are made in the

current dues

column when a paymentinstruction is completed (receipts side) or an invoice is instructed for payment (paymentsside).The column

Actuals

(A) has a double task within administrative cameralistics. First, it is asettlement account for the balances brought forward (BD) and/or current dues (CD), byshowing how much of these amounts have actually been realized in cash. Second, when westudy the column vertically, it shows cash inflows on the receipts side and the cashoutflows on the payments side. Entries will be made in the receipts side of the

actuals

column when cash or cash cheques are received. Similarly entries will be made in thiscolumn on the payments side when cash is paid or cheques are prepared. The A-columncould also contain some non-cash transactions (see example 4 below), but these amountswill be recorded with the same amounts on both the receipts and the payments sides.Hence, the net difference between A-receipts and A-payments reports the net change of cash.The column

Balances or residual dues carriedforward

(B) shows the value of the totaldues (i.e., BD+CD) which have yet to be realized in cash (A). Hence, this columnconstitutes an end of period balance sheet. The amounts in this column (compared toaccounts receivable or liabilities in commercial accounting) are carried forward to the BD-column for the following period. Within administrative cameralistics, the B-columnrepresents non-comprehensive balance sheets, since only payment-instructed receipts and

International Journal on Governmental Financial Management – 2008 79

payments (reported in the CD-columns), but not cash-realized receipts and payments (notyet reported in the A-columns) are reported here. This follows from the two keycameralistic rules which must always be followed when entering transactions in to acameral account:1) No A-entry without an earlier or simultaneous CD-entry2) B = BD + CD - AThese two rules apply separately to the receipts and payments sides.

Transactions are reported horizontally on one side, i.e., either on the receipts side oron the payments side. This use of only one side of one account distinguishes thecameralist’s single-entry bookkeeping method clearly from commercial double-entrybookkeeping, which always uses two sides of two different accounts (the debit side of one account and the credit side of another account) to record each transaction.

Numerical examples

Example 1

Payments for providing social services (home help) are entered on the payments side of thecameral account. In year 1, such a payment obligation has occurred, amounting to 300, anda payment instruction has been issued for this amount (Payments-CD=300), but due toliquidity problems only 200 is paid out in cash this year (Payments-A=200). At the end of year 1, an end of period balance of 100 is recorded (Payments-B=100) (see Table 2).

Table 2

Year 1 Receipts PaymentsSocial services BD CD A B BD CD A BPayment instr.PaymentBalance c/f 300200100300 200 100The balance at the end of year 1 is brought forward in year 2 on the cameral account(Payments-BD=100). When this balance is paid, the payment is reported in the A-column(Payments-A=100), resulting in no ending balance (Payments-B=0) (see Table 3).

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