Did you visit our IFRS Blog? The three posts this week can be accessed by the links given below:

https://faoblog.com/ifrs/ifrs-introduction1/

https://faoblog.com/ifrs/ifrs-introduction2/

https://faoblog.com/ifrs/ifrs-introduction3/

Back to transitions – in the post of Thursday, we talked about validating assumptions and process base lining – with a focus on the effort estimate.

We should strongly create a baseline here. How much time it takes in the existing situation to do one transaction. Collect samples. You may use the six sigma principals to define the sample size. Ideally, there is no right or wrong sample size. Your sample should be indicative of the population, large enough to give you the right result and not too small to lead to incorrect base lining.

You should also study the tools and applications at this stage. This needs to take into account the to be process and workflow. Further to this, the critical points of the calendar need to be reviewed, where volumes shoot up or there is a hard stop to processing, like closing periods etc, any statutory requirements, for filing, for taxation and other legal coverage.

We had talked about risks and mitigations in earlier posts:

https://faoblog.com/setting-process-pre-work7-ris/;

https://faoblog.com/setting-process-pre-work-mitigation/;

https://faoblog.com/setting-process-pre-work-mitigation2/;

https://faoblog.com/setting-process-pre-work-mitigation1/

Let us also now identify the key pain areas, which will go beyond what the leadership thinks to be a pain area. It will help us to work on solutions, and believe me addressing this or rather acknowledging this right upfront gives the client leadership a lot of confidence in you and your organization / unit.

At this stage, you should collect the existing Service Level definitions in use.

You may also try to list potential improvement areas for improvements.