The Reconciliation of Intra-Group Transactions
Interco reconciliation is still a resource-intensive process. See how to implement a simpler and more effective process ensuring better financial information quality.
A guide to improve process productivity and reliability
The obligation to reconcile intercos is covered briefly in the IFRS standards, but practical aspects are not.
It is therefore up to groups to implement the best possible process to eliminate intercos from the balance sheet and income statement, a preliminary step to consolidation.
It would appear today that, in many groups, interco reconciliation is still:
- A “consolidation” team responsibility, although these teams only have a very limited view of the overall situation. The goal is to reconcile transactions which took place at the local entity level and in their corporate accounting
- A resource-intensive process: one or more people have to be fully dedicated for a period of time to collecting the data to be reconciled and to resolving disputes
- A time-consuming process, which it is tempting to rush through when the deadline for closing the books is approaching quickly. The tactics used include forced entries, alignment on the seller, etc. to go faster and meet closing deadlines
- A difficult process to audit.
Can a simpler and more effective process be implemented?
In the next blog I will look the process we recommend and compares it to a traditional process with its limitations.
For more information you can download our white paper: Guide: The reconciliation of Intra-Group Transactions
