ifrs-disclosure-checklist

IFRS Disclosure Checklist

This skill helps a preparer or auditor screen a set of IFRS financial statements (or a notes draft) for completeness against the core presentation and disclosure requirements of IAS 1, IAS 7, IFRS 7, IFRS 15 and IFRS 16. It works through each requirement systematically, flags what is missing or thin, points to the exact standard paragraph, and proposes concrete remediation wording. It is aimed at audit seniors and managers performing a disclosure review, and at finance teams self-checking a draft before it goes to the auditor or the board.

It is a screening aid for the most commonly tested disclosures, not an exhaustive checklist of every IFRS in issue. Treat clean results as "no gaps found in the items checked," never as a guarantee of full compliance.

When to use this

• Reviewing a year-end or interim IFRS financial-statements draft for disclosure completeness.
• Audit fieldwork: building or completing the disclosure-checklist workpaper before manager review.
• Finance close: self-checking notes before submission to auditors.
• Onboarding a new reporting entity and wanting a baseline of the core disclosure set.
• Sanity-checking a single area (e.g. only the IFRS 16 lease note, or only the IFRS 7 risk disclosures).

Do not use this for first-time adoption (IFRS 1), business combinations (IFRS 3), or fair-value hierarchy mechanics (IFRS 13) detail; those need their own dedicated review. Flag them as out of scope if the entity has them.

Inputs

Provide one or both of:

• The financial-statements draft (PDF, Word, or text export) including primary statements and notes; OR
• A structured list of the disclosures the entity has made.

Also useful: the entity's IFRS framework (full IFRS vs IFRS for SMEs), whether it is a first-time adopter, functional/presentation currency, and whether it has leases, financial instruments measured at fair value, or revenue from contracts with customers.

A bundled synthetic sample, samples/sample-fs-disclosures.csv, lists the disclosure items present in a small fictional manufacturer's draft (one row per disclosure item with a present/partial/absent flag). Use it to see the expected input shape and to run the worked example.

How to do it

Work standard by standard. For each requirement, decide one of: Present (adequate), Partial (present but incomplete or generic), or Absent. Record the standard paragraph reference for every item. Where the entity does not have the underlying item (e.g. no leases), mark Not applicable with a one-line basis.

1. IAS 1 - Presentation of financial statements

1. Explicit and unreserved statement of compliance with IFRS (IAS 1.16). This is binary: it is either stated in the accounting-policies note or it is a gap.
2. Complete set of statements present (IAS 1.10): statement of financial position, statement of profit or loss and OCI, statement of changes in equity, statement of cash flows, notes, and comparatives.
3. Going-concern assessment disclosed where there are material uncertainties (IAS 1.25).
4. Current/non-current classification applied, or a liquidity presentation justified as more relevant (IAS 1.60).
5. Material accounting-policy information disclosed (IAS 1.117, as amended) - policies that are entity-specific and material, not boilerplate copied from the standard.
6. Judgements with the most significant effect (IAS 1.122) and sources of estimation uncertainty with major risk of material adjustment within the next year (IAS 1.125) - these two are distinct; check both are present and entity-specific.
7. Capital management objectives, policies and processes (IAS 1.134-135).
8. No offsetting of assets/liabilities or income/expenses unless required or permitted (IAS 1.32).

2. IAS 7 - Statement of cash flows

1. Cash flows classified into operating, investing and financing (IAS 7.10).
2. Operating cash flows by direct or indirect method, applied consistently (IAS 7.18).
3. Components of cash and cash equivalents reconciled to the statement of financial position (IAS 7.45).
4. Reconciliation of liabilities arising from financing activities - the "net debt reconciliation" showing cash vs non-cash movements (IAS 7.44A-44E). Frequently missing or incomplete; check non-cash items (FX, new leases, fair-value changes) are shown.
5. Interest and dividends paid/received classified consistently and disclosed separately (IAS 7.31).
6. Significant non-cash investing/financing transactions disclosed (IAS 7.43).

3. IFRS 7 - Financial instruments: disclosures

1. Categories of financial assets and liabilities and their carrying amounts (IFRS 7.8).
2. Credit risk: exposure, concentrations, and the IFRS 9 expected-credit-loss (ECL) approach including how significant increases in credit risk are assessed (IFRS 7.35A-35N).
3. Liquidity risk: maturity analysis for financial liabilities (contractual undiscounted cash flows) and how liquidity is managed (IFRS 7.39).
4. Market risk: sensitivity analysis for each type of market risk (currency, interest rate, other price), with method and assumptions (IFRS 7.40-42).
5. Hedge-accounting disclosures if hedge accounting is applied (IFRS 7.21A-24G).
6. Fair-value disclosures and the fair-value hierarchy level for items measured at fair value (IFRS 7.25-30 with IFRS 13 cross-reference).

