Electronic financial statements - an examination of the accuracy and credibility thereof in Polish small enterprises

The inspiration behind the authors’ efforts to undertake this study arose from the observation that, despite free access to corporate financial reporting in Poland, interest among researchers in the accuracy and credibility of the data published by companies is not pronounced. Meanwhile, both the regulators and economic participants are unanimous in recognizing that access to reliable corporate financial information constitutes a key element in ensuring the safety of business trading. The present article aims to determine whether Polish micro and small companies fulfill their electronic reporting obligations, and whether the accuracy of micro and small companies’ financial reporting indicates the reliability thereof allowing these documents to be regarded as a reliable source for company evaluation. The study confirmed that, in principle, micro and small companies do cope with electronic reporting obligations. Parallelly, cases of regulation violation are evident, including breaches of a serious nature, excluding such reports from being considered as a reliable source of information on company performance. The study’s conclusions may serve as an indication, for the regulator, of the need to modify and further advance the procedure for the receipt of financial reports and the stakeholders’ access to those documents. What should be pondered is whether the reports submitted need to be inspected for arithmetic correctness, consistency, completeness, etc., before they are uploaded to the repository. Another area of possible expansion in the functionality of the report publishing procedures entails verification of the descriptive content, including non-financial content.