Group Accounts in AccountsOS: Every Company You Run, One Set of Numbers

Most owners of a small group still build the group numbers in a spreadsheet, once a year, from exports that never quite line up.

Now the group view is worked out from the books you already keep.

Set up the group

• Pick the companies you run in AccountsOS and mark the parent. It does not have to be the first company you set up, and you can change it.
• Set ownership for each subsidiary, including part-owned ones.
• Choose the currency the group reports in.

Every company keeps its own books, VAT and filings. Nothing is merged into one ledger.

Finn lines up the accounts

Different countries use different charts of accounts. Finn maps every account in every company to a group line and shows how confident it is. You can change any mapping, and your choice sticks.

Finn also looks at each company's contacts and suggests which are really your other companies. Nothing is treated as intercompany until you confirm it.

Intercompany taken out

• Recharges between your companies are removed from the group P&L.
• Loans between your companies are removed from the group balance sheet.
• The parent's investment is set against the subsidiary's share capital.
• Anything that does not match on both sides is flagged with the likely reason, such as VAT one side cannot reclaim.
• Part-owned subsidiaries show the outside shareholders' share.

Foreign subsidiaries in your currency

The P&L is converted at each month's average rate and the balance sheet at the closing rate on the date you choose. The difference shows on its own line, so the group balance sheet always balances.

Ask about the whole group

Turn on Whole group above Finn's chat box and ask across every company: group profit, cash, what the parent has put in, who owes what, or what a currency move has cost you. Finn names the company behind every figure. To change anything you name the company, and Finn still asks you to confirm.

Who it is for

• A holding company with operating subsidiaries, where the parent funds the subsidiaries and recharges central costs.
• A UK company with a subsidiary abroad, where each company files in its own country.
• Practices and fractional CFOs running a client's group, who want consolidated numbers without the spreadsheet.

Finn prepares the group numbers. A person reviews and signs.

See group accounts