IFRS Manual

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) provide a globally recognised framework for how companies prepare and present their financial statements. For organisations required to report under IFRS, listed companies in the EU and many international groups, the standards define how transactions are recognised, measured and disclosed.

But knowing the standards is not the same as applying them consistently. In organisations with multiple entities, finance teams across locations and regular staff turnover, IFRS accounting depends on more than technical expertise. It requires documented policies, practical guidance and a shared frame of reference that everyone can access and work from.

THE ROLE OF IFRS FOUNDATION

The IFRS Foundation plays a vital role in developing high-quality accounting and sustainability standards that benefit investors, companies and financial markets globally. It oversees two standard-setting boards:

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB):

Responsible for developing and maintaining IFRS Accounting Standards, which govern financial reporting for listed and large companies in over 140 jurisdictions.

The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB):

Responsible for developing IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards, which address sustainability-related risks and opportunities. The ISSB Standards have been effective as of 1 January 2024, responding to growing demand from investors for high-quality, globally comparable sustainability information.

IFRS ACCOUNTING POLICIES IN PRACTICE

Under IFRS, companies are required to define their accounting policies, the specific methods and judgements they apply when recognising, measuring and presenting transactions and balances. For example, a company must determine what it considers to be an item of property, plant and equipment, what costs are capitalised and how depreciation is calculated.

These decisions are not prescribed in detail by the standards. They require management judgement, and they need to be documented clearly so that employees and auditors understand how the standards are applied within the specific context of the organisation.

Accounting policies that exist only as a formal document — rarely consulted, hard to find, written in technical language — do not support consistent application. The result is interpretation differences between teams, booking decisions that vary across periods and findings during the audit process that could have been avoided.

WHAT A PRACTICAL IFRS MANUAL SHOULD COVER

An effective IFRS manual goes beyond reproducing the text of the standards. It translates IFRS requirements into practical guidance that finance teams can apply in their daily work. This includes:

Accounting policies — clearly written and specific to the company’s own transactions and business activities, not generic summaries of the standard.
Accounting treatments — step-by-step guidance on how to process common transactions, including booking instructions, GL accounts and relevant examples.
Chart of accounts — structured documentation of accounts and their intended use, linked to the applicable IFRS policies.
Definitions and terms — a shared glossary that prevents different parts of the organisation from interpreting the same term differently.
Change history — documentation of policy changes over time, so that reporting periods remain comparable and auditors can follow the rationale for any changes made.

IFRS AND SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING

Sustainability factors are becoming an integral part of investment decision-making. The ISSB Standards require companies to provide high-quality, globally comparable information on sustainability-related risks and opportunities, structured in a way that connects to and complements IFRS financial reporting.

Similar to IFRS accounting policies, it is important to implement the sustainability standards correctly and ensure their application through timely and accurate data collection in order to disclose the required information consistently.

THE FIDUGIUS IFRS SOLUTION

The Fidugius IFRS accounting manual brings together all IFRS accounting policies, treatments, chart of accounts guidance and definitions in one structured, searchable platform. It is built specifically for finance teams that need to apply IFRS consistently, not just understand it in principle.

The platform supports both the IASB and ISSB frameworks, making it suitable for organisations managing both financial and sustainability reporting under IFRS. Policies are easy to find, written in practical language and linked to real transaction examples. The IFRS manual can be deployed within your own SharePoint environment or as a managed SaaS solution, and is designed to be maintained independently by your own team. Read more about our ESG reporting manual.