Programmes · IFRS 18 — Presentation and Disclosure in Financial Statements; Preparing Your Financial Statements for 2027
About this programme
IFRS 18 is effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027, replacing IAS 1 — and it applies retrospectively. For an entity with a 31 December year end, the first IFRS 18 financial statements are FY2027, and the comparative period is FY2026, which is already running. Entities that have not begun categorising income and expenses on an IFRS 18 basis will be reconstructing the comparative year backwards from records built on IAS 1 logic.
IFRS 18 does not change recognition or measurement — profit is the same number. What changes is how performance is structured, subtotalled, disaggregated and explained, and for entities that rely on alternative performance measures, what must now be disclosed and reconciled.
Across two live days, participants move from understanding what changed to restating a real set of accounts in a hands-on implementation workshop — leaving with restated primary statements, a management-defined performance measures note, a documented judgement file, and a dated transition plan for their own entity.
On completion, participants will be able to
- Explain what IFRS 18 changes and, equally important, what it does not.
- Classify income and expenses into the five categories and present the two required subtotals.
- Determine whether an entity has a specified main business activity and apply the consequent classification.
- Identify management-defined performance measures and prepare the required note.
- Apply the aggregation and disaggregation principles to primary statements and notes.
- Apply the consequential amendments to IAS 7, IAS 8, IAS 33 and related standards.
- Execute retrospective transition, including restatement of comparatives and the required reconciliation.
- Produce a transition plan and timetable for their own entity.
Who should attend
- Financial accountants, controllers and reporting managers who will prepare the first IFRS 18 statements and restate the FY2026 comparatives
- External and internal auditors who will review classification judgements and MPM disclosures
- CFOs and finance directors accountable for adjusted performance measures reported to lenders and investors
- Preparers in regulated sectors — listed entities, banks, rural banks and insurers, where main-business-activity classification bites hardest
- Audit committee members who must challenge the transition plan and the measures management retains
Also suitable for
- Finance teams of subsidiaries assessing the IFRS 19 reduced-disclosure regime
- Consultants and advisers supporting clients through the IAS 1 to IFRS 18 transition
- Any entity that reports adjusted performance measures to lenders or investors
Programme curriculum
Module 1
Why IFRS 18 exists, and what it does not change
- The Primary Financial Statements project and the investor concerns behind it: incomparable operating profit, unexplained adjusted measures, unhelpful aggregation
- What IFRS 18 replaces and what it retains from IAS 1
- The critical framing point: recognition and measurement are unchanged — net profit is identical
- The three pillars: defined subtotals, MPM disclosure, enhanced aggregation and disaggregation
- The complete set of financial statements, and the third statement of financial position after retrospective adjustment
- Effective date, early adoption, and the Ghana position
- Why this is urgent now: the comparative-period arithmetic for a 31 December year end, worked through on screen
Activity: Participants map their own year end to the IFRS 18 timeline and identify the date by which comparative-period categorisation must be complete.
Module 2
The five categories and the two required subtotals
- The five categories: operating, investing, financing, income taxes, discontinued operations
- The two required subtotals: operating profit, and profit before financing and income taxes
- Operating as the residual category — operating profit is now a defined figure, not a management choice
- What sits in investing and financing, including interest and interest-rate effects on lease and pension liabilities
- Operating expenses by nature, by function, or mixed — and the required nature information in the notes where a function presentation is used
- Additional subtotals: permitted, but consistent with the category structure and faithfully labelled
- Other comprehensive income — what remains unchanged
Activity: Category sort — participants classify 30 income and expense line items from a realistic set of accounts, including deliberately borderline items, then debrief on where the group split.
Module 3
Main business activity and classification judgement
- Main business activities — the concept, and why it determines classification
- The two specified activities: investing in assets, and providing financing to customers
- How classification shifts: income and expenses that would otherwise sit in investing or financing move to operating
- Entities with more than one main business activity, and cases where the answer is genuinely arguable
- Ghana application: banks and rural banks, insurance companies, investment holding structures, entities with in-house customer credit
- Foreign exchange differences and derivatives: classified by reference to the items they relate to
- Documenting the judgement — what the auditor will ask for
Activity: One entity scenario with an ambiguous main business activity — participants determine the classification and articulate the reasoning they would put in the file.
Module 4
Management-defined performance measures
- The MPM definition — a subtotal used in public communications outside the financial statements, communicating management's view of performance — and the subtotals specifically excluded
- What counts as public communications: annual report narrative, investor presentations, press releases, lender reporting, social media
- Measures likely to become MPMs: adjusted EBITDA, underlying profit, profit before exceptional items, normalised earnings, adjusted operating profit
- The single-note requirement: why the measure is useful, how it is calculated, reconciliation to the most comparable IFRS subtotal, and the tax and non-controlling-interest effect of each reconciling item
- The governance consequence: a measure the board has used loosely in investor material now carries audited disclosure obligations
- The practical decision: keep the measure and disclose it properly, or stop using it
Activity: MPM identification — participants review an annual report narrative and investor deck for a sample entity and list every measure that would become an MPM. Most groups miss several; that is the lesson.
