Financial consolidation reporting

Financial consolidation reporting using multiple Xero, Sage or QuickBooks Online accounts

If your company has multiple divisions or subsidiaries, then you will be aware of the need to prepare consolidated financial statements for the entire group in order to give a picture of the financial health of the parent company. 

You will also know what a headache consolidation reporting is, even for the most experienced of accountants. It requires the processing of huge quantities of data, often in different currencies, and as such can easily lead to misinterpretation and mistakes.

The need for financial consolidation reporting

In today’s economy, where entrepreneurship has seen more companies being set up than ever before, financial consolidation is becoming something that an increasing number of business owners are having to become familiar with.

As start-up culture has played a big part in this changing business landscape, especially in the tech industry where businesses often invest in several new companies, or venture or seed capital firms.

Financial consolidation also affects franchises or organisations that are collaborating to take advantage of economies of scale – such as NHS trusts and veterinary practices – investors with property portfolios, family offices or global business that operate in multiple countries.

The growth of Xero, Sage and QuickBooks Online for financial reporting

Powering this boom in people leaving the daily grind of 9-5 to set up their own business is the advances in cloud technology. Cloud-based financial accounting software, such as Xero, Sage and QuickBooks Online, offers business owners cost-effective and easy-to-use systems for managing their company’s finances.

Previously, as businesses grew, they would move away from using Microsoft Excel for their finances to traditional ERP (enterprise resource planning) platforms, which provided the solution to issues associated with growth, such as entities operating in different territories, running different currencies, or being multi-vertical or multi-disciplined with little or no alignment.

The drawback to using ERP software was twofold: they were extremely expensive and highly complex, therefore difficult to implement. Businesses had to reach a certain size and scale, with deep pockets, before they could invest, something that was simply not possible for most businesses. The emergence of cloud accounting has now changed this situation forever.

“Now that more and more businesses operate under one parent company, the need for consolidation has never been more apparent. The question now is, how can these companies with multiple entities make cloud-based financial apps work for their businesses’ growing financial needs?”

Making your reporting software work for your multiple company accounting 

Now that more and more businesses operate under one parent company, the need for consolidation has never been more apparent. The question now is, how can these companies with multiple entities make cloud-based financial apps work for their businesses’ growing financial needs?

At Joiin, we have seen an increase in the number of businesses from across all industries using these cloud apps to manage the finances for multiple business entities, for example, a NHS trust or venture capital company running multiple start-ups in different stages.

As revolutionary as Sage, Xero and QuickBooks Online has been for business, they have their limitations. The main drawback for business owners is that you are unable to merge multiple Xero, Sage or QuickBooks Online company accounts into one for the purposes of consolidated financial reporting.

Until now, businesses had to export individual financial reports to Microsoft Excel and manually combine the results. This is a time-consuming and costly process that is susceptible to mistakes, introduced through human error.

Financial consolidation reporting made easy

Using cloud technology to seamlessly integrate with your business’s multiple Xero, Sage or QuickBooks Online accounts, Joiin is the key to delivering a smooth reporting tool.

Saving you time and money, Joiin brings together complex data from multiple accounts to provide consolidated financial reporting at the click of a button.

There are a wealth of features within Joiin. Your key financial, sales and KPI (key performance indicator) reports are at your fingertips with automatic and customisable currency conversion and flexible reporting by period, company and category. You can also invite colleagues to collaborate on reports.

Our highly visual software enables you to easily track KPIs over time, including total revenue, gross profit margin, operating profit margin, activity ratio and days sales outstanding. In addition, you can rest assured that your personal and highly sensitive business data is encrypted with built-in end-to-end security.

If you want a more efficient and cost-effective way to generate consolidated financial statements for your business, sign up for our no-obligation free trial today to benefit from unlimited users, full support and endless reporting happiness.

Read part 2 of our Financial Consolidation Reporting series ›