Two businesses with identical trading can report different profits, legitimately, because accounting standards leave choices open and somebody has to make them. Financial accounting advisory is the work of making those choices deliberately, writing down why, and applying them the same way next year.
It matters more here than it used to. Accounting profit is the starting point for taxable income, so a policy decision is now a tax number.
§ 1 · When this work starts
Either revenue passed AED 50 million, or you are claiming free zone 0%, which requires audited statements at any revenue. Books kept for management are rarely books ready for an auditor, and the gap is found in the worst possible week.
First time adoption is not a formatting exercise. It means an opening balance sheet, restated comparatives, and written policies for every area where the standard allows a choice.
Leases arrive on the balance sheet. Revenue splits into performance obligations. Receivables need an expected loss model rather than a judgement call. Each one changes reported profit without changing the business.
Adding four trial balances together is not a consolidation. Intercompany balances have to eliminate, currencies have to translate, and the group has to tell one story.
Usually because the person who decided the first time has left, and nothing was written down. Comparability is the point of an accounting policy, and it dies quietly.
Not management accounts. Statements, with notes, on a recognised framework. Producing those under time pressure is where restatements come from.
§ 2 · The threshold questions
Two rules decide most of it, and both turn on revenue with one important exception. Put your figure in and see where you sit.
§ 3 · Where the numbers move
Nothing below changes what you sell, what you charge or what you collect. Each one changes what the statements say about it, and that is what a bank covenant, a buyer and a tax computation all read.
Every property and equipment lease of substance comes onto the balance sheet as a right of use asset with a matching liability.
Rent was an expense, spread evenly.
An asset, a liability, depreciation and interest. EBITDA rises, gearing rises, and any covenant written on either needs rereading.
Revenue is recognised as performance obligations are satisfied, not when the invoice is raised.
Invoiced, therefore earned.
Contracts split into obligations, some recognised over time. Milestone billing and revenue stop being the same number.
A provision is carried against receivables from the day they arise, based on expected loss rather than evidence of failure.
Provide when a customer clearly will not pay.
A provision matrix by ageing and customer type, applied every period, including to balances nobody is worried about.
Assets and goodwill are tested when there is an indicator, and goodwill annually whether there is one or not.
Carrying value stands until somebody questions it.
A recoverable amount calculation, which means a forecast, a discount rate and an assumption you have to defend.
Transactions translate at the rate on the day and monetary balances retranslate at each period end.
One rate for the year, near enough.
Exchange differences in profit or loss, and a functional currency conclusion that has to be reasoned rather than assumed.
§ 4 · What you receive
Which standard you are entitled to apply and which one you should, given who reads your numbers. IFRS for SMEs is simpler and legitimate below AED 50 million revenue. It is not always the right answer if a buyer or lender is coming.
The choices your standard leaves open, written down and applied consistently: revenue timing, capitalisation thresholds, depreciation, provisions, foreign currency. So the same transaction is treated the same way next year and by the next person.
A written argument for how a specific transaction is accounted for, with the paragraph of the standard it rests on. This is what an auditor asks for when the treatment is not obvious, and having it before they ask changes the conversation entirely.
Opening balance sheet, restated comparatives, transition adjustments and the disclosures that explain them, on a plan with dates rather than a scramble.
Intercompany elimination, foreign currency translation, minority interests and a consolidation workbook you can run yourselves each period rather than rebuild.
A complete set with notes, under IFRS or IFRS for SMEs, prepared by us and audited by somebody else. That separation is not a limitation, it is the point.
Lead schedules, reconciliations and supporting evidence assembled before fieldwork, so the auditor spends the time testing rather than chasing. Fewer questions, fewer adjustments, a shorter engagement.
Prior period errors identified, quantified and disclosed properly, which is uncomfortable and much better than the alternative.
§ 5 · The boundary
A firm that prepares your statements should not be the firm that forms an opinion on them. Keeping those apart is a feature of the arrangement rather than a gap in it.
§ 6 · Questions
Advice on how transactions and balances should be accounted for, and help producing the resulting statements. It covers which framework applies, how a standard should be applied to your specific facts, how a group consolidates, and how to be ready for an audit. It is the technical accounting work that sits between bookkeeping and the auditor.
For UAE corporate tax purposes, Ministerial Decision 114 of 2023 accepts International Financial Reporting Standards, and permits IFRS for SMEs where revenue does not exceed AED 50 million. Financial statements may be prepared on a cash basis where revenue does not exceed AED 3 million. Being permitted to use the simpler framework and being well advised to use it are two different questions.
Under Ministerial Decision 84 of 2025, which applies to tax periods beginning on or after 1 January 2025, audited financial statements are required where revenue exceeds AED 50 million, for every Qualifying Free Zone Person regardless of revenue, and for tax groups, which must maintain audited special purpose financial statements. The earlier Ministerial Decision 82 of 2023 continues to apply to tax periods that began before that date.
No, and no firm should. Preparing the statements and forming an opinion on them are incompatible roles. We prepare, and an audit firm registered with the Ministry of Economy gives the opinion. We work alongside your auditor and will happily be introduced to them early, which usually shortens the engagement.
Because accounting profit is the starting point for taxable income. A policy decision on revenue timing, on a provision, or on whether something is capitalised, moves accounting profit, and therefore moves the tax number. Accounting choices are tax choices whether or not anyone treats them that way.
If you are claiming Qualifying Free Zone Person status, audited financial statements are required at any revenue, so yes. If you have elected Small Business Relief instead, the position is different and simpler. Which of those two is right for you is a decision worth taking deliberately, and we will talk it through before anyone proposes any work.
No charge
Twenty minutes on your revenue, your structure and whether an audit is coming. If the honest answer is that you need less than you think, we will say so.
A senior look at your finance function: close speed, reporting, cash visibility, tax deadlines and what should be automated. Pick the day that suits you, we call you on it, and we confirm the exact time on WhatsApp first.
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