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ANSWER ID:9186

Although many businesses will use the Job System to maintain accounts for separate profit centres If you run a business with multiple company files for different profit centres, such as shop fronts or divisions of their your business, other clients might have several businesses and choose to run more than one company file. Also see Tracking the profitability of profit centres using Jobs.

The software makes it easy to consolidate several company files into the one company file. In this way, you can print the Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss statement and many other reports from multiple businesses held in multiple company file from the one company file. This support note guides you through this process..

Consolidating reports for multiple company files

In the example below the consolidated company file is referred to as Master, and the businesses whose results are being combined are referred to as Business 1 and Business 2.

The procedure will import all accounts from each business - they can each have a different chart of accounts, but it's worth designing account numbers carefully, as this will affect the consolidated results.

For example, if you want Advertising Expense from each business to appear as a single line in the consolidated file, then make sure that Advertising Expense has the same account number in each separate company file used to create the consolidated company file.

Alternatively, if you want the cheque account for Business 1 to show separately from the cheque account in Business 2, make sure that these accounts have unique numbers.

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title	1. Create the Master company file

Go to the File menu and choose New to create a new company file for the consolidated reports.
Name this file Master.
At the Accounts List option, choose to Build your own list.

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For more information on creating company files, press F1 while using your software to view the Help Centre.

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title	2. Export the accounts

Open up Business 1.
Go to the File menu and choose Export Data then choose Accounts.
Click in the Export Order column against every field except the Balance field.
Click Export and name this file account1.txt. This exports the chart of accounts (not the transactions) for Business 1.
Complete the same procedure for Business 2, except name the export file account2.txt.
Repeat this step for any other company files to be included in the consolidated (master) file.

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For more detailed information on exporting data, press F1 while using your software to view the Help Centre.

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title	3. Import the accounts

Open the Master company file.
Go to the File menu and choose Import Data.
Select Update Existing Record and open up account1.txt.
Match the import fields and click Import.
Complete the same procedure (as above) for accounts2.txt.
Repeat this step for any other account files to be included in the consolidated file.

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For more detailed information on importing data, press F1 while using your software to view the Help Centre.

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title	4. Enter the opening balance sheet figures

Go to the Setup menu and choose Opening Balances to enter the Opening Balance Sheet figures for the consolidated file.

The tasks outlined above establish a master template for consolidated reporting. If you want to consolidate accounts regularly or more than once a year, go into Windows Explorer or your Macintosh Desktop and make a duplicate copy of this file for future use.

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title	5. Export the journals

Open up Business 1.
Go to the File menu and choose Export Data then choose Transaction Journal Entries.
Change the Source Journal to All and select a suitable date range.
Click Match All, then Export and name this file journal1.txt.
Complete the above procedure for Business 2, except name the export file journal2.txt.
Repeat this step for any other company files to be included in the consolidated reports.

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title	6. Import the journals

Open the Master company file.
Go to the File menu and choose Import Data then choose Transaction Journal Entries.
Select the journal1.txt file.
Click Match All and then Import.
Complete the same procedure (as above) for journal2.txt.
Repeat this step for any other journal files to be included in the consolidated reports.

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The year-end adjustment journal is unable to be imported as you are unable to post directly to your current earnings account. As the journals you are importing would affect Income and expense accounts, you current earnings will automatically update.

The import is now complete!

After completing the tasks above, all transactions from the separate company files will be in the consolidated company file enabling consolidated Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet reports to be produced.

you may want to consolidate the accounts to view and print Balance Sheets or other Reports.

In most cases, this can be done in AccountRight by exporting and importing your accounts into one Master company file; but, there is no "one size fits all" solution because of the variation between different business situations, including

number of company files
number of accounts in each company file, and how they will be displayed after import, and
the AccountRight version

Want to learn more?

We might not be experts in consolidating reports for multiple company files, but our community forum is a great place to connect with business professionals who are happy to share their insights.

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