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- Multi-currency Accounting
- Who it's for
- Groups with subsidiaries abroad
Groups with subsidiaries abroad
The classic shape: a holding company in one currency and operating subsidiaries in several others, each with its own bank accounts, tax authority and year-end, and a group controller who produces one set of statements every month.
How Multi-currency Accounting is set up for you
One chart, many entities
Every subsidiary posts to the same chart in its own functional currency, so the group trial balance is a translation of accounts that already line up. The entity ledger remains in functional currency; local statutory formats and required adjustments are scoped and reviewed during implementation.
Entity calendars
A subsidiary with a March year-end and a parent with December keep their own periods. Reviewed mappings place each entity’s results in the selected group reporting period, including approved alignment adjustments where needed.
Intercompany raised once
Management recharges, loans and sales between subsidiaries retain the period and functional value on both sides. The receiving entity confirms its journal independently. Review unresolved differences and any required adjustments before agreeing balances for close; specialised equity transactions need their own accounting review.
Revaluation per entity, translation at group
Each subsidiary revalues its own foreign balances at the closing rate and books unrealised differences in its own income statement. The group unit translates the approved trial balances under the configured account policy, retaining the rates and balances used for the reviewed translation adjustment.
Ownership below the whole
Partly owned subsidiaries carry ownership and method information. Validate non-controlling-interest calculations and review the consolidation adjustments; joint-venture and other specialised treatments need an agreed method and tested workings before inclusion.
One binder per entity, one run for the group
Local auditors open the entity’s period; group auditors open the consolidation run, the translated balances and the intercompany reconciliation.
Features to start with
Currencies and rates
Keep the source, purpose and approval behind every exchange rate, from document posting to group reporting.
Intercompany and consolidation
Agree cross-entity activity, preserve each company’s books and review translation and eliminations in the group reporting currency.
General ledger
Keep transaction amounts, functional values and approval evidence together across journals, close adjustments and group reporting.
Roles on the team
- Controller
- Owns the trial balance, the close and the consolidated statements. Approves what the GL Accountant, the Treasury Analyst and the clerks prepare: manual journals, revaluations, reconciliations, bills and credit memos above the clerk limit, pay runs above the clerk limit, and the period close itself.
- GL Accountant
- Prepares manual journals, accruals and prepayments, bank reconciliations and the entity close tasks the Controller approves.
- Treasury Analyst
- Owns currencies, exchange rates, bank accounts, transfers between currency accounts and the month-end revaluation. Prepares what the Controller approves.
- AP Clerk
- Processes vendor bills in the vendor’s currency, checks them against the order and receipt references, and builds pay runs.
- AR Clerk
- Raises customer invoices and credit memos in the customer’s currency, applies cash at the receipt rate and runs dunning.
- Tax Specialist
- Owns tax codes, jurisdictions, filings and the tax accrual.
- Auditor
- External or internal auditor. Read-only across the platform with access to the closing binder, revaluation workings and the audit trail.
Set up Multi-currency Accounting your way.
Start free, then use Proto to change fields, steps and approvals before your team goes live.