ias 8??

hello Mike i have a query regarding this following issue "From 1 April 2013, the directors have decided to reclassify research and amortised development costs as administrative expenses rather than its previous classification as cost of sales. They believe that the previous treatment unfairly distorted the company’s gross profit margin" am i right in saying that this is an accounting policy IAS 8 presentation issue and the directors just cant change the reclassification to increase profits because policy can only be changed if required by ifrs or it gives a fair presentation and policy change needs to done retrospectively?