Commercial entities, public and private, use General Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) as the standard set of rules on preparing financial statements and internal processes. Governmental entities follow a completely different set of rules called Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS). They are still required to prepare financial statements, but they are different than commercial entities financial statements. There are 2 separate boards which determine the standards of GAS and GAAP separately. This is due to the fact that government entities are funded by the government and their money is easily tracked. They also have many forms which are not necessary when compared to a commercial company