What we doAdvisory & ConsultancyIFRS 18 Implementation
The new income statement, ready before it is compared.
IFRS 18 replaces IAS 1 for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027, and it applies retrospectively: the comparative year is already being reported. Every item of income and expense moves into a defined category, new subtotals become required, and the performance measures management publishes outside the accounts must be defined, reconciled and audited inside them. The date is fixed. What is not fixed is how ready your judgements, your data and your story are when the first IFRS 18 statements are read against the last IAS 1 ones.
Where this begins
Three conversations this practice usually starts with.
We know the date, not the impact
The finance team knows IFRS 18 is coming and the auditor has asked about it. Nobody has yet re-mapped the income statement line by line, decided the judgements that move numbers between categories, or estimated what operating profit will look like — and the board will want that answer before the first interim report, not after it.
Our key performance numbers live outside the accounts
Adjusted EBITDA, underlying profit, profit before exceptional items — the numbers the board steers on and investors quote are produced in a spreadsheet beside the ledger. Under IFRS 18, the ones that qualify as management-defined performance measures must be defined, reconciled to an IFRS subtotal and audited. Some will survive; some should not.
The systems cannot produce the new structure
The chart of accounts was built for the old income statement, regulatory and management reports draw on it in different ways, and 2026 has to be re-captured in the new categories while the year is still running. Without a single tagging design, the transition becomes a second set of books held together by manual adjustments.
What we deliver
Every judgement documented, every number traceable.
An IFRS 18 engagement leaves your organisation able to publish its first IFRS 18 statements with confidence: the impact quantified, the judgements decided and evidenced, the MPM note drafted, the systems producing the new structure from one source, and the people who sign it briefed. The deliverables are the working parts, built with your finance team.
The IFRS 18 impact assessment
A line-by-line re-mapping of your current income statement into the five categories — operating, investing, financing, income taxes and discontinued operations — with the new subtotals estimated, the movements explained and the decisions still open listed for the people who must take them.
Classification judgements & accounting policies
The judgements that move numbers between categories — including whether investing in assets or providing financing to customers is a main business activity — decided, documented and written into accounting policy, with the reasoning an auditor will ask to see.
The management-defined performance measures note
An inventory of every performance measure in your investor presentations, press releases, board packs and remuneration schemes; the decision on which qualify as MPMs and which to keep; and the single note with definitions, reconciliations to the nearest IFRS subtotal and the tax and non-controlling-interest effect of each adjustment.
Aggregation, disaggregation & expenses by nature
The line items on the face of the statements and in the notes reviewed against the new aggregation and labelling rules, the limits on items labelled other applied, and the expenses-by-nature disclosure designed where expenses are presented by function.
Chart of accounts, data & systems
A tagging design that produces IFRS 18 presentation, management reporting and regulatory returns from one ledger; the re-capture of the comparative year; parallel running; and the controls over manual adjustments during transition.
Transition, governance & communication
Restated comparatives and transition disclosures, the first-year interim calendar, the consequential changes to the cash flow statement and earnings per share, audit committee briefings, early engagement with the external auditor, and the re-basing of covenants, remuneration metrics and investor guidance.
How the engagement runs
Assess. Decide. Build. Report.
Assess
The income statement re-mapped, the subtotals estimated and the MPMs inventoried — delivered in weeks, with the open judgements listed for decision.
Decide
The classification judgements, accounting policies and MPM choices taken with your finance leadership and documented for the auditor.
Build
Chart-of-accounts tagging, data, the restated comparative year and parallel running — so the new structure comes out of the system, not a workbook.
Report
Transition disclosures, the first interim and annual statements, the audit committee sign-off and the investor conversation — then ownership handed over.
Perimeter and fee are fixed at the impact assessment — engagements are scoped to a defined end: your first IFRS 18 statements, published and defended.
Questions we are asked
Before the first conversation.
When does IFRS 18 take effect, and why start now?
