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USER NEEDS AND FINANCIAL REPORTING – A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES AND THE NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE
Author(s) -
Lapsley Irvine
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
financial accountability and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.661
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1468-0408
pISSN - 0267-4424
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0408.1992.tb00444.x
Subject(s) - business , accounting , service (business) , public administration , political science , marketing
This paper takes a user needs perspective to analyse the usefulness of past and current systems of financial reporting by local authorities and the National Health Service (NHS). It suggests that attempts to construct a conceptual framework should be more closely aligned to the findings of studies of actual usage of financial reports in both of the sectors. These point to the need for simplified reporting systems which recognise (a) different levels of capability and resource availability to interrogate financial information and (b) the need to articulate with, but decrease total reliance on, the traditional general purpose financial report.