IFRS Financial Reporting and Disclosure Requirements Training Course

Course overview

Finance teams are expected to produce IFRS financial statements that withstand audit challenge, regulator scrutiny and board-level questioning. That requires more than knowing individual standards: preparers must determine the appropriate accounting policy, apply recognition and measurement requirements to transactions, translate judgements into clear disclosures, and maintain evidence for every material conclusion. This course addresses recurring reporting risks such as incomplete notes, inconsistent accounting policies, weak significant-judgement disclosures, poorly supported impairment assessments and last-minute presentation changes during the close.

Participants work through the IFRS reporting process from transaction analysis to a review-ready set of financial statement disclosures. The programme covers the Conceptual Framework; IAS 1 and the transition to IFRS 18 Presentation and Disclosure in Financial Statements; IAS 7 cash flow reporting; IAS 8 accounting policies, estimates and errors; IFRS 15 revenue; IFRS 16 leases; IFRS 9 financial instruments; IAS 36 impairment; IAS 12 income taxes; IAS 37 provisions; and related-party, segment and subsequent-event disclosures. Participants learn to prepare disclosure checklists, assess materiality, document accounting judgements, reconcile note disclosures to primary statements and identify disclosure gaps before external audit.

Delivery combines instructor-led technical briefings with worked calculations, annotated annual-report extracts, disclosure drafting workshops and team-based case studies. Participants use a structured IFRS disclosure review workbook to test a fictional group's reporting package against applicable requirements. They leave with a completed IFRS reporting and disclosure action pack containing a materiality assessment, accounting-policy decision record, disclosure checklist, selected draft notes and a practical plan for improving their own reporting close.

The course is designed for experienced finance professionals responsible for preparing, reviewing or approving IFRS reporting outputs, including those moving into group reporting, technical accounting or financial-controller roles.

Course objectives

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

• Apply the IFRS Conceptual Framework to document recognition, measurement and presentation conclusions for complex transactions
• Prepare an IFRS disclosure checklist mapped to material balances, transactions and applicable standards
• Draft accounting policy, significant judgement and key estimation uncertainty disclosures using IFRS-compliant language
• Calculate and present revenue, lease, financial instrument and impairment-related disclosure amounts under IFRS 15, IFRS 16, IFRS 9 and IAS 36
• Reconcile note disclosures to the statement of financial position, profit or loss, cash flows and changes in equity
• Assess materiality using quantitative thresholds and qualitative disclosure factors for IFRS financial statements
• Evaluate IFRS 18 presentation changes and build a transition impact assessment for management reporting and statutory accounts
• Construct an audit-ready accounting judgement memo and supporting disclosure evidence file

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Financial Controllers — who oversee IFRS close, financial statement quality and audit resolution
• Group Reporting Managers — who consolidate entity submissions and prepare group annual-report disclosures
• Financial Reporting Accountants — who draft primary statements, notes and accounting policy disclosures
• Technical Accounting Managers — who assess complex transactions and issue IFRS position papers
• External Audit Managers and Seniors — who review IFRS judgements, disclosures and audit evidence
• Finance Managers and Senior Accountants — who are moving into statutory reporting or controllership responsibilities

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should already understand double-entry accounting, accruals, consolidations at a working level and the structure of a set of financial statements. Familiarity with core IFRS terminology, including recognition, measurement, fair value, impairment, deferred tax and materiality, is expected; prior experience preparing or reviewing month-end, year-end or audit schedules is highly beneficial. Participants should be able to read an annual report and work confidently in Microsoft Excel. This is not an introductory bookkeeping course, and no prior use of specialist consolidation software, IFRS subscription databases or legal drafting tools is required.

Training methodology

The instructor uses short technical briefings to establish the applicable IFRS requirements, followed by worked examples drawn from listed-group reporting scenarios. Participants calculate selected balances in Microsoft Excel, inspect extracts from published annual reports, and redraft weak disclosures in pairs. Daily case work requires teams to identify applicable standards, make and document judgements, and reconcile disclosures to primary statements. On the final day, each participant completes an IFRS reporting action plan that identifies control improvements, disclosure priorities and transition actions relevant to their own reporting cycle.

Course outline

Day 1: IFRS reporting architecture, materiality and accounting judgements

• IFRS Conceptual Framework: recognition, derecognition and measurement principles
• Financial statement components and the linkage between primary statements and notes
• IAS 1 presentation requirements and the IFRS 18 transition timetable
• IAS 8 hierarchy for accounting policies, estimates and prior-period errors
• Quantitative and qualitative materiality assessment techniques
• Significant judgement and estimation uncertainty disclosure requirements
• Building an accounting-policy decision record and evidence trail

Workshop: Participants assess a set of reporting issues, prepare a materiality matrix and draft an accounting judgement memo for a material transaction.

Day 2: Recognition, measurement and disclosures for core transactions

• IFRS 15 five-step revenue recognition model and contract-balance disclosures
• IFRS 16 lease identification, measurement and maturity-analysis disclosures
• IFRS 9 classification, expected credit loss and liquidity-risk disclosure requirements
• IAS 36 cash-generating unit testing and impairment sensitivity disclosures
• IAS 12 current tax, deferred tax and unrecognised tax-loss disclosures
• IAS 37 provisions, contingent liabilities and onerous-contract disclosures
• Fair value measurement hierarchy and valuation-technique disclosures under IFRS 13

Workshop: Participants prepare calculations and a draft note package for revenue, leases, expected credit losses and an impairment-sensitive cash-generating unit.

Day 3: Disclosure design for group reporting and investor communication

• IAS 7 operating cash flow methods and non-cash financing reconciliations
• IFRS 7 credit risk, market risk and liquidity risk disclosure tables
• IFRS 8 operating segment identification and entity-wide disclosures
• IFRS 3 acquisition-date disclosures and measurement-period updates
• IFRS 10 consolidation judgements and non-controlling interest disclosures
• IAS 24 related-party identification and transaction disclosure controls
• IAS 10 subsequent-event assessment and authorisation-for-issue disclosures

Workshop: Teams review a mock group annual-report extract, identify missing or inconsistent disclosures and produce a prioritised disclosure-gap register.

Day 4: Presentation, reconciliation and IFRS 18 implementation

• IFRS 18 defined categories, subtotals and management-defined performance measures
• IFRS 18 aggregation and disaggregation principles for useful disclosure
• Statement of profit or loss mapping from legacy IAS 1 formats
• Statement of cash flows classification effects and IAS 7 interactions
• Statement of changes in equity and reserves disclosure reconciliation
• Cross-referencing, note ordering and avoidance of duplicated narrative
• IFRS 18 transition impact assessment and comparative-information planning

Workshop: Participants map a legacy income statement and selected notes to an IFRS 18-ready format and produce a transition impact log.

Day 5: Audit-ready close, disclosure review and implementation planning

• Designing an IFRS close calendar with disclosure ownership and review gates
• Preparing a standard-by-standard financial statement disclosure checklist
• Tie-out procedures between trial balance, consolidation schedules and published statements
• Disclosure review of accounting policies, narrative consistency and cross-references
• Audit evidence for accounting estimates, valuations and management judgements
• Managing post-balance-sheet adjustments, prior-period errors and restatements
• Board and audit-committee reporting of significant IFRS reporting matters

Workshop: Participants complete a capstone IFRS reporting review and leave with a tailored action plan, disclosure checklist and audit-evidence improvement priorities.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Excel, IFRS Accounting Standards, IFRS Foundation eIFRS, IFRS Digital Taxonomy

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