Abstract

The way local businesses handle money is shifting quickly as digital payments become essential. Still, many small enterprises rely on manual bookkeeping, which often leads to inaccurate and delayed financial reports. Existing research mostly focuses on large corporations, leaving a massive gap in understanding how local businesses with limited resources actually integrate digital transactions into their accounting. This research provides a timely solution by exploring how digital platforms directly impact the accuracy, reliability, and timeliness of financial reporting for these smaller enterprises. A quantitative descriptive correlational design was utilized to examine the relationship between digital tools and financial reporting quality. data were gathered through survey questionnaires from twenty seven micro and small enterprises located in Novaliches, Quezon City. The participants were selected using convenience and purposive sampling techniques to ensure they had firsthand experience with digital transactions. Finally, the collected data were analyzed using statistical tools including weighted mean, frequency, percentage, and Analysis of Variance. The findings revealed that most of the sampled enterprises are micro businesses in the retail and service sectors operating for less than five years. The results demonstrated that while these businesses operate with minimal digital maturity and mostly manual processes, they perceive digital systems as highly secure and easy to learn. Adopting these systems was found to significantly improve the timeliness and availability of financial reports. Furthermore, demographic factors like industry sector and workforce size played a significant role in how business owners perceived the utility of these tools. These outcomes indicate that younger businesses are adopting digital tools much quicker to keep up with consumer demand. While micro enterprises find digital platforms easy to use, they still struggle to fully integrate them into formal accounting. These findings align with earlier research suggesting market expectations drive digital adoption among newer businesses. Since this study is limited to a small sample in one city, future research should explore broader regions to confirm these trends. Finally, this study recommends a structured plan to help owners establish clear audit trails and strengthen internal controls using digital footprints.