The consolidated trial balance provide a unified representation of the balance sheet, financial position, and income statement of a group of companies considered as a single economic entity. They are prepared by the parent company and include the data of the parent and all its subsidiaries, eliminating intercompany transactions (eliminations).
Managing consolidated financial statements in Business Central involves some preliminary configuration activities, typically:
- Creation of a dedicated company where the consolidation process is performed (separate from the parent company) – known as the consolidation company.
- Definition of a group chart of accounts to be used in the consolidation company.
- Mapping in the consolidated companies of their local chart of accounts to the group chart of accounts: this involves reclassifying the subsidiaries’ charts of accounts.
- Optionally, defining any dimensions to be consolidated for reporting purposes (e.g., cost center), with the necessary reclassification compared to the subsidiaries.
The consolidation process, which should be performed periodically, involves transferring the G/L balance for the period from the subsidiaries to the consolidation company, optionally including dimension details.
The entries (balances) transferred into the consolidation company are tagged with an indication of the originating subsidiary, called “Business Unit” in Business Central. The consolidation process can be run multiple times for the same period; in such cases, previous entries are automatically cleared.
The subsidiaries to be consolidated can be within the same Business Central environment or in different environments. If subsidiaries use an ERP system other than Business Central, their G/L balances should be imported manually into the consolidation company.
Our Fiscal Group app provides additional features for managing the consolidation process:
- Automatic generation of elimination entries in the subsidiary companies, using an intercompany dimension.
- Inclusion of elimination details in financial reports for analysis purposes.
The full documentation for the Fiscal Group app is available on the dedicated Memento Documentation Portal.
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