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Generate Consolidation

Open this form from the Process > Consolidations menu.

You can only run the Generate Consolidation process when you are bringing the accounts of one or more of your subsidiaries into the current company.

This process generates general ledger journals in the current company either as a period balance if consolidation is at balance level, or as individual transactions if consolidation is at transaction level. One journal document is created per period, per subsidiary company.

You can run a process, delete it, and re-run it. Deleting a run removes the general ledger journals that were created for it, enabling you to run a consolidation mid-month and then undo the consolidation and re-run it at the end of the period.

Rules:

You can only use one run number for each period for the consolidation code. The run number identifies the period for all companies in the consolidation code.
A consolidation cannot be generated if the period end date is before the company's start date.
A consolidation run cannot be created if the period end date is later than the company's completion date.

When this function is selected, and you have processed a consolidation for the company, the details of the last run display.

Options Reference

Each option and field on the form is described below. Mandatory options and fields are highlighted in red.

Run number

Enter or search for the run number, which identifies the consolidation run for this company, up to 40 characters, and must be entered when setting up a new run. The run number is the resulting General Ledger Journal document number.

Run description

Enter a description for the consolidation run. This can be an unlimited length, and you must enter the description when setting up a new run. You can change the description on an existing run.

Consolidation code & Company

The consolidation code and the name of the current consolidation company display in read-only format.

Consolidation date

For a new run, this defaults to today's date. When you select an existing run number, this displays the date of the previous run. The consolidation date is the document date of the generated General Ledger Journal lines.

The posting date of the source document becomes the posting date of the generated consolidated general ledger journal lines, if consolidating at a transaction level. If consolidating at balance level, the period end date becomes the posting date of the generated consolidated general ledger journal.

As you can add periods and companies to an existing run, if the run is processed with additional transactions, this date can be changed. Consolidation journals generated from previous processes of a run are not changed if you add new periods and companies to the run.

Period End Date

For a company that has not processed a consolidation run, this defaults to the end date of the current General Ledger posting period. If a run has previously been processed, the period end date is read-only.

This date (whether left as the current period or changed to some other period end date) determines which subsidiary periods is consolidated by this run. Only prepared consolidation periods that have a period end earlier or on the entered period end date can be consolidated.

The general ledger Journal that is created by this run is posted to the period specified by this date.

WARNING: You can only maintain one consolidation run per period end date. If you consolidate for one period for one company only, and you then want to build on this consolidation with another subsidiary company, you must use the same consolidation run, and add the next company's period to the selection, and run it using the same run number.

Subsidiary company selection

This section has two panels:

Available subsidiary company

For the consolidation code that this company belongs to, the subsidiary companies appear in this panel. The name of the current company displays at the top of the panel, with the list of subsidiary companies that belong to the consolidation code underneath in the structure defined on the Consolidation Code Maintenance form. Below each subsidiary company are the periods that have been prepared in that subsidiary company.

The colour coding for the subsidiary companies is:

Black - This company has no prepared consolidation periods.
Blue - This company has one or more prepared consolidation periods. This is not available for selection for this consolidation run period end date.
Green - This company has one or more prepared consolidations available for selection for this period end date.

The colour coding for the prepared periods is:

Green - This prepared period is earlier than or on the selected Period End Date, so can be selected for this run
Blue - This prepared period is later than the selected Period End Date, so cannot be selected for this run.

The colour of these periods is dynamic and changes as the Period End Date changes.

Selected subsidiary company

The name of the current company displays at the top of this panel. Below the company name, the subsidiary companies that have been selected for this run or have been consolidated in a previous run for this run number display. Below each subsidiary company, the periods that have been consolidated in a previous process, or are about to be consolidated, are listed.

If they have not been consolidated, the periods display in green. If they have been consolidated in a previous process of this run, the periods display in black. The subsidiary companies are always displayed in black.

Add

Click this button when you have highlighted an available subsidiary company that has at least one green period. Clicking this button removes the green periods from the available subsidiary company list and displays the company name and the green periods in the Selected subsidiary company list.

All

Click this button when you have highlighted the name of the current company in the Available subsidiary company list when there is one or more periods displayed in green. Clicking this button moves all the green periods in all consolidation levels below the current company along with their green periods to the Selected subsidiary company list, and removes these periods from the Available subsidiary company list.

Remove

Click this button when you have highlighted a selected subsidiary company in the Selected subsidiary company list. Clicking this button removes this company and all its periods from the selected list, and re-displays them on the Available subsidiary company list.

When an existing run number displays, you can select one or more subsidiary companies from the Available list that have prepared periods that have not been consolidated yet. You can run the consolidation for them and delete the run number if it has the most recent period end date. This deletes all the consolidation documents and journals created in the parent company for that run.

Run

This button is enabled if a subsidiary company is listed in the Selected subsidiary company list and has periods that have not already been processed.

Run status

This section of the form displays each step of the consolidation process, showing information for each selected subsidiary company, each period and the transfer of information for the mapped accounts. When the process is complete, this is indicated by the last line: Running - Consolidation number <Run number> finished.

Once a subsidiary's first period is prepared for consolidation, you can prepare the next period in the calendar. For example, if periods are prepared monthly, the period May must follow April. You cannot prepare the June period if April was the last previous period prepared.

Delete

When you delete a consolidation run, this deletes the run details, as well all the general ledger journals that were created by this run. This includes any journals created in previous processes of this run.

WARNING: You must reverse elimination journals that have been completed for a deleted run.

Export Elimination Transactions

Click this button to export elimination transactions to a CSV file, if elimination accounts or an elimination tree is setup. This button is enabled when you consolidate one subsidiary company. You don't need to run the consolidation for all companies in the consolidation.

WARNING: If a transaction analysis code used in a subsidiary company is not assigned as a posting level branch in the consolidation company, the consolidation run process fails with the error reporting the transaction code causing the failure.

Generating Consolidations Using Translated Values

If the option to Use translated value is selected on the Consolidation Company Mapping Maintenance form, translated values are used in the consolidation process. A final translation must have been previously generated for the company at the consolidation level.

These rules apply if translated values are used in this process:

The Translations module must be in use for both the consolidation and subsidiary companies.
The translation must be a final translation.
The translation must be for the same period as the period to be consolidated.
The translation currency must be the same currency as the consolidation company's currency.
Translation Reserve option selected on the Customise Reporting Exchange Rates form, the consolidation journal includes:
- Any individual translation reserve lines (itemised as separate journal lines per individual account).
- The contra of all these values to the Foreign Currency Translation Reserve account that is specified in Consolidation Company Mapping Maintenance (one journal line per run/company/period).

Potential Errors

Transaction tree short code You can't post to this branch in this situation

Cause - A transaction tree used in a general ledger account in the subsidiary company is not assigned to the mapped general ledger account in the consolidation company.
Solution - Add the tree to the general ledger account and rerun the consolidation process.

Transaction tree short code This branch is not a posting level branch

Cause - A transaction tree analysis code used in the subsidiary company is not flagged as a posting level branch in the consolidation company
Solution: Flag this branch as a posting level and rerun the consolidation process.

Cannot find a peer account for 'GL account code' in the consolidation company

Cause - A general ledger account in one of the subsidiary companies is not mapped.
Solution - Run the verify with the subsidiary account mapping in consolidation code maintenance, map the account and re run the consolidation process.

Period <period name> in <company name> is open. This consolidation cannot proceed until it is closed

Cause - A period in the consolidation run is open in the subsidiary company
Solution - Close the period and re run the consolidation process.

There is no final currency translation for NNN for this transaction

Cause - Related to one of the rules outlined above for translations not being met.