In a consolidation, you gather transactions from several company accounts into a single set of company accounts. You can print reports, such as financial statements, from the consolidated company, but you cannot use this company for daily transactions.

You can consolidate data from companies with databases external to the consolidated company database, or you can consolidate data from companies within the same database, a so-called "online" consolidation.

To prepare a consolidated company (the company that collects the results and balances of the subsidiaries) for a consolidation, perform at minimum the following steps:

1. Click Administration> Company accounts .

2. Press CTRL+N to create a new company to serve as the consolidation company.

3. At the bottom right corner of your screen, double-click the Current companyfield, and select the consolidation company.

4. Click General ledger> Setup> Exchange rates . Create the default currency of the consolidation company.

5. Click Basic> Setup> Company information :

   1. On the Generaltab, enter information about the consolidated company as you want it to appear on financial statements about the consolidated company.

   2. On the Othertab, select the company currency of the consolidated company.

6. Click General ledger> Setup> Parameters , and select the Consolidated company accountscheck box.

7. Click General ledger> Chart of accounts , and set up the ledger accounts of the consolidated company, if appropriate. The company's controller and chief financial officer are consulted in this process, as well as outside experts if necessary.

   Note
   Consolidations do not necessarily require that you set up the consolidated company in advance. But if you want to use the consolidation conversion principles to convert subsidiary data in foreign currencies, you must set up the consolidated company ledger accounts.

8. If some subsidiaries have foreign currencies as their company currencies, click General ledger> Setup> Exchange rates :

   1. Create the foreign currencies, if any, which are the company currencies of the subsidiary companies.

   2. Set up exchange rates in relevant periods for the subsidiary currencies. For more information, see Exchange rates (form). If you create the consolidated company early in the period, you adjust the period exchange rates as exchange rates change during the consolidation period.

   Note
   The exchange rates by period establish the historical rates that are used to convert subsidiary data to consolidated ledger accounts that have the value Historicalin the Consolidation conversionfield on the Chart of accounts form.

9. For each ledger account in the consolidated company, select the appropriate consolidation conversion principle for the next run of the Consolidateperiodic job (import or online). select the conversion principle in the Consolidation conversionfield on the Generaltab of the Chart of accounts form of the consolidated company. See the field Help for more information about the selection options in this field.

10. If Averageor Closingis selected for the consolidation conversion principle on any consolidated company account, at the end of the consolidation period you must enter appropriate values for each subsidiary currency in the Average rateand the Closing ratefields on the Consolidatetab of the Exchange rates form.

11. If the consolidated company has subsidiaries with foreign currencies, click General ledger> Setup> System accounts , and select the ledger accounts that will be used for exchange differences in the Ledger accountfield.

    • If the company has integrated foreign subsidiaries, select an appropriate account for the Profit & loss account for consolidation differencesvalue in the Posting typefield.

    • If you are consolidating a self-sustaining subsidiary or a company that contains the results of several self-sustaining subsidiaries, (and you are using translation methods to consolidate this data), select an appropriate account for the Balance account for consolidation differencesvalue in the Posting typefield.

The consolidated company is now set up for the Consolidateperiodic job, which can be either an online consolidation or an import consolidation.

To open this form, click General ledger> Periodic> Consolidate> Consolidation, Import–or– Consolidation, Online.