Advanced Financial Accounting and Group Consolidation Training Course

Course overview

Group reporting becomes difficult when transactions cross legal entities, ownership changes, foreign operations, and different accounting policies. Finance professionals must do more than eliminate intercompany balances: they must determine control, measure non-controlling interests, account for goodwill and purchase-price adjustments, translate foreign operations, and explain the resulting movements to auditors, boards, and investors. Errors in these areas can distort earnings, equity, debt covenants, tax positions, and acquisition decisions.

This advanced five-day course develops the technical judgement and working-paper discipline required to prepare and review consolidated financial statements under IFRS. Participants apply IFRS 10, IFRS 3, IAS 21, and related disclosure requirements to acquisition-date accounting, consolidation adjustments, intercompany profit eliminations, step acquisitions, disposals, associates, joint arrangements, and foreign-currency translation. They build structured consolidation schedules, assess control in complex ownership arrangements, calculate goodwill and non-controlling interests, and identify the evidence needed to support significant accounting conclusions.

Delivery combines instructor-led technical sessions with spreadsheet-based consolidation cases, review discussions, and practical reporting workshops. Participants work through an integrated group-reporting case using Microsoft Excel, prepare acquisition and consolidation journals, reconcile group equity, and respond to review points typical of a controller, auditor, or finance director. They leave with a completed consolidation workbook, a technical-judgement checklist, and an action plan for strengthening controls and review procedures in their own reporting cycle.

The course is best suited to finance professionals already involved in month-end, year-end, audit, acquisitions, or group reporting who need to move from preparing individual entity accounts to handling complex consolidation and reporting issues with confidence.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Assess control, joint control, and significant influence using the IFRS 10 and IAS 28 decision framework
• Prepare acquisition-date consolidation entries for consideration, identifiable net assets, goodwill, and non-controlling interests
• Build a multi-entity consolidation workbook with trial-balance mapping, elimination journals, and group equity schedules
• Eliminate intercompany balances, trading, dividends, management charges, and unrealised profit in inventory and non-current assets
• Calculate subsequent goodwill adjustments, impairment allocations, and movements in non-controlling interests
• Translate foreign operations under IAS 21 and reconcile exchange differences through other comprehensive income
• Account for step acquisitions, partial disposals, loss of control, associates, and joint ventures in group financial statements
• Review consolidation working papers and produce a documented technical conclusion for audit and management review

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Group Accountants — who prepare consolidation packs and need to resolve complex elimination and ownership issues
• Financial Controllers — who review group results and must defend accounting judgements to auditors and leadership
• Senior Financial Accountants — who are moving into acquisition accounting, group reporting, or technical accounting roles
• Consolidation Managers — who design reporting processes, oversee close activities, and challenge consolidation adjustments
• Internal Auditors — who test group-reporting controls and assess the support for significant accounting conclusions
• Finance Managers in multinational groups — who need to interpret foreign-operation results and manage reporting risk

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should already understand double-entry bookkeeping, financial statement preparation, deferred tax basics, and the relationship between the statement of profit or loss, other comprehensive income, financial position, and cash flows. Prior exposure to IFRS or equivalent financial reporting standards is expected, particularly basic business-combination and consolidation terminology. Participants should be comfortable using Microsoft Excel formulas, cell references, filters, and worksheets; advanced modelling or macros are not required. Experience preparing entity-level accounts, audit schedules, or month-end reconciliations is strongly beneficial. No prior use of dedicated consolidation software, coding knowledge, or valuation-model expertise is required.

Training methodology

The instructor leads concise technical briefings followed by worked Excel schedules and progressively more complex group-reporting cases. Participants analyse ownership structures, post consolidation journals, calculate goodwill and non-controlling interests, eliminate intercompany trading, and translate a foreign operation. Small-group review sessions replicate a close-meeting environment: teams challenge assumptions, identify missing evidence, and resolve reporting issues. The final day uses an integrated case and application-planning workshop, where each participant identifies changes to their own consolidation workbook, review controls, or reporting timetable.

Course outline

Day 1: Control assessment and consolidation architecture

• IFRS 10 control model: power, variable returns, and linkage
• Subsidiary, associate, and joint arrangement classification
• Group structure mapping and reporting-perimeter design
• Uniform accounting policies and reporting-date alignment
• Consolidation workbook architecture in Microsoft Excel
• Trial-balance mapping, chart-of-accounts alignment, and validation checks
• Opening consolidation entries and group equity reconciliation

Workshop: Participants map a complex ownership structure, conclude on control for each investee, and build the opening tabs of a consolidation workbook.

Day 2: Business combinations and purchase-price accounting

• IFRS 3 acquisition method and identification of the acquirer
• Consideration transferred, contingent consideration, and acquisition costs
• Fair-value measurement of identifiable assets and liabilities
• Goodwill calculation and bargain-purchase assessment
• Full goodwill and proportionate-share non-controlling interest methods
• Acquisition-date deferred tax and fair-value uplift adjustments
• Purchase-price allocation working papers and audit evidence

Workshop: Participants complete a purchase-price allocation case, calculate goodwill and non-controlling interests, and post acquisition-date consolidation journals.

Day 3: Subsequent consolidation and intercompany eliminations

• Post-acquisition reserves and group equity movement schedules
• Intercompany receivable, payable, loan, and interest eliminations
• Elimination of intercompany sales, cost of sales, and dividends
• Unrealised profit in closing inventory and upstream-downstream transactions
• Unrealised profit on transfers of property, plant, and equipment
• Non-controlling interest allocation of profit, other comprehensive income, and dividends
• Goodwill impairment testing and allocation within consolidated results

Workshop: Participants process a full month-end elimination pack and produce reconciled group profit, equity, and non-controlling interest schedules.

Day 4: Foreign operations and changing group structures

• IAS 21 functional-currency assessment and indicators
• Translation of foreign-operation financial statements
• Exchange differences in other comprehensive income and translation reserve roll-forward
• Intercompany monetary items and net-investment considerations
• Step acquisitions and remeasurement of previously held interests
• Partial disposals without loss of control
• Loss of control, retained interests, associates, and joint ventures

Workshop: Participants translate a foreign subsidiary, account for a partial disposal and a step acquisition, and reconcile the resulting equity movements.

Day 5: Reporting quality, disclosures, and consolidation review

• IFRS 12 interests-in-other-entities disclosure requirements
• Significant judgement documentation for control and ownership conclusions
• Consolidated cash flow statement adjustments and common elimination issues
• Close calendar, submission controls, and consolidation review checkpoints
• Analytical review of group margins, equity, goodwill, and foreign-exchange movements
• Audit query response packs and supporting-document retention
• Technical accounting memo structure and management communication

Workshop: Participants complete an integrated group-reporting case, submit a reviewed consolidation workbook, and draft a technical memo addressing key judgement and disclosure issues.

Tools & standards covered

IFRS 3 Business Combinations, IFRS 10 Consolidated Financial Statements, IAS 21 The Effects of Changes in Foreign Exchange Rates, Microsoft Excel

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions