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IAS: International Accounting Standard, issued by the IASB's predecessor body.

IASB: International Accounting Standards Board, an independent body that sets accounting standards accepted as a basis for accounting in many countries, including all Member States of the European Union.

IASB System: the accounting standards and guidance issued by the IASB.

IFRS: International Financial Reporting Standard, issued by the IASB.

Impairment: a reduction in the carrying value of an asset, beyond the expected depreciation, which must be reflected by reducing the amount recorded in the balance sheet.

Impairment Review: testing assets for evidence of any impairment.

Impairment Test: test that the business can expect to recover the carrying value of the intangible asset, through either using it or selling.

Improvement: a change in, or addition to, a non-current (fixed) asset that extends its useful life or increases the expected future benefit. Contrast with repair which restores the existing useful life or existing expected future benefit.

Income Statement: financial statement presenting revenues, expenses, and profit. Also called profit and loss account.

Incorporation, Date of: the date on which a company comes into existence.

Indirect Method (of Operating Cash Flow): calculates operating cash flow by adjusting operating profit for non-cash items and for changes in working capital.

Insider Information: information gained by someone inside, or close to, a listed company which could confer a financial advantage if used to buy or sell shares. It is illegal for a person who is in possession of inside information to buy or sell shares on the basis of that information.

Institutional Investor: an organisation whose business includes regular investment in shares of companies, examples being an insurance company, a pension fund, a charity, an investment trust, a unit trust, a merchant bank.

Intangible: without shape or form, cannot be touched.

Interest (on Loans): the percentage return on capital required by the lender (usually expressed as a percentage per annum).

Interim Reports: financial statements issued in the period between annual reports, usually half-yearly or quarterly.

Internal Reporting: reporting financial information to those users inside a business, at various levels of management, at a level of detail appropriate to the recipient.

Inventory: stocks of goods held for manufacture or for resale.

Investing Activities: the acquisition and disposal of long-term assets and other investments not included in cash equivalents.

Investors: persons or organisations which have provided money to a business in exchange for a share of ownership.