Financial statements that survive the audit
Sharif Hazarvi is a Chartered Certified Accountant and a member of the ACCA, based in Luxembourg. Six years across EY, JPMorgan Chase, Revantage — a Blackstone portfolio company — and Forvis Mazars, preparing and auditing financial statements under IFRS, Lux GAAP and US GAAP.
Each of these is work he has done inside a Big Four firm, a fund administrator or a corporate finance team, rather than a list assembled to cover a market.
- 01
Annual accounts and statutory financial statements
Financial statements prepared for statutory submission under Lux GAAP or IFRS, with the disclosures the framework requires and a file that supports every figure. - 02
Month-end and quarter-end close
Accounts reconciled, variances reviewed and explained, and management reports finalised on the date they are due rather than the week after. - 03
IFRS, Lux GAAP and US GAAP conversion
Reporting converted between frameworks, with each GAAP adjustment identified, quantified and documented so the auditor can follow it without rebuilding it. - 04
NAV review and fund reporting
NAV packs and trial balances reviewed, pricing and posting discrepancies traced to source, and fund and custody accounts reconciled before the NAV is released. - 05
Audit readiness and support
The audit file assembled before fieldwork starts: reconciliations, sample support, internal control walkthroughs and the answers to the questions an audit senior will ask, from someone who has asked them. - 06
Regulatory and tax filings
CSSF regulatory reporting including BCL returns and Annex 4, and support with VAT and corporate income tax submissions. - 07
Financial modelling and feasibility
Discounted cash flow, NPV, IRR and sensitivity analysis, built so the assumptions are visible and a board can test them rather than take them on trust. - 08
Consolidation and intercompany
Group consolidation, intercompany reconciliation and elimination, and review of reporting packages against group accounting policy.
He prepares accounts and gets them ready for audit; he does not sign the audit opinion on them. A statutory audit in Luxembourg is signed by an approved statutory auditor, and no one person can both prepare a set of accounts and give an independent opinion on them.
He assists with preparing tax returns and supporting the filings behind them. He does not act as your appointed tax representative, and he will tell you when a question needs a licensed tax adviser or a lawyer rather than answering it anyway.
ACCA membership takes examination across financial reporting, audit, taxation and financial management, three years of supervised experience, and continuing professional development. It also carries a disciplinary code, which is the part that matters when you are handing somebody your ledger.
The experience behind it is on both sides of the table. Four years auditing at EY, in Lahore and then Luxembourg, leading assignments from planning to completion and assessing how IFRS 9, 15 and 16 applied to client accounts. Then preparing the accounts himself: monthly, quarterly and annual financial statements under Lux GAAP and IFRS, NAV packs presented to a board, CSSF regulatory reporting, group consolidation and intercompany reconciliation. Somebody who has audited a file knows what a file has to contain.
- Forvis Mazars GroupAudit SeniorMarch 2024 — August 2024
- JPMorgan Chase & Co.Finance AssociateSeptember 2023 — February 2024
- Revantage, a Blackstone portfolio companyFinance AssociateDecember 2022 — June 2023
- EYAudit SeniorJanuary 2022 — September 2022 and July 2018 — July 2021
Every one of these is on his LinkedIn profile, with the same roles and the same dates. Check it before you write. These are former employers and an awarding body, shown to say where he trained: none of them sponsors, endorses or is affiliated with Bilnax, and all marks belong to their owners.
The practice is remote and the frameworks are the international ones, so the constraint is a time zone and a filing calendar rather than a border.
- United Kingdom & Europe
- IFRS and Lux GAAP, CSSF regulatory reporting, and audit-ready files for statutory deadlines.
- United States
- IFRS reporting for groups with a European parent or subsidiary, and the reconciliation between them.
- Gulf
- IFRS reporting and audit preparation for entities across the GCC, working to their week.
- South Asia
- IFRS and the expected credit loss regimes now live in India and Pakistan.
What does an ACCA-qualified accountant do that a bookkeeper does not?
A bookkeeper records transactions; a Chartered Certified Accountant is responsible for what those records assert. ACCA membership requires examination across financial reporting, audit, taxation and financial management, three years of supervised practical experience, and continuing professional development, and it carries a disciplinary code. In practice the difference shows up at the year end: judgements about recognition, measurement and disclosure, whether a set of accounts complies with the framework it claims to, and whether it will survive an audit.
Can you prepare Luxembourg annual accounts under Lux GAAP?
Yes. Sharif Hazarvi prepares financial statements for statutory submission in Luxembourg under Lux GAAP and under IFRS, including the supporting file behind each figure. He has prepared monthly, quarterly and annual financial statements under both frameworks at Revantage, a Blackstone portfolio company, and has audited statutory accounts in Luxembourg at EY and Forvis Mazars.
What is a NAV pack, and who checks it?
A NAV pack is the set of records supporting a fund's net asset value on a valuation date: the trial balance, the portfolio valuation, accruals, capital activity and the reconciliation of fund and custody accounts. It is normally produced by a fund administrator and reviewed by the fund's own finance team before the NAV is released, because a pricing error or a missed entry becomes an investor-facing number once it is published.
How do you convert accounts between Lux GAAP, IFRS and US GAAP?
By identifying each difference between the frameworks as a separate, quantified adjustment rather than restating the accounts wholesale. Each adjustment is documented with the standard it arises under and the calculation behind it, so the bridge from one framework to the other can be followed line by line by an auditor or a group reporting team. Sharif Hazarvi has worked across all three frameworks, including reviewing daily NAV packs and trial balances on IFRS, US GAAP and Lux GAAP books at JPMorgan Chase.
What does audit readiness involve before a statutory audit begins?
Assembling the file the auditor will ask for, before they ask: reconciled balances with supporting documentation, a fixed asset register that agrees to the ledger, revenue and expense samples traceable to source documents, documented internal control walkthroughs, and explanations for significant variances. Preparation is what determines the length and cost of an audit, because unanswered questions become extended fieldwork and management letter points.
Do you work with clients outside Luxembourg?
Yes. Sharif Hazarvi is based in Luxembourg and works with clients elsewhere remotely, including through Upwork. Financial reporting work is document-based, so the constraint is the reporting framework and the filing deadline rather than the location.
Say what has to be delivered and by when. A reporting deadline, a close that keeps slipping, an audit request list nobody has answered — the more specific it is, the more useful the first reply.
Or write directly to sharifhazarviacca@gmail.com.