consolidation

Post opening balance entries to retained earnings when consolidating after start of business activity

As a best practice, Sage Intacct recommends consolidating from the first period of business activity. For situations where you need to consolidate after the first period, Intacct now separates opening balance entries from current period consolidation activity.

For consolidations that start after the first period with transactions, Intacct now creates opening balance entries on balance sheet accounts, including retained earnings. This enables you to benefit from the clear, automated categorization and separation of opening balance from current period activity.

Details

You can run a General Ledger (GL) report on a consolidation book to observe opening balance entries as separate from consolidation entries.

For example, the following table lists clearly distinct entries as they would appear in an Intacct GL report, such as:

  • Consolidation entries

  • Opening balance entries

Clearly distinct consolidation and opening balance entries in a GL report

Account

Posted date

Memo

Transaction amount (AUD)

Debit

(AUD)

Credit

(AUD)

Balance

(AUD)

1000 - Bank of Banks

31 Jan 2024

Consolidation

50,000.00

50,000.00

0

50,000.00

1000 - Bank of Banks 31 Jan 2024

Opening balance

75,000.00

75,000.00

0

125,000.00

3500 - Retained earnings

31 Jan 2024

Opening balance

75,000.00

0.00

75,000.00

-75,000.00

4000 - Sales

31 Jan 2024

Consolidation

50,000.00

0.00

50,000.00

-50,000.00

Observe that the GL report indicates the following:

  • Account 1000. The opening balance amount is 75,000 AUD. The consolidation entry amount is 50,000 AUD. This creates a debit balance of 125,000 AUD.

  • Account 3500, retained earnings. Intacct creates the opening balance entry showing a credit of 75,000 AUD for the calculated retained earnings amount.

  • Account 4000, Sales. The consolidation entry shows a credit of 50,000 AUD, which is the consolidation activity for account 4000. This results in a credit balance of -50,000 AUD to the Sales account (account 4000).

The virtual close at the end of a user-defined period automatically updates your retained earnings balance. Intacct does not generate a retained earnings entry to net out income and expense accounts for the period.

How it works

Intacct automatically separates consolidation entries from opening balance entries.

You can optionally run a GL report on the accrual book to confirm the separate entries.

  1. Go to General LedgerAllReports> General Ledger report.

  2. For the Reporting period, select Date of inception.

  3. For the As of date, select the period you consolidated.

  4. Under Filters, select Reporting book and choose Accrual.

  5. Select the relevant account.

  6. Group by location.

  7. Select View to run the report and review it.

Requirements

Subscription
  • Domestic Consolidation

    Or

  • Global Consolidation

    Or

  • Advanced Ownership Consolidation

Regional availability

All regions

User type Business user with admin privileges
Permissions

Company

  • Entities: List, View, Add, Edit, Delete

  • Inter-entity account mapping: View, Edit

Consolidation

  • Manage books: List, View, Add, Edit, Delete
  • Run consolidations: Run
  • Ownership structure List, View, Add, Edit, Delete
  • Consolidate structure: Run