How is the income statement structured under IFRS — nature-of-expense vs. cost-of-sales method?

Two permitted formats under IFRS (IAS 1) and local GAAP:

• Nature-of-expense method — expenses grouped by nature (raw materials, personnel, depreciation, other). Dominant among smaller local-GAAP filers because it sits closer to the bookkeeping logic.
• Cost-of-sales method — expenses grouped by function (COGS, SG&A, R&D, D&A separate or embedded). The international standard; almost all public companies (SAP, Siemens, Bayer) report cost-of-sales. IB practice: for a multiples comparison and a DCF you need the cost-of-sales format — if the target only provides nature-of-expense, a manual restatement is required (typically allocating personnel costs to COGS/SG&A/R&D).

Gross margin is only readable under the cost-of-sales method.