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Exploring attitudes to financial reporting in the Australian not-for-profit sector

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  • Philip D. Palmer

Abstract

type="main" xml:lang="en"> The current level of satisfaction among different stakeholders about the current approaches and practises of financial reporting of not-for-profit (NFP) entities is underexplored ( Christensen and Mohr, 2003 ; Lee, 2004 ; Gray et al., 2006 ; Parker, 2007 ). This paper uses content analysis to examine submissions to the 2008 Australian Senate Economics Standing Committee for its inquiry into the disclosure regimes of charities and NFP organisations, which aimed to explore attitudes about financial reporting in the NFP sector. Financial reporting is viewed as an important part of accountability, but the sector identifies deficiencies in the current regime in terms of consistency, efficiency and transparency. Respondents to this inquiry believed that a sector-specific accounting standard was important. Financial reporting standards, regulations and legal structures should be uniform across the entire sector, but with some variation allowed for smaller NFPs. The cost of complying with standards was a significant issue for smaller NFPs.

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  • Philip D. Palmer, 2013. "Exploring attitudes to financial reporting in the Australian not-for-profit sector," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 53(1), pages 217-241, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:53:y:2013:i:1:p:217-241
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/j.1467-629X.2011.00456.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Voitkane Santa & Jakusonoka Ingrida, 2019. "Assessment of the Financial Performance Transparency of Public Benefit Organisations," Economics and Culture, Sciendo, vol. 16(1), pages 46-57, June.
    2. Laura Girella & Paola Dameri, 2019. "Putting integrated reporting where it was not: The case of the not-for-profit sector," FINANCIAL REPORTING, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2019(2), pages 111-140.
    3. Tomasz Dyczkowski, 2016. "Applying Text Mining to Analyze the Performance of PBOs on the Basis of Their Obligatory Annual Activity Statements (Analiza dokonan OPP prezentowanych w ich rocznych obligatoryjnych sprawozdaniach z ," Problemy Zarzadzania, University of Warsaw, Faculty of Management, vol. 14(63), pages 123-138.
    4. Vasja Roblek & Maja Meško & Mirjana Pejić Bach & Oshane Thorpe & Polona Šprajc, 2020. "The Interaction between Internet, Sustainable Development, and Emergence of Society 5.0," Data, MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-27, September.
    5. Elka Johansson & Peter Carey & George Tanewski & Iliyas Yusoff, 2022. "The effect of members on charities’ annual reporting: evidence from companies limited by guarantee in Australia," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(S1), pages 1851-1886, April.
    6. Carolyn J. Cordery & Dalice Sim & Tony Zijl & Gary Monroe, 2017. "Differentiated regulation: the case of charities," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 57(1), pages 131-164, March.
    7. Karen Benson & Peter M Clarkson & Tom Smith & Irene Tutticci, 2015. "A review of accounting research in the Asia Pacific region," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 40(1), pages 36-88, February.
    8. David J. Gilchrist & Roger Simnett, 2019. "Research horizons for public and private not‐for‐profit sector reporting: moving the bar in the right direction," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 59(1), pages 59-85, March.
    9. Ralph Kober & Janet Lee & Juliana Ng, 2021. "Australian not‐for‐profit sector views on the conceptual framework, accounting standards and accounting information," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(1), pages 1105-1138, March.

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