Financial Reporting

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are global accounting standards developed by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).
Applying IFRS can help improve the quality, comparability, and transparency of your financial information. Proper application of IFRS increases your company's credibility and improves access to credit and investment opportunities.
In practice, GAAP conversion (e.g. to IFRS or US GAAP) often occur in the following scenario:

In many cases, IFRS financial statements are also accepted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for groups seeking a listing in the United States and headquartered outside the United States. In other cases, a conversion to US GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) is required.

Under both IFRS and US GAAP, the accounting standards for financial instruments, revenue recognition and leases, for example, pose major challenges for the preparers of consolidated financial statements. CFGI experts help you navigate the complexity of the standards so you can fully focus on running your business and day-to-day operations.

When preparing consolidated financial statements according to German GAAP (HGB) and IFRS, a large number of requirements have to be considered. CFGI supports you both in the initial preparation of consolidated financial statements - for example after acquisitions or carve outs - and in the recurring preparation of financial statements up to the complete outsourcing of the preparation of consolidated financial statements. From a multitude of projects, CFGI has the necessary expertise and experience to support you according to your individual needs.
You decide whether you want to outsource individual topics or the full preparation of your consolidated financial statements to us:

This means we have all the relevant tools for preparing consolidated financial statements - and can help you smooth processes and achieve efficiency gains on this basis.

In the early phases of start-ups, the focus is often on the product and not yet on the accounting and reporting. Therefore, it is even more important to professionally set up the finance and accounting department on the growth path and to develop an effective financial roadmap. The requirements of internal and external stakeholders increase with the number of financing rounds, or other transactions, such as an IPO or a sale to a corporate or private equity company.

The most important (finance) issues for start-ups are determined by the respective development phase. Our consultants provide comprehensive support at all stages in the professionalization and optimization of the finance fuction, including the following topics:

The larger your company and the more decentralized your accounting structure (e.g., with a large number of subsidiaries), the more difficult it is to ensure uniform accounting throughout the company and the same high quality of financial information within the group.
Given this situation, a customized accounting guideline is an important communication tool within the accounting process and company-wide compliance system.
Particularly in the case of financial reporting in accordance with IFRS, the numerous and complex regulations require ongoing and comprehensive optimization of the accounting manual. In enforcement proceedings by the FREP, the existence of an up-to-date accounting manual that can be applied uniformly throughout the Group can also be of decisive importance.
We do not recommend rigid accounting manuals, but encourage our clients to use content management systems, so-called Wiki software or Wiki engines to provide its employees with agile manuals.
Companies often do not have the resources to keep their accounting guidelines up to date. The basis for efficient reporting and corporate management is the uniform application of accounting and valuation principles as well as internal procedural instructions.

CFGI supports you in the preparation and further development of an accounting guideline adapted to your specific needs according to German GAAP, IFRS or US GAAP.

Issuers of securities in the EU will have to prepare annual financial reports in XHTML format from January 1, 2020.
This means that the company's financial statements and other information will have to be "tagged" according to the EU taxonomy to enable stakeholders to automatically analyze the relevant annual and consolidated financial statements and thus ensure better comparability.
Following the tagging of the "primary financial statements", i.e. balance sheet, income statement, statement of comprehensive income, cash flow statement and statement of changes in equity, and of so-called "entity-specific disclosures", the tagging of the notes to the consolidated financial statements is also planned from 2022.

In addition, you have the option of outsourcing the entire ESEF process to CFGI.

The quality of published financial statements and the time it takes to prepare them are increasingly becoming competitive criteria due to direct comparability with national and international competitors.
To meet the increased requirements, both listed companies and medium-sized enterprises need reliable and management-relevant reporting at benchmarkable costs.
This requires appropriately optimized closing processes (quality close, fast close or closing excellence) and integrated IT systems for the timely and high-quality provision of financial statements.
The particular challenge here is to ensure that these preparation processes are cost-efficient and that the resulting financial statements fully meet the relevant individual compliance requirements.

Our project approach is variable and adapts to your individual processes in the context of preparing financial statements.

Companies in growth or transformation processes often face high capital requirements. Possible financing options are regular IPOs or a merger with a listed special purpose acquisition company ("SPAC"). The going public process is complex and often transforms the companies processes to meet the requirements.
It requires significant effort and the cooperation of many different areas of your company.
Important prerequisites for a successful IPO are, above all, a sustainable business model, the right transaction structure and an efficient reporting system. To achieve this, the processes, systems and functions must meet regulatory requirements. You also need an attractive equity story that you can back up with relevant financial information and market data, as well as strong management capabilities.

Our highly specialized and industry-experienced team supports you in all phases of the IPO process and helps with the related structural, operational and regulatory issues. We guide you through the entire IPO and transformation process, and our clients particularly value our objective and in-depth advice.

Sustainable investing is becoming an increasingly important issue. That is why companies need a convincing ESG concept. Our ESG Advisory uses in-depth data gathering and analysis to help companies meet investors' expectations and turn them into a holistic, customized ESG strategy.
PAS ESG Advisory shows you how to strengthen trust, mitigate risk and create new value to build a sustainable future. PAS ESG Advisory's solutions are both holistic and practical. Our experts work with you side-by-side through every step of your ESG transformation. With our industry-leading experience, data-driven technology, and powerful partnerships, you can turn insights into opportunities for your business, your people, and our planet.

The ESG team of transformation, valuation, and reporting specialists can help you do this in the following ways:

The first step is to analyze whether your companies’ activities are in scope of the EU taxonomy directive. This involves a comprehensive analysis to identify EU taxonomy compliant revenues, capital, and operating expenditures.
Based on the findings of the criteria analysis, the data model is developed. For this purpose, the data relevant for the identified economic activities must first be defined and gathered. The relevant data may be provided from existing systems and databases or may have to be newly collected.
Based on the findings of the analysis of the current situation, the preparation of the target concept takes place. Future processes, systems, interfaces and the scope of reporting must be defined.
During implementation, the focus is on implementing the developed concepts and making the necessary adjustments to IT systems and processes to enable data generation of the required EU taxonomy key figures.
Both existing software solutions and the implementation of a selected new software solution can be considered for the technical implementation.

Increasing complexity, market changes, geopolitical events, regulatory requirements and the many opportunities offered by digitalization require new strategies for the financial organization. The role of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is becoming increasingly important for the sustainable success of the company.

The CFO's previous focus was on providing proper, transparent and reliable financial management and reporting. This role is increasingly being expanded, partly due to the significant increase in regulatory requirements relating to sustainability (also known as Environmental Social Governance - ESG).

The CFO is increasingly becoming a strategic partner to the company management and a point of contact for stakeholders; he is actively responsible for increasing value and developing financial performance.

In future, the finance organization will see itself as a unit comprising (financial) economic management and the strategic orientation of the company. This makes it all the less surprising that more and more CEOs are being recruited from the CFO position.

Our goal is an effective and efficient finance organization that is optimally positioned around the individual CFO agenda. As part of our CFO Strategy & Operation Advisory, a multidisciplinary team of experts works to provide CFOs and their financial organizations with profitable support and sustainable alignment for the future.

We support you in mastering the new challenges in a value-oriented and efficient manner and in finding results-oriented solutions and approaches together with you. The focus is on the following topics:

Our data-based analyses enable companies to quickly assess opportunities and drive sustainable decisions within the company. In doing so, we generate 360-degree added value that benefits customers, employees, investors, society and the environment.