MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT - Refer to EQUIPMENT.

MAJOR FUND - A governmental or enterprise account reported as a separate column in the basic fund financial statements. The General Fund is always a major fund. Otherwise, major funds are those accounts with revenues, expenditures/expenses, assets, or liabilities (excluding extraordinary items) that are at least 10 percent of corresponding totals for all governmental and enterprise accounts for the same item.

MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS (MD& A) - A component of Required Supplementary Information that introduces the basic financial statements and provides an analytical overview of the state's financial activities. In the state's CAFR, the MD&A precedes the basic financial statements. Refer to REQUIRED SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.

MANUFACTURER - The name of either the manufacturer or the commonly accepted trade name.

MEASUREMENT FOCUS - The accounting convention which determines: (1) which assets and which liabilities are included on the governmental unit's balance sheet; and (2) whether its operating statement presents "financial flow" information (revenue and expenditures) or "capital maintenance" information (revenues and expenses). Refer to CURRENT FINANCIAL RESOURCES MEASUREMENT FOCUS and ECONOMIC RESOURCES MEASUREMENT FOCUS.

MERCHANDISE INVENTORIES - Merchandise held for resale to other agencies, other governmental units, or the public.

MODIFIED ACCRUAL BASIS - The basis of accounting under which expenditures, whether paid or unpaid, are formally recognized when incurred against the account, but revenues are recognized only when they become both measurable and available to finance expenditures of the current accounting period. All governmental funds use the modified accrual basis of accounting.

MODIFIED APPROACH TO DEPRECIATION - A method of accounting whereby capital assets that are part of a network or subsystem of a network, i.e. the state highway system, are not required to be depreciated as long as certain requirements are met. Requirements include managing the eligible assets in an asset management system and documenting that these assets are being preserved approximately at or above a condition level established and disclosed. Refer to INFRASTRUCTURE ASSETS.

MONEY MARKET INVESTMENTS - A short-term, highly liquid debt security, including commercial paper, banker's acceptances, and U.S. Treasury and agency obligations. (Asset-backed securities, derivatives, and structured notes are not included in this term.)

MUSEUM AND HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS - An individual item or group of items of historical or natural history significance. These items could be located in state museums or in any state agency. They include items such as photographs, negatives, letters, blueprints, antique furniture, historical documents, miscellaneous artifacts, and other similar items. Museum and historical collections that are considered inexhaustible and meet certain criteria are not required to be capitalized. Agencies meeting the criteria for not capitalizing a collection have the option of capitalizing museum and historical collections as non-depreciable capital assets. Museum and historical collections that are exhaustible (such as those whose useful lives are diminished by display or educational/research applications) are to be capitalized and depreciated.

Accounting Terms Glossary and Definitions
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