Hiring for IFRS Conversion: The Skill Set You Need

An IFRS conversion is one of the few finance projects where the wrong hire is discovered late and costs a great deal. It is bounded, technical, deadline-bound and largely invisible until the first reporting date under the new framework, at which point any gaps become an audit problem rather than a project one. Businesses converting from FRS 102 to IFRS, usually because an investor, a listing, a lender or a parent requires it, need to hire for a specific kind of experience that general finance strength does not substitute for. This guide covers when and why companies convert, the skill set the project needs, how to build the team, what it costs and how long it takes. It supports our reporting accountant recruitment and interim accountancy recruitment practices, and pairs with our technical guides to IFRS versus UK GAAP in practice, revenue recognition under IFRS 15 and lease accounting under IFRS 16.

When and why businesses convert

Conversions are almost never voluntary. Each trigger carries a hard deadline, and the deadline, not the accounting, usually defines the hiring problem. The common ones:

• A listing or admission. Companies with securities admitted to a UK regulated market, such as the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange, must prepare consolidated accounts under UK-adopted international accounting standards. The AIM market also requires IFRS for the consolidated accounts of UK-incorporated companies. An IPO typically needs a historical financial track record presented on an IFRS basis, so the conversion work starts well before the float date.
• A private equity exit to a listed or IFRS-reporting buyer. Where the likely buyer reports under IFRS, presenting the target on that basis, or at least quantifying the differences, reduces friction in diligence and in the price discussion. Our guide to the Financial Controller’s role in exit preparation covers the wider workload.
• Group reporting to an IFRS parent. An overseas or listed parent consolidating under IFRS will need its UK subsidiaries’ reporting packs on an IFRS basis, often within weeks of acquisition, and frequently with the expectation that the statutory accounts follow.
• FRS 101 for subsidiaries. Subsidiaries of IFRS groups often move their own statutory accounts to FRS 101, the reduced disclosure framework published by the Financial Reporting Council. It applies IFRS recognition and measurement with fewer disclosures, provided the entity is included in publicly available group accounts and shareholders have been notified and do not object. It removes the need to maintain two sets of numbers for group and statutory purposes.
• Lenders and investors. A banking or covenant package defined on IFRS measures, or an investor who reports under IFRS, can force the change without any transaction at all.

The trigger matters for hiring because it decides the scope. A subsidiary moving to FRS 101 needs measurement work with light disclosure; an IPO needs full IFRS statements, a longer restated history, and a team that can survive reporting accountant and sponsor scrutiny.

What the project actually involves

Conversion is not a translation exercise. It is a series of technical judgements applied retrospectively, each with a knock-on effect. The standards themselves are issued by the IFRS Foundation and adopted for UK use by the UK Endorsement Board. The workstreams:

Gap analysis. Identifying every area where the business’s current FRS 102 treatment differs from IFRS, and quantifying the effect. This is the foundation and it determines everything that follows. Done badly, the project discovers problems late.

The high-impact standards. In most conversions the work concentrates in a handful: IFRS 15 revenue recognition, where the five-step model can change timing; IFRS 16 leases, which brings leases onto the balance sheet and reshapes EBITDA and covenant measures; IFRS 9 financial instruments, including expected credit losses; and business combinations, goodwill and intangibles, where FRS 102’s goodwill amortisation gives way to annual impairment testing. The FRS 102 amendments effective for periods beginning on or after 1 January 2026 introduce a five-step revenue model and on-balance-sheet lease accounting for lessees, which narrows some gaps, but the IFRS versions still differ in detail and the transition work remains.

Transition date and restatement under IFRS 1. IFRS 1 First-time Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards governs the move. The business prepares an opening IFRS balance sheet at the transition date (the start of the earliest comparative period presented), applies the mandatory exceptions and chooses among the optional exemptions, such as not restating past business combinations or using fair value as deemed cost for certain assets, then restates the comparatives and reconciles equity and profit from the old framework to the new. This is where technical judgement is most concentrated and where inexperience shows.

Deferred tax under IAS 12. Every measurement difference has a tax effect, and deferred tax is one of the areas where conversions most often go wrong. See our guide to deferred tax fundamentals.

Disclosure build. IFRS disclosure requirements are materially heavier. The notes are a project of their own and are usually under-scoped.

