Run consolidation

Find this screen

Open: Period End Routines > Consolidation.

How to

Run consolidation from the subsidiary

Open: Period End Routines > Nominal Consolidation.

Choose the Consolidation period to consolidate up to.

A single transaction containing the balance of all nominal accounts is posted to the parent. This is the balance at the end of the selected period, less any previously consolidated value.

Transactions entered into previous periods which have not been consolidated are also included.
Choose the Consolidation date used for posting the transactions.

This is the date the consolidation transaction is posted into the parent. It defaults to the last day of the selected period.

The transaction will posted to the period of the transaction date, using the usual accounting period rules. If the period is Closed in the parent, the transaction is posted to the next open period. If the period is marked as Future, the transaction will be posted to the Deferred file.
Enter a Reference and Narrative for the transaction.

The companyschool name is always added to the narrative to help identify which subsidiary companyschool the transaction originated from.

Tip: We recommend that you run the consolidation several times, until you see the No items to consolidate message. This confirms that all the balances have been transferred correctly. You can't send the balances more than once, so there's no harm in doing this.

Useful info

Clearing and re-doing the consolidation

OK, so a number of your subsidiary companiesschools have consolidated into your parent companyreporting company, but the figures are incorrect and you need to do it again.

There two ways you can handle this:

If it's just a small error from one subsidiary, such as posting to an incorrect nominal account or the suspense account in the parent, then we recommend that you resolve this by posting a journal your parent companyreporting company.
If it's a larger issue with errors across multiple periods or multiple subsidiary companiesschools, then we recommend that you remove all of the consolidation transactions and start again.

Clearing the consolidation and starting again

You can only do this when the parent companyreporting company only contains consolidated transactions posted from the subsidiaries. Remember that a parent companyreporting company should not be used for trading.

Clearing the consolidation will remove all the transactions from the parent companyreporting company and sets the balance of every nominal account back to zero. Once you do this, you must clear the consolidated balances (step 2) in each subsidiary companyschool and re-consolidate every subsidiary companyschool (step 3).

Tip: If you only require consolidated reports for your year end, then we recommend that you only consolidate your balances once at the year end, as this reduces the possibility of errors.

To clear your consolidations:

Clear the balances of all the nominal accounts in the parent companyreporting company.

Note - danger
This clears all transactions from this company database. Do not use this in a subsidiary companyschool.
See how to do this
Open: Settings > Cash Book / Nominal Ledger > Zero balances.
- Click OK.
Clear the consolidate balances in each subsidiary companyschool.

This clears the values already consolidated for each nominal account in the subsidiary companyschool. Once you've cleared the consolidated amounts, the next time you consolidate, the entire trial balance is posted to the parent companyreporting company.
See how to do this
Open: Settings > Cash Book / Nominal Ledger > Clear Consolidated Amounts.
- Click OK.
Run the consolidation again for each subsidiary companyschool.

You only need to run the consolidation once for each subsidiary. Make sure your run it up to the end of the of your most recent period. If you're only running the consolidation once a year, then run the consolidation up to the end of your financial year.

The year to date balance of each account is posted to the parent companyreporting company.

What if a linked nominal account doesn't exist in the parent?

If a nominal account in a subsidiary companyschool is linked to a nominal account that doesn't exist in the parent companyreporting company, then the transaction posted to the suspense account.

To resolve this, you'll need to journal the balance of that account from the suspense account to the correct nominal account. This is done in the parent companyreporting company.

The narrative on the transaction will include the nominal account it was intended to post to. This makes it easier for you trace and correct this.

What if a nominal account has been added in the subsidiary and not linked to the parent?

If the nominal account hasn't been linked to the parent before you run the consolidation, then the balance of that account is posted to the suspense account in the parent.

To resolve this, you 'll need to journal the balance from suspense to the correct account. This is done in the parent companyreporting company.

Tip: To avoid this, make sure a consolidated account is selected each time a new nominal account is create in the subsidiary companyschool.

What if I have more than one parent

Each parent should still only be used for consolidated reporting and not used for trading.

You'll have to consolidate into each parent, working up from the bottom of the hierarchy, before consolidating into the final parent companyreporting company.

To set this up you'll need to:

Create a Sage 200 company for each parent companyreporting company.
Choose a parent for each subsidiary companyschool.
Enable the consolidation and set the nominal account links in the subsidiary companiesschools.
Choose the parent for any companyreporting company that is a subsidiary of another parent companyreporting company.
Enable the consolidation and set the nominal account links in these parent companiesreporting companies.

How do I check the consolidated transaction in the parent?

When the consolidation has completed, a report is printed showing the details of the trial balance transaction that has bee sent to the parent company.

What this doesn't show you is what has actually been posted in the parent companyreporting company. To see this you'll need to log into the parent and use the enquiries to see the current transactions.

The best way to do this is use the Current Transactions workspace. You can easily the filter the workspace to find and check the posted transactions.

Fix it

The period is missing from the drop-down list

If you can't see a nominal period in the Consolidation period drop-down list, this is because the period is not marked as Open. You can't consolidate for a period marked as Closed or Future.

Open the period for Nominal Adj before you consolidate.

'Consolidation not enabled' error message

If you see this message, then check the following:

Is the Enable consolidation option selected on the Nominal Ledger Settings? ( Settings > Cash Book / Nominal Ledger > Nominal Ledger Settings | Consolidations)
Have you set a suspense account in the parent companyreporting company?

'No items to consolidate' message

This means that you've already consolidated for this period, and the balances haven't changed.

If you run the consolidation more than once, this massage confirms that all the balances have been transferred correctly. You can't send the balances more than once, so there's no harm in doing this.

What happens when

The consolidation is run

A single transaction is posted to the parent companyreporting company.
The transaction contains the balance of all nominal accounts up to the end of the selected period.
A report is produced showing the details of the transaction.
If a linked account doesn't exist in the parent, that balance is posted to the suspense account.