Accounting Practices and Quality of Financial Reporting in Public Secondary Schools in Nairobi City County, Kenya
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47941/ijf.4040Keywords:
Accounting Practices, Accounting Standards, Financial Reporting, Digital Accounting, Internal controlsAbstract
Methodology: For research design, the study utilized descriptive research and it encompassed both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The research utilized structured questionnaires to gather data and were distributed to 210 respondents who formed the sample drawn from total target populace. Data was analyzed using inferential statistics to find patterns and create predictive models, descriptive statistics provided an overview of the data.
Findings: Findings showed that digital accounting practices, bookkeeping, internal controls and budgeting together account for 67.0% of the variation in reporting quality. The study also established that internal controls (β=0.261; p=0.000), budgeting practices (β=0.250; p=0.000), bookkeeping practices (β=0.277; p=0.000) and digital accounting practices (β=0.238; p=0.000) had significant effect on quality of financial reporting.
Unique Contribution to Theory, Policy and Practice: The study contributes to theory as it deduced that robust accounting procedures are necessary for transparency, accuracy and accountability, both individually and collectively within public secondary schools. The study recommends that Principals need to take charge and set up strong internal controls of schools want to prevent conflicts of interest and to hold people accountable. This is made possible when they make clear who handles money. It is also recommended that County education and treasury officers should check in often and offer hands-on training in financial management. When schools tighten up these controls, it gets a lot harder for anyone to misuse funds.
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