Systems and process. Chart of accounts changes, lease data capture, revenue contract data and the ongoing reporting process under the new framework, because the conversion ends but the reporting continues. For groups, the consolidation process often needs rebuilding at the same time; our group consolidation practical guide covers that work.

And the wider consequences: covenant definitions, bonus and incentive measures, distributable reserves and management reporting all move when the framework does. Businesses that treat conversion as a purely technical exercise are surprised by these.

IFRS 18: the new presentation standard

Any conversion now in progress has to account for IFRS 18 Presentation and Disclosure in Financial Statements, which replaces IAS 1 for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027 and was adopted for use in the UK in December 2025. It requires income and expenses to be classified into operating, investing, financing, income tax and discontinued operations categories, introduces defined subtotals including operating profit, and requires disclosure and reconciliation of management-defined performance measures. It applies retrospectively, so a business with a December 2027 year-end needs its 2026 comparatives on the new basis. For a first-time adopter reporting from 2027 onwards, IFRS 18 is simply part of the destination; the practical point for hiring is that candidates should already have worked through it, not be planning to learn it on your project.

The skill set you actually need

Four capabilities, and the first is the one most specifications omit.

Prior conversion experience. Not IFRS knowledge: conversion experience. Someone who has reported under IFRS knows the destination; someone who has run a conversion knows the route, the IFRS 1 exemptions worth taking, where the effort concentrates and what gets discovered late. The difference is worth a great deal on a deadline, and it is the single most useful filter in the shortlist.

Technical depth in the standards that matter to you. Which ones depends entirely on your business. A services business with long contracts needs IFRS 15 depth; a retailer with a property estate needs IFRS 16; a lender or a business with significant receivables needs IFRS 9; an acquisitive group needs business combinations and impairment. Identify yours from the gap analysis and specify accordingly. Deferred tax under IAS 12 touches every one of them.

Documentation discipline. Every judgement needs a memo the auditors will accept, written at the time rather than reconstructed. Conversions generate a large volume of technical papers, and a candidate who cannot write one clearly will slow the audit considerably. See writing technical accounting memos.

Auditor management. The auditors will be involved throughout. A conversion where positions are agreed as they are formed goes smoothly; one where they are presented at the end does not. This is a relationship skill as much as a technical one, and our guide to managing the year-end audit relationship covers the habits that help.

Systems and data capability sits underneath all four, particularly for IFRS 16, where the practical difficulty is usually assembling complete lease data rather than the accounting itself. Professional qualification (ICAEW or ACCA in most cases) is the baseline rather than the differentiator.

Building the team

Most successful conversions use a small, deliberate team rather than one heroic hire. Three roles cover nearly every project.

• Project lead. Owns the plan, the gap analysis, the IFRS 1 elections and the relationship with the auditors and any reporting accountants. In a larger group this is often the Group Financial Controller or Group Reporting Manager; where that person lacks conversion experience, an interim lead with several conversions behind them is the safer choice.
• Technical accountant. Writes the accounting papers, works through each standard and builds the disclosures. This can be a permanent senior or group financial accountant with strong technical grounding, or a contractor for the duration.
• Interim support. Extra capacity for data gathering (lease schedules, revenue contracts, fixed asset registers), restating comparatives and dual running, so that business-as-usual reporting does not collapse while the project runs. Our interim financial accountant recruitment service fills these seats.

Above the team, someone senior has to own the commercial consequences (covenants, incentive plans, investor messaging), usually the Finance Director or CFO. Where the business needs that board-level appointment as well, sister firm FD Capital handles FD and CFO searches.

Interim or permanent?

For most businesses the project lead and extra capacity should be interim, and the reasoning is straightforward.

The work is bounded. A conversion has a start, an end and a deliverable. Once the first full reporting cycle under IFRS is complete, the specialist workload drops sharply, and a permanent hire made for the project becomes an expensive general resource.

The experience is scarce and expensive to hire permanently. Conversion specialists command a premium, and buying that premium for six to twelve months is usually cheaper than carrying it indefinitely.

Pattern recognition matters most under deadline. Someone who has done three conversions will move faster than a strong technical accountant learning on yours, and on a fixed reporting date that speed is the whole point.

