The last time you’ll rebuild that workbook.
Statutory and management consolidation – intercompany, currencies, eliminations, ownership – done in a system rather than rebuilt in a spreadsheet every month end.
What we usually find
Month end is the same few days of exporting, mapping and checking, done by the one or two people who know how it fits together.
Intercompany doesn’t quite balance, and the difference gets booked somewhere to make it go away.
A company joins the group, and sits in its own spreadsheet for the next few months.
From forty workbooks to one answer.
The group numbers, from each entity’s ledger to the statutory accounts.
Month-end consolidation
Every entity’s trial balance comes in by itself and is mapped to one group chart of accounts, so month end starts with the numbers already in, rather than with a set of exports.
Intercompany eliminations
Balances matched by counterparty as they come in, so differences show up before you close rather than after. Eliminations are posted by the system, the same way every month.
Currencies
This month’s rates loaded once, with the date and the source, and applied by the system. Translation differences are worked out, not plugged.
Ownership and group structure
Part-owned companies, minority interests and changes in ownership handled in the model, so the group structure isn’t something only one spreadsheet knows about.
New entities and acquisitions
A new company mapped in and consolidated within a month end or two, with its history if you want it. The earlier we see the deal, the easier that is.
Manual adjustments, auditable
Top-side adjustments and journals sit in the system with who made them and why, so showing the auditor how a number was built takes minutes rather than a day of digging.
How it goes
Fixed fee. Agreed before anything starts, including mapping every entity’s chart of accounts, which is usually a bigger job than you think.
Weeks rather than quarters. Something live and usable quickly, then built on.
Side by side first. The new consolidation runs alongside the current one for at least a month end, and the two are reconciled before you switch over.
Written down and handed over. Every mapping, rate source and elimination rule is written down, so none of it depends on one person remembering.
Out in the open. Everything runs through our project platform that you have access to, and calls are recorded and transcribed.
Find out where your consolidation stands.
The Finance Check: Consolidation is a few minutes of multiple choice questions about month end and the group numbers. You get a score, where the time is going, and three things to do without us.
At the end, if you’re based in the UK or Ireland, you can pick one area for a free hour of consulting time, such as a chat through your consolidation process. If you’re a charity, it’s two hours.
No call required. Nobody rings you afterwards unless you ask them to.
Questions people ask
Is it the software that makes month end slow?
Not usually on its own. A lot of month end is waiting – for a subsidiary’s numbers, or for an intercompany balance to be agreed – and a new system won’t fix that by itself. We look at the timetable as well as the tool.
Can the management and statutory numbers come from the same place?
Yes, and any number that’s in both should. One source of data, with your required adjustments, means both sets of numbers start from the same place, and the differences between them are ones you chose.
We’ve got an acquisition coming. When should we talk?
Before completion, if you can. Deciding how the new company’s chart of accounts maps to yours before the deal makes it much faster to integrate them.
Who looks after it afterwards?
You, if you want to – every mapping, rate source and rule is written down and handed over. If you’d rather not own the admin, we can keep it ticking over instead.
Where it connects
Most customers start in one and end up touching several.
We can work with whatever tooling you use today. When a new platform is the right answer, we implement Vena – it lets you keep Excel, but lose the headaches.
Why we chose Vena
Start with a conversation that has a scope.
Thirty minutes, free, and you’ll know by the end whether there’s anything here for you. Most of the organisations we speak with aren’t looking to buy anything right now – we’re happy to educate and inform, for when the time is right.