Module 5
Aggregation, disaggregation and labelling
- The principles: aggregate items sharing characteristics; disaggregate items that do not
- The distinct roles of the primary financial statements and the notes — useful structured summary versus material detail
- Labelling: items must be described in a way that faithfully represents their characteristics
- The "other" problem: where a residual line is labelled "other", its composition must be explained — most existing financial statements fail this on first review
- Interaction with IFRS 8 segment reporting, and what IAS 34 requires of condensed interim statements
Application is folded into the Day 2 implementation workshop, where participants review and correct the labelling and disaggregation of their own statements.
Module 6
Consequential amendments
- IAS 7: the indirect-method reconciliation now begins with operating profit; dividends paid presented as financing, interest paid generally classified within financing
- Cash generation is unaffected — but presentation, trend analysis, covenant calculations and historical trend data are
- IAS 8 renamed Basis of Preparation of Financial Statements, with paragraphs relocated from IAS 1
- IAS 33: additional EPS metrics only where the numerator is an IFRS 18 total or subtotal, or an MPM
- IFRS 19 Subsidiaries without Public Accountability — the reduced disclosure regime, also effective 1 January 2027, and who may use it
Activity: Cash flow restatement — participants convert an indirect-method cash flow statement to the new starting point, reclassify interest and dividends, and identify which loan covenants would be affected.
Module 7
Transition planning
- Retrospective application under IAS 8, with restatement of comparatives
- The relief: the IAS 8 quantitative disclosures are not required; the requirement: a reconciliation between restated comparative amounts and the amounts previously presented under IAS 1
- Early adoption, and the disclosure of expected effects that auditors and regulators will look for in FY2026 statements
- Building the plan: impact assessment, the main-business-activity judgement, MPM inventory and board decisions, chart-of-accounts tagging, system and reporting-pack changes, consolidation implications, and communication with lenders and the audit committee
- Working backwards from 31 December 2027 to a dated task list
Activity: Participants draft a transition timetable for their own entity, with owners and dates. Outcome: A transition plan they can take to their CFO on Monday.
Module 8
Implementation workshop (3 hours)
- Map the chart of accounts to the five IFRS 18 categories, flagging every item requiring judgement
- Determine main business activity and apply any consequent reclassification
- Build the statement of profit or loss with both required subtotals and an appropriate expense presentation
- Restate the cash flow statement on the new basis
- Prepare the MPM note, including reconciliation, tax effect and non-controlling-interest effect
- Review labelling and disaggregation, correcting non-compliant line items
- Prepare the transition reconciliation and compile the judgement memorandum documenting each significant classification decision
Capstone: working from your own trial balance (or the supplied dataset), produce a restated set of primary statements, an MPM note and a documented judgement file — then present one difficult classification judgement and defend it to the room.
Course format
- Course code
- IFRS02
- Delivery
- Live online via Zoom
- Duration
- Two days, 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM with a 30-minute break
- Total training
- 12 hours
- CPD
- 12
- Class size
- Maximum 30 participants — required for the Day 2 workshop to function
- Assessment
- Scored exercises, a submitted transition plan, and the workshop output with judgement defence
- Certification
- Certificate of Competence
- Support
- Cohort WhatsApp group with the facilitator
- Learner portal
- Personal portal for meeting links and materials
- Facilitator
- Fuseini Sumaila (CA, ACMA)
Prerequisites
- Working knowledge of IFRS financial statement preparation — familiarity with IAS 1 is assumed
- Bring a trial balance or set of financial statements from your own entity for the Day 2 workshop; a supplied dataset is available for those who genuinely cannot
What your registration includes
- Two days of live, instructor-led training
- Course workbook with worked examples
- IFRS 18 category classification decision tree
- MPM identification checklist and note template
- Transition plan template with dated task list
- Cash flow restatement and judgement memorandum templates
- Before-and-after model financial statements (IAS 1 to IFRS 18)
- Access to a personal learner portal
- A cohort WhatsApp support group with the facilitator
- A Certificate of Competence recording 12 CPD hours, for participants scoring 70% or above
- A credential anyone can confirm through our public certificate verification page.
Training a team?
Companies registering five or more participants receive a 15% discount, plus a Corporate Portal to track attendance, download certificates, and manage employees from one account.
Frequently asked questions
Does IFRS 18 change my profit?
No. Recognition and measurement are unchanged and net profit is identical. What changes is how performance is structured, subtotalled, disaggregated and explained — and what must be disclosed about alternative performance measures.
Why attend now rather than closer to 2027?
IFRS 18 applies retrospectively. For a 31 December year end, the comparative period in your first IFRS 18 accounts is FY2026 — which is already running. Categorisation decisions need to be made before the comparative year closes, not after.
What prior knowledge do I need?
A working knowledge of IFRS financial statement preparation. Familiarity with IAS 1 is assumed.
What must I bring?
A trial balance or set of financial statements from your own entity, for the Day 2 implementation workshop. This is a firm registration requirement — a supplied dataset is available for those who genuinely cannot bring their own.
How will the training be delivered?
Live online via Zoom across two days, 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM with a 30-minute break each day.
How is the course assessed?
Scored category-sort and MPM-identification exercises, a submitted transition plan, and the implementation workshop output with a judgement defence. Participants scoring 70% or above receive a Certificate of Competence recording 12 CPD hours.
What will I take back to my organisation?
A restated set of primary statements, an MPM note, a documented judgement file, and a dated transition plan for your own entity — built from your own numbers during the Day 2 workshop.
Will I receive learning support?
Yes. Participants receive access to a learner portal and a cohort WhatsApp group with the facilitator.