What drives usability of public sector online reporting?

Whereas digital reporting has become more popular, insight is missing into the drivers of the usability of public sector online reporting. Based on prior literature, this article provides an overview of these drivers, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of the PDF format vis-& aacute;-vis the website format of financial reporting. Furthermore it explores the relevance of these drivers by conducting an empirical study. These insights can be used for increasing the usability of public sector online reports. On the basis of the extant literature, this article proposes that the usability of accounting information offered by websites is driven by three factors: relevance, understandability, and presentation format. By means of a pilot survey, document analysis and interviews, the authors found that the importance of visual appearance was acknowledged, but that it may bring up the suspicion of impression management. Furthermore, the two investigated municipalities performed a balancing act between information abundance and information shortage.