Public sector accounting in transition: Changing frameworks and practices among Italian public nursing homes

Over the past twenty years, mounting financial pressures and intensifying requests for better public services have often resulted in an increased focus on efficiency, accountability and sustainability within an overall modernization effort of public administration processes. This has led to an emphasis on performance information and to the adoption of new accounting techniques, such as cost and accrual accounting. These new frameworks and standards can supplement or replace more traditional cash- and commitment-based budgetary accounting systems. In some instances, public organizations were given the choice to adopt a harmonized system or to leap-frog to pure accrual accounting. This paper explores what is advisable according to current regulations and the opinions of financial managers at public nursing homes in the Italian Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia.