Guidelines for preparing year-end financial reports are provided for Alabama public university staff to insure that reporting formats produce comparable financial reports and to keep up with recent developments in college accounting and financial reporting. The public institutions comply with two publications issued by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO). The following areas are discussed to provide clarification: allocations of unrestricted current funds balances, direct state appropriations to retirement systems, defining and reporting auxiliary enterprises, definition of capital assets, and interfunctional allocation of certain operating costs. NACUBO and AICPA allow more than one method of financial reporting to be used for the following instances: the fund groupings to be maintained, the valuation of investments and inventories, the combination of assets and liabilities of restricted and unrestricted current funds for reporting purposes, and accounting for construction in progress. Appended are five financial reporting statements: balance sheet; statement of changes in fund balances; statement of current funds revenues, expenditures, and other changes; schedule of investments; and schedule of long-term debt. (SW)