In February 2025, the City of Shorewood received the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting (COA) from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) for the 28th consecutive year. The COA is a prestigious national award recognizing conformance with the highest standards for preparation of state and local government financial reports. In order to be awarded a COA, a government unit must publish an easily readable and efficiently organized annual comprehensive financial report whose contents conform to program standards and must satisfy both GAAP, or Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, and applicable legal requirements.
"The GFOA established the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting Program in 1945 to encourage and assist state and local governments to go beyond the minimum requirements of generally accepted accounting principles to prepare annual comprehensive financial reports that evidence the spirit of transparency and full disclosure and then to recognize individual governments that succeed in achieving that goal" (https://www.gfoa.org/coa-award)