Inter-entity account mapping plans

In a multi-entity shared company, entities represent a separate tax identification or a separately secured, fully balancing set of books. Entities typically represent divisions, franchises, affiliates, associations, locations, chapters, self-balancing funds or subsidiaries, with a shared chart of accounts.

A multi-entity shared company includes one or more entities under the top level. The company has a set of data lists that's shared among all entities. These shared data lists include users, chart of accounts, customers, vendors, and employees. Administrators define the shared data lists once at the top level and use them throughout the entities in the company. Administrators use the top level to manage entities and their data.

Alternatively, administrators can restrict to working at the entity level only users and master data list members such as vendors, customers, and employees. Administrators can even restrict users to working only in particular entities.

An example of a multi-entity shared company is a property management company. One entity represents the company's corporate headquarters and each managed property is represented by its own separate entity.

Sage Intacct records inter-entity transactions separately from other types of receivable and payable transactions. An example of an inter-entity transaction is when one entity pays a bill on behalf of another entity. For each entity in your company, you can specify the payable and receivable accounts you want to use for inter-entity transactions.

You can set up inter-entity transaction (IET) accounts for all your entities on one central page. First, select an inter-entity account mapping plan, either Basic or Advanced. The Basic plan enables using two accounts per entity for IETs. The Advanced plan enables using four accounts per entity for IETs.

This topic deals with setting up accounts for inter-entity transactions, and assumes that the entities already exist. To learn how to create an entity, see Entities.

To manage entities, go to Company > Setup > Entities. Click Edit next to the entity for which you're setting up inter-entity accounts.

About inter-entity account mapping plans

The Basic plan enables you to use only one set of inter-entity accounts per entity for higher-level tracking, while the Advanced plan enables you to define separate sets of inter-entity accounts for each entity relationship, or entity pair, and takes a more granular approach. As the inter-entity receivable (IER) and inter-entity payable (IEP) accounts reflect an obligation for one entity to settle with another, separating these accounts among entity pairs enables you to report more specifically on how these obligations arise. Using the Advanced plan doesn't necessarily mean you need four accounts for each entity pair. You can re-use accounts if you have different requirements for granularity among your entities. For example, you might configure one IEP and one IER account for your UK and US entities, while using four different accounts for the Australia and France entities.

When considering which setup is right for you, it's important to understand how the inter-entity receivable and payable balances are ultimately settled, meaning how and when payment is to be made.

• Basic. The Basic inter-entity account mapping plan enables you to map entities to accounts used to post inter-entity transactions (IETs). For each entity, you can define a common receivable account and payable account to record all inter-entity transactions involving that entity. There's no need to settle separately balances among the entities involved, so you define one inter-entity receivable (IER) and one inter-entity payable (IEP) account per entity. You can share across multiple entities a single set of inter-entity receivable and payable accounts. Alternatively, you can settle these accounts directly through cash or investments as needed.

  A sample Basic inter-entity account mapping plan is shown here:

  Basic IET account mapping plan

  Entity	IER	IEP
  E100-US	1901 Inter-entity receivable account	2901 Inter-entity payable account
  E200-UK	1902 Inter-entity receivable account	2902 Inter-entity payable account
  E300-AUS	1903 Inter-entity receivable account	2903 Inter-entity payable account

• Advanced. The Advanced inter-entity account mapping plan enables you to map pairs of transacting entities to up two four accounts used to record inter-entity transactions (IETs). This allows for greater granularity in tracking who owes whom, so you can settle between each entity pair individually, if necessary. The Advanced plan enables mapping each entity to a combination of directional accounts that record inter-entity receivables and payables using separate or common accounts. You can use any combination of receivable and payable accounts (IER and IEP).

  A sample Advanced inter-entity account mapping plan is shown here:

  Advanced IET account mapping plan

  Entity A	Entity B	Entity A IER	Entity A IEP	Entity B IER	Entity B IEP
  E100-US	E200-UK	1911 Receivable account	2911 Payable account	1921 Receivable account	2921 Payable account
  E100-US	E300-AUS	1912-Receivable account	2912 Payable account	1931 Receivable account	2931 Payable account
  E100-US	E400-CAN	1913 Receivable account	2913 Payable account	1941 Receivable account	2941 Payable account
  E100-US	E500-MEX	1914 Receivable account	2914 Payable account	1951 Receivable account	2951 Payable account
  E400-CAN	E500-MEX	1942 Receivable account	2942 Payable account	1952 Receivable account	2952 Payable account