Using a combination of survey data and unique archival databases we investigate the impact of managers´ participation in the year-end accounting process on the quality of financial reporting and cost of debt among Swedish privately owned Gazelles (rapidly growing firms) compared to Non-Gazelles. We find that managers of Gazelles are more prone to participate in the year-end accounting process compared to Non-Gazelles. Further, we find weak evidence that Gazelles produce higher quality financial reports (in terms of conservatism). Further, our results indicate that Gazelles experience lower cost of debt, though this is not statistically significant. We also find that private firms manage earnings to a greater extent the smaller they are and that the cost of debt systematically decreases with size for groups of firms.