Consolidate multi-entity financials

Build your consolidation with an entity breakdown. Apply the breakdown and every entity follows one shared template, so the group consolidates automatically as actuals and forecasts roll up. This guide covers reflecting your group structure in Francis: mapping entities to sheets, eliminating intercompany transactions, building sub-consolidations, and layering in adjustments like IFRS or transfer pricing. It’s for finance teams running multi-entity groups who want the consolidation to stay correct without manual rework.

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Each entity gets a sheet

When you apply a breakdown, each entity gets its own sub-sheet. In the breakdown settings, reached from the three-dot menu next to the breakdown then Adjust breakdown, you assign each accounting system connection to the entity sub-sheet it feeds. This links a data source to a sheet. It’s separate from mapping GL accounts to line items, which you do once on the shared template, covered below. You can create new sheets for new entities at any time. When a new accounting system is connected, Francis notifies you to map it to a sheet so the consolidation stays complete. Add sheets from the three-dot menu, Add sheet. Because every entity follows the same P&L and balance sheet template, the group always consolidates cleanly. Map all GL accounts to that shared structure. Where entities use the same accounts for a line item, point them all at the same line: one line carries every account and filters the actuals per sub-sheet automatically. Entities’ charts of accounts won’t always match. Some drift apart over time, and some entities genuinely run different operations. Either way, add all the accounts to the structure. A line item with no mapping for a given entity simply shows zero, and those zeros are the price of a consolidation that always ties out. When the differences come from genuinely different operations, put those lines in their own group in the P&L or balance sheet, then collapse the group in the entities where it doesn’t apply. In practice, some revenue and COGS accounts often vary per legal entity, while everything below gross profit (salaries, rent, sales and marketing, admin) fits standard buckets.

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Eliminations are included via separate sheets

Put eliminations on their own sheet. The entity sub-sheets keep their correct standalone numbers, and the eliminations only apply at the consolidated level. In practice, write formulas on the elimination sheet that pull each IC value from the entity, with a leading minus to offset it. The one prerequisite is separate line items for IC, so there’s a clean value to reference. If you have subgroups, add multiple elimination sheets to capture eliminations at the subgroup level rather than only the top group. Decide where in the group structure each elimination sheet sits, then input the elimination formulas in the right place so the subtotals come out right. This works only if you can split eliminations by counterparty. In a sub-consolidation, you want to eliminate only the IC between the entities in that subgroup. If that IC is mixed together with IC against entities in other subgroups, you can’t isolate it on the local sub-consolidation, and you must eliminate it at the top level instead. These are the eliminations a group typically needs.

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IC reconciliation

If you have many eliminations, add a separate IC reconciliation sheet. For each IC pair, write a formula that takes the difference between the two sides as a test of whether they net to zero. Build one test per pair, and any non-zero result points you straight at the mismatch. Reconciliation becomes stronger the more granular data you have. For example, recording IC in dedicated GL accounts per entity pair. When your group has more than two entities, create separate IC accounts for each pair, for example DK-UK, UK-US, and DK-US. If all IC sits in shared accounts, you can’t tell whether eliminations are accurate or which entity relationships are mismatched or incomplete. It matters most for cross-currency IC, where small differences between the two sides are expected from exchange rate movements. Without separated pairs, those differences are hard to investigate.

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Eliminations across currencies

Each entity records the same IC transaction in its own base currency, and Francis converts each side separately to the reporting currency. The converted amounts often differ slightly, because the exchange rates Francis uses differ from the ones used in your accounting system. Add an FX fluctuation row to the P&L or balance sheet structure with a formula that takes the residual between the two eliminated amounts, so the two sides net to zero at group level.

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Create sub-consolidations via roll-ups

Build sub-consolidations with roll-ups. Open the three-dot menu, choose Add roll-up, and drag the relevant entity sub-sheets into it. A roll-up gives a clean consolidated view for any slice of the group, a legal holding layer, a region, or any other grouping, without duplicating the model structure.

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Other adjustments such as IFRS and transfer pricing

Handle other consolidation adjustments the same way as eliminations: on separate sheets that apply only at the consolidated level. IFRS adjustments, transfer pricing, and similar group-level entries each go on their own sheet, leaving the entity sub-sheets correct for standalone reporting. Make the actual adjustments by writing formulas on the adjustment sheet, referencing the relevant entity values and applying the correction. Those adjustments then flow into the consolidated total without touching the underlying entity numbers.

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Common use cases

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Standard consolidation

The common case is three entities and an elimination sheet. Give each entity its own sub-sheet and add one sheet for eliminations. The top-level sheet consolidates all three entities net of eliminations.

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Consolidation with subgroups

For a group with subgroups, the holding entity sits at the top and each subgroup gets its own roll-up. Take a holding company over two subgroups, each with three operating companies. Build a roll-up per subgroup, drag its three operating-entity sub-sheets in, and the top level rolls the two subgroups and the holding into the group view. Place an elimination sheet inside each subgroup for the IC transactions within it, and one at the top for cross-subgroup eliminations. That way every subtotal, subgroup and group, comes out right.

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Regional splits

Group entities by geography with roll-ups. Add a roll-up per region, for example EMEA and Americas, and drag each region’s entity sub-sheets in. The top-level sheet rolls up all regions, giving you a regional P&L alongside the group view in one model.

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Single entity with department breakdown

If you run as a single legal entity, skip the entity breakdown and build a P&L per department instead. You get the same per-department forecasting without a consolidation layer.