Abstract 

The Swedish municipalities have an overall responsibility for water and sewage services. The appointed organizations for this obligation holds a monopoly position which is regulated by a prime cost principle. This essay seeks to analyze and describe accounting in these organizations. This has been done via three main themes. These are good and bad examples from the above mentioned organizations accounting, compliance with laws and standards and finally if the financial reports enlightens its users. The empirical evidence has been mapped with a survey and analysis of the annual reports. We have mapped following accounting areas: depreciation times, valuation basis, residual value, component depreciation, impairment, work rutine on period of use decisions on tangible assets and component division, the organizations view on generally accounting principles (GAAP) and true and fair view, interest, key financial ratios and finally fixed and variable costs for the organizations subscribers. In the analysis we discuss these accounting areas via our main themes and from previous research. The study has discovered low compliance and enlightment in some areas of accounting while others were better. The study has also shown lack of standardization and is treating some explanatory factors such as competence and active ownership, collaboration and organizational form, population and finally fee level.