Internet financial reporting on the web in Indonesian: not just technical problem

The internet technology is increasingly important to disseminate financial information. The use of internet technology also allows corporate information to be presented in innovative ways rather than paper-based reporting. The purpose of this study was to measure the quality of internet financial reporting of the banking industry, LQ-45 firms and firms which are not included in the banking industry and LQ-45 firms on the Jakarta Stock Exchange. The index is developed to favour the importance of technology rather than the content of financial statements. Therefore, in order to add weight to content over technology enhancements, the index criteria were divided into four parts and assigned weights – content (40%), timeliness (20%), technology (20%) and user support (20%). The survey findings show that the nature of internet financial reporting disclosure varies considerably across the companies. Some website contains only product and service advertising. Most financial reporting is confined to pdf, which looks exactly like the paper-based annual reports. Moreover, the results have important implications for all parties involved in developing internet financial reporting and also indicate avenues for further research.