Accrual reporting—recording the economic substance of transactions when they occur rather than when cash settlement happens—is fundamental to good decision making, transparency and accountability. The Index collects, verifies, and analyzes current financial reporting bases and frameworks used by federal and central governments around the world. It also provides an overview of public sector reporting trends.This second International Public Sector Financial Accountability Index status report, provides an update on the progress made since 2018 in implementing accrual-based reporting. It gives a snapshot of the position in 2020, as well as looking ahead by using currently available data to forecast the position in 2025 and provide indicative projections of the position in 2030.

The 2020 Index contains data from 165 jurisdictions, compared to 150 in the 2018 Index. The 2018 Index data has therefore been restated to provide comparability with the 2020 Index. 49 jurisdictions (30% of the jurisdictions included in the 2020 Index) reported on accrual in their 2020 published financial statements, compared with 39 (24%) for 2018. 40% already had some element of accrual in their financial reports – categorized in the 2020 Index as ‘Partial Accrual’ – compared with 45% in 2018. 30% of governments still reported on a cash basis compared with 31% in 2018.

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