An Assessment of Financial Records Keeping Behaviour of Small Scale Businesses in Ghana: A Case Study of Bolgatanga Municipality

Abstract

This paper focuses on financial records keeping behavior of registered Small Scale Businesses (SSBs) in the Bolgatanga Municipality. A multistage sampling method was used to select one hundred and twenty (120) respondents. As per the study, majority of SSBs do not keep proper records of their businesses, hence, inability to measure financial performance and position of their businesses. The factors that accounted for the failure of SSBs to keep proper records among others include: lack of knowledge in accounting; expensive to hire qualified accounting staff; exposing financial information for tax; time consuming and inability to quantify the value of proper records keeping and lack of internal control procedures. It was also observed that the volume and value of transactions can influence records keeping behavior of SSBs owners. The study, therefore, recommends that the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) should assist small scale business operators to keep proper records by organizing training on proper record keeping for them. The government agencies should sensitize the small scale business operators about the need to keep proper records. A law on financial records of small scale businesses should be passed and strictly enforced. The regulatory bodies should also provide simple accounting manual for the businesses.