An IPO is the most demanding stress test a finance function ever faces. The prospectus needs restated, audited financial information for several years; the exchange and the regulator need evidence that controls, governance and reporting work; and after listing, the company has to report quarterly to a market that punishes surprises. Most of that burden lands on the finance team — and most of it can be prepared long before the bankers arrive.
This checklist covers the finance-function workstreams we see most often in Indian IPO readiness programmes. Requirements change and every listing is different, so treat it as a map, not a rulebook.
1. Financial statements and the restatement exercise
- Confirm the periods required for the offer document under the SEBI ICDR Regulations and prepare the restated financial information accordingly.
- Restate under the applicable framework (Ind AS for most issuers) and align accounting policies across all periods presented.
- Identify and document every adjustment: prior-period errors, changes in policy, reclassifications to the prescribed formats.
- Resolve open technical accounting questions early — revenue recognition, leases, share-based payments, financial instruments, consolidation — with position papers your auditors can rely on.
2. Accounting policies and technical positions
- Review policies for consistency with Ind AS and with peers in your sector; investors compare.
- Prepare position papers on judgemental areas (revenue, ESOPs, convertible instruments, related-party transactions).
- Ensure the chart of accounts and Schedule III presentation are stable across periods.
3. Internal financial controls
- Document key processes end-to-end: order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, record-to-report, payroll, treasury.
- Map risks to controls, assign owners and test operating effectiveness before the audit does.
- Fix segregation-of-duties gaps and system access issues — these are the findings that delay sign-offs.
4. Close and reporting cadence
- Move to a monthly close that produces a reviewed pack within a fixed number of working days.
- Rehearse quarterly reporting: listed companies publish results on a tight statutory timetable, and the first quarter after listing is not the time to discover bottlenecks.
- Build a management-information pack that reconciles to the statutory numbers.
5. Governance and the board
- Constitute the board committees required for a listed company, including an independent audit committee, and give them a working cadence before the listing.
- Formalise related-party transaction policies and approvals.
- Put a disclosure and materiality framework in place for post-listing continuous disclosure obligations.
6. Key performance indicators
- Define the KPIs the offer document will present and reconcile each to audited numbers.
- Keep a documented methodology — investors and the regulator expect KPIs to be consistent, comparable and certified.
7. Group structure and legal entity clean-up
- Rationalise dormant or loss-making subsidiaries and resolve inter-company balances.
- Complete secretarial housekeeping: statutory registers, Companies Act filings, board minutes, share capital history.
8. Systems and data
- Confirm the ERP can produce the restated periods and the disclosures required, or plan the bridging workings.
- Lock down user access and audit trails — auditors will ask.
9. Tax
- Reconcile tax provisions, deferred tax and open assessments; document positions on uncertain tax treatments.
- Assess the tax consequences of pre-IPO restructuring and ESOP exercises.
10. People
- Assess whether the finance team has the bandwidth and technical depth for the restatement, the audit and quarterly reporting simultaneously; most do not, and this is where specialist support pays for itself.
A rule of thumb: start readiness work 12 to 18 months before the intended filing. The restatement and controls workstreams are the long poles.
How Finactro can help
Finactro supports IPO readiness assessments, restatement of financial statements, SEBI and Schedule III compliance, internal controls uplift and the reporting cadence a public company needs — with former Big 4 professionals who have done this before. Talk to our team about where your company stands.