Accounting practices of small and medium enterprises in tigray regional state: evidence from authorized accountants

There is a need to create a strong competitive small and medium enterprise sector that is able to play a leading role in the development process. Business strategy is one of important components that lead to economic growth and competition. In order to design and implement successful business strategy, small and medium enterprises need to have proper accounting system to generate appropriate information. Therefore, the objective of this research is to assess views’ of authorized accountants towards accounting practices of small and medium enterprises in Regional state of Tigray, Ethiopia. There were 158 authorized accountants registered in the National Regional State of Tigray the Office of the Auditor General as of October, 2014. 50 authorized accountants were selected purposely based on their availability and self administered questionnaires were distributed to them, and 34 questionnaires were returned. Quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods were used to analyze the collected data from respondents. The study found that accounting practices of small and medium enterprises is at low level. Small and medium enterprises keep accounting record mainly for tax purpose and for support to access credit from banks.