Startup CFO

French PCG to IFRS Conversion — 200 Line Items Mapped in 5 Minutes

5 min + 45 min review vs €18K + 3 weeks external accountantStartup Finance5 min read

Key Takeaway

The agent converted PyratzLabs' French PCG financial statements to IFRS-compliant format in 5 minutes — mapping 200+ line items with conversion notes — replacing a €15-25K external accountant engagement.

The Problem

France runs on the Plan Comptable Général. Every French company keeps books in PCG format. Class 1 through Class 7 accounts. French-specific recognition rules. Presentation that makes sense in France and nowhere else.

International investors don't read PCG. They want IFRS. When you're raising from a London-based fund or a US institutional investor, they need statements they can compare to other portfolio companies — and those statements are in IFRS.

The conversion is non-trivial. It's not just relabeling accounts. PCG and IFRS differ on revenue recognition timing, lease treatment, development cost capitalization, provisions methodology, and financial instrument classification. Each difference requires a reclassification or adjustment, and each adjustment needs a note explaining why the number changed.

For PyratzLabs, this came up during due diligence. An international investor asked for IFRS-compliant statements. Our accountant quoted €18K and three weeks. For a conversion that would need to be re-done every quarter.

That's when I asked Warren to handle it.

The Solution

The XBRL Filing Generator skill handles structured financial statement formatting and taxonomy mapping. The Financial Statements skill manages the actual accounting logic — recognition rules, reclassifications, and presentation.

Warren knows both PCG and IFRS. The mapping is rule-based with manual overrides for judgment calls.

The Process

The conversion engine maps PCG accounts to IFRS equivalents:

yamlShow code

# pcg-to-ifrs-mapping.yaml
conversion_rules:
  # Revenue recognition
  - pcg_class: "70 - Ventes de produits"
    ifrs_mapping: "Revenue from contracts with customers (IFRS 15)"
    adjustment: "Timing differences for multi-period contracts"
    note: "PCG recognizes on delivery; IFRS 15 requires performance obligation analysis"

  # Lease treatment (most common difference)
  - pcg_class: "613 - Locations"
    ifrs_mapping: "Right-of-use assets + Lease liabilities (IFRS 16)"
    adjustment: "Capitalize operating leases >12 months"
    note: "PCG expenses all leases; IFRS 16 capitalizes most"

  # Development costs
  - pcg_class: "203 - Frais de recherche et développement"
    ifrs_mapping: "Intangible assets - Development (IAS 38)"
    adjustment: "Capitalize if 6 criteria met, expense if research phase"
    note: "PCG allows broader capitalization; IAS 38 stricter criteria"

  # Provisions
  - pcg_class: "15 - Provisions"
    ifrs_mapping: "Provisions (IAS 37)"
    adjustment: "Apply probability threshold and best estimate"
    note: "PCG uses prudence principle; IAS 37 requires >50% probability"

  # Financial instruments
  - pcg_class: "50-51 - VMP et disponibilités"
    ifrs_mapping: "Financial assets at fair value/amortized cost (IFRS 9)"
    adjustment: "Classify per business model and SPPI test"
    note: "PCG: historical cost default; IFRS 9: fair value default"

Warren processes the full chart of accounts:

pythonShow code

# Conversion process
pcg_trial_balance = load_pcg_statements("pyratzlabs_2025.txt")
# 247 line items across 7 classes

conversion_log = []
for account in pcg_trial_balance:
    mapping = find_ifrs_mapping(account)
    if mapping.has_adjustment:
        adjustment = calculate_adjustment(account, mapping)
        conversion_log.append({
            "pcg_account": account.code,
            "pcg_label": account.label_fr,
            "ifrs_line": mapping.ifrs_line,
            "original_amount": account.balance,
            "adjustment": adjustment.amount,
            "ifrs_amount": account.balance + adjustment.amount,
            "note": mapping.conversion_note
        })
    else:
        # Direct mapping — no adjustment needed
        conversion_log.append({...})

# Generate IFRS statements with notes
ifrs_statements = generate_ifrs_presentation(conversion_log)
conversion_notes = generate_conversion_notes(conversion_log)

The output includes full IFRS statements plus detailed conversion notes:

View details

CONVERSION NOTES — PCG TO IFRS

Note 1: Lease Reclassification (IFRS 16)
  PCG: Operating lease expense of €156K in P&L
  IFRS: Right-of-use asset €412K, lease liability €428K
        Depreciation €138K, interest expense €22K
  Net P&L impact: +€4K (timing difference)

Note 2: Revenue Recognition (IFRS 15)
  PCG: Revenue of €2.4M recognized on invoice
  IFRS: Revenue of €2.35M after contract modification
        Deferred revenue of €50K for undelivered obligations
  Net impact: -€50K revenue, +€50K contract liability

Note 3: Development Costs (IAS 38)
  PCG: €180K capitalized development costs
  IFRS: €120K meets IAS 38 criteria → capitalize
        €60K in research phase → expense
  Net impact: -€60K intangible assets, +€60K expense

[... 12 more conversion notes ...]

The Results

Metric	External Accountant	Agent Conversion
Cost	€15-25K	~€0 (skill already installed)
Time to first draft	2-3 weeks	5 minutes
Line items mapped	200+	247 (complete)
Conversion notes	Delivered later	Generated simultaneously
Quarterly re-run	Re-engagement required	One command
Audit trail	Email chain	Structured conversion log
XBRL tagging	Additional cost	Included

The 5-minute number needs an asterisk: I spend another 30-45 minutes reviewing the output, particularly the judgment calls on IAS 38 development cost capitalization and IFRS 16 lease modifications. The agent gets the mechanics right. The judgment calls need human review.

But the difference between "review a completed conversion" and "produce a conversion from scratch" is the difference between 45 minutes and 3 weeks. And next quarter, the review will be faster because the mapping is stable — only changes and new accounts need attention.

Try It Yourself

Install the XBRL Filing Generator and Financial Statements skills. You'll need your PCG trial balance in structured format (CSV or TXT export from your accounting software). The mapping rules cover the most common PCG-to-IFRS differences, but you'll likely need to add custom rules for industry-specific accounts.

Critical: have your accountant review the first conversion. The agent handles mechanics; your accountant validates the judgment calls. After the first review, subsequent quarters are incremental.

Start free on Mr.Chief →

International capital doesn't wait for your accountant's timeline. Neither should you.

IFRSPCGaccounting-conversionFrench-accountingfinancial-statements

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