The case for permanent exists where the conversion is the start of a wider change: a group heading for listing, or a business whose reporting complexity is increasing permanently. In that case hire the permanent Group Financial Accountant or reporting manager you will need anyway, and choose one with conversion experience. A common and sensible hybrid: an interim specialist leads the conversion while your permanent Financial Accountant works alongside them and inherits the ongoing reporting. You buy the expertise and keep the knowledge, which is the outcome to aim for. A planned interim finance handover makes sure that knowledge transfer actually happens.

What it costs

The figures below are our current London benchmarks for the roles a conversion usually needs. Pay elsewhere in the UK is typically lower; the Financial Accountant salary guide and Group Financial Controller salary guide cover regional ranges.

Conversion experience typically pushes a candidate towards the top of these ranges. For permanent hires, add on-costs: employer National Insurance is 15% on earnings above £5,000 a year. Our interim finance day rate card covers the wider interim market.

The comparison worth making is against advisory fees. A conversion run entirely by an accountancy firm usually costs considerably more than an interim specialist doing the same technical work, and leaves less knowledge in the business afterwards. Most businesses use both: an interim running the project day to day, with the auditors or an adviser consulted on the hardest judgements. Note that auditor independence rules limit how far your audit firm can help prepare the numbers it will then audit, which is another reason to have the capability in-house.

An indicative conversion timeline

Timelines vary with the trigger, the number of entities and the state of the data, but most conversions follow the same sequence. The table counts back from the first reporting date under IFRS; an IPO usually needs more restated history and so starts earlier.

The hiring implication: the project lead needs to be in place at the scoping stage, not when the gap analysis is already late. Interim capacity is usually needed from the opening balance sheet through to audit clearance.

Specifying and assessing the role

Four things to include in the brief, and the first is the one that transforms the shortlist. Name the trigger and the deadline: “IFRS conversion ahead of investor reporting, first IFRS accounts for the year ending [date]” tells a specialist exactly what they are being asked for. Name the standards you expect to matter, from your gap analysis. State the entity structure and the framework you are converting from. And be clear about what happens afterwards: whether the role ends at audit clearance or rolls into ongoing reporting. Our guide to briefing an interim finance search covers the rest.

For assessment, three questions do most of the work: how many conversions have you run, and what were the triggers? Which standard caused the most difficulty, and why? And what did you discover late that you would look for earlier next time? That last question separates people who have genuinely run one from people who have supported one. Ask the candidate to talk through an IFRS 1 exemption they chose not to take, and why; and ask how they have handled IFRS 18 comparatives. Our Financial Accountant interview questions and Group Financial Controller interview questions cover the wider competencies.

Common mistakes

• Hiring IFRS experience instead of conversion experience. Reporting under IFRS in a mature group is not the same as getting a business onto it.
• Starting too late. The transition date is usually the start of the comparative period, so it is often already behind you when the project begins.
• Under-scoping disclosures and deferred tax. Both are routinely left to the final months, when there is no time to work through them properly.
• Ignoring the commercial consequences. Covenants, earn-outs and incentive measures need to be reviewed early, not after the numbers have moved.
• No handover plan. If the interim leaves without a trained successor, the first year of ongoing IFRS reporting becomes a second project.

Frequently asked questions

How long does an IFRS conversion take?

For a single entity or a straightforward group, typically twelve to eighteen months from scoping to first IFRS accounts, with the heaviest work in the six to nine months before the reporting date. IPOs and complex groups take longer because more history has to be restated.

Do subsidiaries of IFRS groups have to convert their own accounts?

Not necessarily. Many keep FRS 102 locally and prepare IFRS reporting packs for the group. Moving the statutory accounts to FRS 101 avoids maintaining two bases, using IFRS measurement with reduced disclosures, subject to the conditions set out in the standard.

Should we hire permanently or use an interim for the conversion?

Usually an interim for the project lead role, with a permanent Financial Accountant or reporting manager working alongside to inherit the reporting. Hire permanently for the lead role only where the conversion is the start of permanently more complex reporting.

What does IFRS 18 mean for a conversion?

For periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027, IFRS 18 replaces IAS 1 and changes how the income statement is structured and how management performance measures are disclosed. A first-time adopter reporting from 2027 should build its IFRS statements on the IFRS 18 basis from the start, including comparatives.

Can our auditors run the conversion for us?

They can advise and will review every judgement, but independence rules limit how far an audit firm can prepare the figures it audits. Most businesses run the work in-house, with interim specialists where needed, and consult the auditors as positions are formed.