Scope a cash-flow statement preparation project

Tell the provider which entity or group, periods, reporting currency, and accounting basis the statement must cover. Identify the recipient and whether the work forms part of a complete financial-statement package. State whether the company needs a first-time preparation, a reconstruction of prior periods, or a repeatable monthly process. Those assignments require different source work.

IAS 7 distinguishes operating, investing, and financing cash flows and requires relevant noncash disclosures under IFRS. The provider should identify the requirements applicable to your company and period. Ask who will make technical classification decisions and whether another accountant or auditor must review the output before its intended use.

Provide accepted opening and closing trial balances, profit-and-loss information, cash reconciliations, and supporting movement schedules. Include assets, debt, leases, equity, currency effects, and other material noncash activity. Ask the provider to inspect a representative period before fixing the scope so both sides understand which balances need reconstruction.

Specify who resolves unsupported opening balances or incomplete liability schedules. Preparing a statement from existing approved records is different from substantiating the records themselves. If cleanup is needed, identify its deliverables and fee treatment separately. A project should not be accepted on the assumption that unexplained residuals will be absorbed into working-capital movements.

Ask for the editable preparation file, source index, balance-change bridges, noncash register, and classification decisions. A final PDF alone may satisfy a presentation need but leave the company unable to reproduce or update the statement. Clarify any template or software restrictions before engagement, including who can use the model after the project ends.

For a hypothetical scope covering two comparative years, require separate opening-to-closing cash reconciliations and supporting bridges for each year. An agreed ending cash total does not establish that operating, investing, and financing lines are correct. Acceptance should require traceability of material lines and explanations of exclusions and noncash movements alongside the final cash reconciliation.

Identify the company contact who confirms business facts and the qualified reviewer who approves accounting judgments. If an external auditor will use the schedule, coordinate its requested format and timing without promising that the provider can guarantee audit acceptance. An audit remains the auditor's separate engagement and decision.

Include one defined correction cycle for source changes or reviewer comments, with a process for additional work. State the accepted source cutoff and what happens if the ledger changes afterward. Ask the provider to identify unresolved limitations before the final statement is labeled complete, including missing historical detail or assumptions that management must approve.

Require a walkthrough of the source files, calculation sequence, and material judgments. Have an authorized company team member trace one line from the final statement back to its source and explain how the next period will be updated. This is a practical acceptance check for reproducibility, not a substitute for professional review of the accounting.

The signed scope should leave the company with a historical statement, supported classification bridges, a list of accepted limitations, and clear ownership of future updates. If recurring preparation is added, define which schedules the company supplies and which the provider maintains. That prevents a one-time reconstruction fee from being mistaken for an ongoing close service.