New development: Use, users and usability of accounting information—current insights and research avenues

As previous research does not show consistent findings in the extent of use of accounting information, more research should be done on this matter. Citizens’ representatives in legislative and oversight bodies seem to be more frequent users of accounting information than the citizenry, therefore more information is needed about the expected value for money of accounting improvements for both groups. More research is also needed on the drivers of usability of accounting information, in particular how comparability and representational consistency of reports can help increase understandability. Finally, whereas the use of Large Language Models seems to offer many possibilities to help provide and digest information, more studies should be conducted about how such models could be used.ABSTRACTThis article discusses current insights and research avenues into the amount of use, actual users and drivers of the usability of accounting information in the public sector. It shows that previous studies are not consistent in their conclusions about the extent to which accounting information is used. Whereas both the IPSAS and GASB conceptual frameworks consider the citizenry as primary users of General Purpose Financial Statements (as a major source of accounting information), their representatives in legislative and oversight bodies might be more frequent users. Several studies have addressed the three issues that are expected to drive the usability of accounting information—understandability, presentation format, and relevance—but the underlying elements of these drivers are addressed unequally. Relevance may be hard to operationalize, as a balance has to be found between providing too little and too much information.