Preparing IFRS-compliant financial statements: a practical checklist

Most delays in an audit are not caused by disagreement over judgement. They are caused by the file arriving incomplete — a reconciliation that was never finished, a balance nobody can explain, a contract the finance team has not seen. The work below is what turns a stressful audit into a routine one.

Before the file opens

• Bank, receivables and payables reconciled to the closing date, with reconciling items explained rather than merely listed.
• A fixed asset register that agrees to the ledger, with additions supported by invoices and disposals traced to proceeds.
• Inventory counted at or near the reporting date, with the count sheets retained.
• Loan agreements, leases and any new contracts entered during the year gathered in one place.

The questions that send accounts back

Expect to be asked how revenue is recognised and why, how expected credit losses were estimated, and whether any related party transactions occurred. Where a judgement was made, record the reasoning at the time. Reconstructing it months later is far harder and considerably less convincing.

Disclosure is where otherwise sound accounts most often fall short. The notes must tell someone outside the business what happened during the year, not simply repeat the standards' wording.