4. IFRS 15 - Revenue from contracts with customers

1. Disaggregation of revenue into categories depicting how economic factors affect timing/amount (IFRS 15.114-115).
2. Contract balances: receivables, contract assets and contract liabilities, with opening/closing and explanation of significant changes (IFRS 15.116-118).
3. Performance obligations: when satisfied, significant payment terms, nature of goods/services (IFRS 15.119).
4. Transaction price allocated to remaining (unsatisfied) performance obligations, where applicable (IFRS 15.120-122).
5. Significant judgements: timing of satisfaction (point in time vs over time) and determining/allocating transaction price (IFRS 15.123-126).
6. Accounting policy for revenue recognition that is entity-specific (links to IAS 1.117).

5. IFRS 16 - Leases (lessee, core items)

1. Right-of-use assets by class of underlying asset (IFRS 16.53(j) / 47).
2. Depreciation charge for right-of-use assets by class and additions in the period (IFRS 16.53).
3. Interest expense on lease liabilities (IFRS 16.53(b)).
4. Maturity analysis of lease liabilities, applying IFRS 7.39 and B11 (IFRS 16.58).
5. Expense for short-term and low-value-asset leases taken under the recognition exemptions (IFRS 16.53(c)-(d), 6).
6. Total cash outflow for leases (IFRS 16.53(g)).
7. Variable lease payments not in the liability measurement, and any sale-and-leaseback effects (IFRS 16.53(e)). If the entity is a lessor, switch to IFRS 16.89-97 instead.

6. Scoring and prioritisation

For each gap, assign a severity:

• High: omission of a required primary statement, the compliance statement, the IAS 7.44A reconciliation, IFRS 7 risk disclosures, or any item that would change a user's view. Likely an audit adjustment / qualification risk.
• Medium: present but generic/boilerplate, missing entity-specific detail, or a partial maturity/sensitivity analysis.
• Low: presentation or cross-referencing improvements, immaterial omissions.

Apply a materiality lens: do not raise High gaps for genuinely immaterial balances, but state the basis for treating something as immaterial.

Output

Produce a Markdown disclosure-review workpaper with these sections:

1. Header: entity name, period, framework (full IFRS / IFRS for SMEs), reviewer note that this is a screening of core items only, date, and preparer.
2. Summary table: counts of Present / Partial / Absent / Not applicable per standard, plus total High/Medium/Low gaps.
3. Gap register table with columns: Ref (item id), Standard (e.g. IAS 1), Para (e.g. 1.122), Requirement (short description), Status (Present/Partial/Absent/N/A), Severity (High/Med/Low), Finding (what is missing/thin), Suggested remediation (concrete wording or action).
4. Out-of-scope note: standards not covered (IFRS 1/3/13 detail, etc.) the entity should review separately.

If a CSV is preferred, output the gap register with the same columns, one row per item, UTF-8, comma-separated, header row included.

Quality checks

• Every gap row cites a specific paragraph, not just the standard number.
• Distinguish IAS 1.122 judgements from IAS 1.125 estimation uncertainty - these are commonly conflated; do not let one cover the other.
• Confirm the IAS 7.44A financing-liabilities reconciliation includes non-cash movements (new leases, FX, accretion), not only cash.
• Do not raise a gap for an item the entity genuinely does not have; mark Not applicable with a basis.
• Check accounting-policy and judgement disclosures are entity-specific - generic restatement of the standard is a Partial, not a Present.
• Do not over-state severity for immaterial items; record the materiality basis.
• Remediation must be actionable (what to add and where), not "consider enhancing disclosure."
• State clearly that this covers core items only and is not a full compliance checklist.

Worked example

Using samples/sample-fs-disclosures.csv for Aurora Components Ltd (year ended 31 Dec 2025, full IFRS):

• The file shows the IAS 1.16 compliance statement as present - mark Present.
• IAS 7 financing-liabilities reconciliation is flagged partial (cash movements only). Raise a High gap: "Net debt reconciliation omits non-cash movements - add a column for new lease additions and FX on borrowings (IAS 7.44B-44C)."
• IFRS 7 liquidity maturity analysis is absent. Raise a High gap: "Add a contractual undiscounted maturity table for financial liabilities, with bands and a management commentary on liquidity risk (IFRS 7.39)."
• IFRS 16 total cash outflow for leases is absent. Raise a Medium gap citing IFRS 16.53(g).
• IFRS 15 disaggregation is partial (single line). Raise a Medium gap: "Disaggregate revenue by product line and timing (point in time vs over time) per IFRS 15.114-115."

The output workpaper then summarises: e.g. 14 Present, 3 Partial, 2 Absent, with 2 High and 3 Medium gaps, and lists each in the gap register with remediation.

Disclaimer

Disclaimer: This skill is a drafting and analysis aid, not professional advice. It does not provide accounting, audit, tax, investment, or legal advice. All output must be reviewed and approved by a qualified professional before use or reliance.

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