Executive summary (30 seconds):
Book a short consultation with a statutory auditor and assess which risks or actions may apply to your situation.
Book a short consultation with a statutory auditor and assess which risks or actions may apply to your situation.
Reporting packs — what each subsidiary should deliver
- Balance sheet mapped to group consolidation lines
- P&L mapped to revenue, costs, EBIT and EBITDA lines
- Cash flow or a bridge to group cash flow
- Intra-group balance schedule covering receivables, payables, revenues and costs
- Lease note and any IFRS 16 adjustments
- Related-party transactions schedule
- Fixed asset roll-forward
- Provision movement schedule
- Deferred tax schedule
- Local GAAP to IFRS bridge where relevant
Eliminations and intra-group reconciliation
From my practice: Reconcile before upload, not after. Intra-group balances should match before they reach the consolidation file. Every difference means either an error or a policy mismatch, and both need to be resolved early.
- Different recognition dates between group entities
- Foreign exchange differences
- Different accounting policies
- Dividends recognised on one side only
Readiness for group audit
- Group audit instructions distributed to component entities in advance
- Agreed scope with component auditors where applicable
- Schedule of consolidation adjustments with rationale
- Documentation of who approved eliminations and on what basis
- Goodwill impairment support for each CGU
- Group-level narrative on risk, going concern and subsequent events
- List of related parties or entities excluded from consolidation with rationale
Practical shortcut: one consolidation control file with a traffic-light view of each elimination line can cut explanation time with the group auditor dramatically.
FAQ
Common questions
Can group consolidation work if local books stay under Polish GAAP?▾
Yes, but then the CFO must maintain a robust bridge from local GAAP to the group reporting basis, often IFRS, and keep it updated every reporting cycle.
What usually causes the biggest last-minute delays?▾
Late intra-group reconciliations, missing pack instructions and eliminations attempted before the underlying balances are aligned.
Want to discuss how this topic applies to your company?
Book a short consultation with a statutory auditor and assess which risks or actions may apply to your situation.
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