Why preparing documents saves weeks

On most transformation projects, the biggest time sink is not the adjustments themselves but the hunt for source data. The contract is with the legal team, the R&D policy is with the CTO, the depreciation schedule is with "that person who left last year".

If you assemble the documents before the project kicks off, the first two weeks are freed up for diagnostic work and accounting policy design, instead of administrative chasing.

Core financial documents

This is the foundation — you cannot start without it:

  • balance sheets for the last 2–3 years under local GAAP,
  • income statements for the same periods,
  • cash flow statements,
  • trial balances with monthly breakdown,
  • the general ledger in machine-readable format (CSV or Excel),
  • a trial balance at each reporting date.

Accounting policy and internal procedures

Auditors will always ask for the current accounting policy, even if it is minimal. Equally important are any internal procedures: revenue recognition, capitalisation of costs, foreign currency accounting, R&D.

If there is no formal accounting policy in place, that is not a disaster — but it should be flagged at the start, because building one will be one of the deliverables of the transformation.

Contracts

Contracts carry the economic substance of transactions — and substance over form is central to IFRS. Collect:

  • top 20 customer contracts by revenue,
  • standard contract templates and public offers,
  • agreements with key suppliers,
  • employment contracts and bonus rules,
  • option agreements and ESOP plans,
  • all active lease contracts,
  • loan and credit facility agreements.

Asset data

You also need a full register of fixed assets and intangible assets — ideally with commissioning dates, original cost, accumulated depreciation and useful lives.

For R&D projects, you need engineer time logs by project, product specifications and documentation on the move into commercial operation. This is the basis for the capitalisation decision under IAS 38.

Foreign currency information

If the company deals in foreign currencies (and in Ukrainian IT this is almost always the case), you will need: a register of FX accounts, statements for the period, data on FX advances received and paid, and any hedging documentation.

It is also critical to justify the functional currency: for many Ukrainian IT companies it is in fact the US dollar, not the hryvnia.

Corporate documents

Group structure, beneficial owners, shareholder agreements, board minutes, statutes of subsidiaries. These are needed to assess control, consolidation and related-party disclosures.

If there is a holding company outside Ukraine, you will also need that jurisdiction's documents and local tax rates.

One-page checklist

Before your first meeting with an advisor, check that you have:

  • financial statements and trial balances for 2–3 years,
  • the current accounting policy (or confirmation that none exists formally),
  • top 20 customer contracts,
  • all lease contracts,
  • option agreements and ESOP rules,
  • fixed asset and intangible asset registers,
  • R&D time logs and product specifications,
  • FX transaction and hedging data,
  • group structure and corporate documents.