Do you sign off financial statements?

No. Preparation and audit sign-off remain with management and the auditors. We provide technical analysis and documentation to support the position taken.

When should a technical paper be written?

Before the transaction closes where possible. Documenting judgement after the auditors query it is far weaker than a paper prepared with the decision.

How does a accounting advisory engagement start?

With a short discovery conversation and a written view of scope, risk and the decisions to be made. That view is useful to you whether or not the work continues.

How is a accounting advisory engagement priced?

Scope and, where relevant, rules of engagement are agreed in writing before any work begins, and the engagement is a fixed fee for that scope or phased with a cost envelope per phase — so you know the cost and the boundaries up front. Larger pieces of work are broken into phases with findings delivered early rather than a single invoice at the end.

Finance Consulting · Govern

Accounting Advisory

We advise on the accounting treatment of complex transactions and the application of new or amended standards, from acquisitions and financing to revenue and leasing arrangements. The emphasis is on documenting the judgement in a technical paper that your auditors can review and accept, prepared with the decision rather than reconstructed after they query it. We work alongside your finance team and auditors rather than in place of either, and we do not prepare or sign off the financial statements. It matters because an undocumented judgement is far weaker under audit challenge than the same judgement set out clearly at the time the transaction was decided.

In short

Accounting advisory addresses complex accounting treatment, policy choices and the application of reporting standards. It supports the position taken; preparation and audit sign-off remain with management and the auditors.

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What we do

The work inside accounting advisory.

Transaction accounting

We determine the appropriate treatment for acquisitions, financing, revenue and leasing arrangements before they are reported. Complex transactions frequently admit more than one defensible treatment, and the choice has real consequences for reported results. Settling it early, with reasoning recorded, avoids a restatement conversation later.

Policy and standard application

We set accounting policies and apply new or amended standards consistently across the business. A new standard that is adopted inconsistently creates exactly the comparability problems the standard was meant to remove. We assess the impact and translate it into policy the finance team can apply in practice.

Technical papers

We document judgements in technical papers your auditors can review and accept. A clear paper setting out the facts, the standard and the reasoning turns an audit discussion into a review rather than a dispute. Prepared alongside the decision, it is far more persuasive than anything assembled after a query.

Audit support

We support the audit process on technical positions and the evidence behind them. Where the auditors challenge a treatment, we help marshal the analysis and respond on the substance. The aim is a position that is defended on its merits rather than conceded for lack of documentation.

What you receive

Deliverables, in writing.

Documented output your teams keep and can act on without us in the room.

Accounting treatment analysis for specific transactions
Accounting policy documentation
Technical position papers
Audit support on technical matters

When this work helps

You may be facing this.

A complex transaction has no agreed accounting treatment
A new standard applies and impact is unassessed
Auditors challenged a judgement that was never documented

How an engagement runs

Discover, assess, design, deliver.

01
Discover
Understand the decision, the financial context, and how finance currently operates. We establish exactly what question the engagement must answer, so a business-case review and a process redesign are not confused with one another.
02
Assess
Review the case, processes, controls, and reporting against what the organisation needs to rely on. We report where the numbers and processes are dependable and where they rest on assumptions that will not hold under pressure.
03
Design
Set out the financial approach, process design, control set, and reporting model. Definitions, ownership, and controls are documented so the improvement does not depend on us remaining involved.
04
Deliver
Support implementation, then track cost and benefit against what was approved. We measure realised value against the criteria agreed at the outset, so the decision is held to account rather than forgotten.

Where we work

Delhi, India — and wherever the work is.

Fidova provides finance consulting from Delhi, India, and works with organisations internationally, including group structures with entities, currencies, and reporting obligations in more than one country.

Engagements run in English, are scheduled around your time zone, and can be delivered remotely end to end, with on-site time planned where a phase genuinely benefits from being in the room.

Related services

Often needed alongside this.

Tax & Regulatory Advisory

Tax and regulatory advisory addresses the tax and regulatory implications of business structure, transactions and operations. We are not a tax practice: we identify issues and coordinate specialists; we do not give formal tax opinions or file returns.

Internal Financial Controls

Internal financial controls work designs and tests the controls that keep financial reporting accurate and assets protected. A smaller set of controls that genuinely operates is worth more than an exhaustive matrix that is never properly tested.

Financial Process Automation

Financial process automation removes manual effort from finance processes while strengthening controls and the audit trail. The discipline is to simplify the process first, so that effort is not spent automating waste.

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