Terminowość w raportowaniu spółek giełdowych w Polsce
Timeliness of financial reporting in Polish listed companies

Summary/Abstract: Timeliness of financial reporting is very important for all stakeholders of a company. Nevertheless, the research on timeliness in Poland is rare and hence the article fills this significant research gap. Examining the timeliness of annual reports of companies listed on the WIG20 index for years 2007, 2012 and 2016 is the main goal of the article. The research methods used to accomplish this objective include literature review, legal regulations review and annual reports analysis. Treating timeliness as a merely secondary qualitative characteristic of useful financial information seems to be insufficient. According to Polish law, listed companies are obliged to publish their annual reports within 4 months after the end of financial year. A significant shortening of the average publication period was observed: 101 days for the year 2007, 78 days for 2012 and 72 days for 2016. Most companies have shortened the publication period of their annual report (max by 89 days); occasional prolonging of this period was much less significant (max 8 days). The vast majority of financial statements were audited by an auditor from the Big 4, but none of these accounting firms made an audit considerably faster than others.

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