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The assessment of quality and usefulness of external financial reports at public higher education institutions – case of Croatia

The aim of this paper is to investigate the quality and usefulness of external financial reports at Croatian public higher education institutions for management purposes. Previous studies have pointed out the fact that external financial reports are prepared in accordance with the legal reporting requirements and have the required structure and content that are unified for all budgetary users and do not reflect the specifics of higher education institutions. But however, there is no studies about usage of external financial reports for management purposes. In that context, the authors have conducted empirical research based on web questionnaires at public higher education institutions in Croatia. The statistical analysis of the obtained data has shown that external financial reports are useful for presenting the financial position at higher education institutions and for decision-making process. Accountants' views on ways and obstacles to improve the external reporting system were also explored. The overall conclusion of the conducted research is that regardless of current usage of external financial reports for different purposes there is a strong need to improve the existing external reporting system in order to expand the existing scope of accounting information making the external financial reports more useful for management purposes.

External financial reports, Higher education institutions, Croatia, Public sector

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