IFRS 18 applies to annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027, with earlier application permitted. Because it applies retrospectively, an organisation with a calendar year end must present its 2026 comparatives in the new structure, and its first 2027 interim report already carries the new subtotals and MPM disclosure. The comparative year is therefore already being lived, which is why the judgements and the data need to be settled now rather than at the first year end.
Does IFRS 18 change reported profit?
IFRS 18 changes how income and expenses are presented and disclosed, not how they are recognised or measured, so net profit itself does not change. What changes is what the reader sees on the way to it: new categories, required subtotals such as operating profit, tighter rules on aggregation and on items labelled other, and audited disclosure of the performance measures management chooses to publish.
Which organisations need IFRS 18 implementation support?
Any entity that prepares financial statements under IFRS — listed and private companies, groups with subsidiaries in several sectors, banks, insurers, finance companies and other financial institutions. The work is heaviest where the income statement mixes activities, where the board and investors rely on adjusted measures, and where several reporting systems feed the accounts.
What are management-defined performance measures?
They are subtotals of income and expenses that an organisation uses in public communications outside its financial statements to give management’s view of an aspect of its financial performance — adjusted EBITDA or underlying profit are common examples. Under IFRS 18 each must be disclosed in a single note with its definition, why it is useful, a reconciliation to the nearest IFRS subtotal and the tax and non-controlling-interest effects of each adjustment.
Have you implemented IFRS 18 before?
No organisation has yet completed an IFRS 18 transition: the standard first applies to annual periods beginning on 1 January 2027. What the practice brings is a bench of financial reporting, technical accounting, regulatory reporting and finance-systems practitioners, and the curriculum BIZENIUS delivers on IFRS across its markets. We would rather say that plainly than claim a track record nobody can yet have.
Can you work alongside our auditor?
Yes, and we recommend it. The auditor will form a view on the same judgements, so they are raised early, documented with the reasoning and taken to the audit committee before the comparative year closes. We prepare the analysis and the paper trail; the decisions and the accounts remain yours, and the auditor’s independence is untouched.
Background reading on this subject
Written by the practitioners who lead the programme — read before you enquire.
IFRS 18 explained: the new income statement, MPMs and what to do before 2027
A practical guide to IFRS 18 Presentation and Disclosure in Financial Statements — the five categories, the new subtotals, management-defined performance measures, the knock-on changes to cash flow and interim reporting, and an implementation plan for the 2026 comparative year.
Read more →InsightWhere does net interest income sit under IFRS 18? A guide for banks
Why a bank’s net interest income stays inside operating profit under IFRS 18, the accounting policy choice on funding that decides which subtotals a bank presents, the items where the answer is not obvious, and which bank performance measures become MPMs.
Read more →The Capability Arc™
This practice is one point on the arc.
Most IFRS 18 clients pair the engagement with the programme that builds the internal bench — because the judgements have to be owned and defended by the people who sign the accounts.
Learn it · Training
IFRS 18 Implementation Masterclass for Banks & Financial Institutions
Two days on the category judgements, the MPM note, chart-of-accounts tagging, restatement and first-year interims — for finance executives and the teams who build the numbers.
Fix it · Advisory
Regulatory Reporting Advisory
When IFRS presentation and regulatory returns have to reconcile from one ledger, with an operating model that does not depend on a scramble.
Build it · Smart IT
Reporting Automation & Dashboards
When the new categories, subtotals and MPM reconciliations need to come out of the system rather than out of re-keyed workbooks.
The ask
Ask for a confidential IFRS 18 impact review.
A senior practitioner reads your current income statement, your published performance measures and how your reporting is produced — and tells you, in a private working session, which judgements will move the most, which measures are likely to become MPMs, and what has to be in place before the comparative year closes.
Confidential by default; under NDA on request. A senior practitioner replies within two working days.
IFRS 18 Implementation
Leave the question with us.
Two lines on the mandate is enough — a senior practitioner replies within one business day.