Using Consolidation Process

Activities that Complete During Consolidation Processing

When you run Consolidation, the bullet points below happen. However, you have the option to define a Custom Consolidation Process. Click here for information.

• Process Dynamic Journals in local and common currency
• Process Non Controlling Interest
• Calculate the minority interest expense and liability accounts for Non Controlling Interest
• Calculate the investment in the subsidiary for Non Controlling Interest in local and common currency
• Process required partitions in the reporting database
• Calculate Retained Earnings for all companies in local currency
• Calculate currency translation adjustments
• Process interim currencies
• Calculate Retained Earnings for interim currencies
• Calculate currency translation adjustment for interim currencies
• Reporting members with assigned currency values, exchange rates, and calculation types are converted.
• Process reporting cube

Custom User-Defined Consolidation Process 

With the User Defined Consolidation Process feature, you can configure and personalize your Close process. For example, you can balance books at local and common currencies during your Close process and require interim and reporting currencies get processed after Consolidation is complete. For Budget and Forecasts, you have the flexibility to run the Consolidation Process for specific financial years (period range) for the scenario versus all years.

Without the Custom User-Defined Consolidation Process, the Consolidation Process runs conversions and other calculations for common currency, local currency, interim currency, and reporting currency all at once in a big chunk. For example, let’s say you wanted to post Eliminations, Dynamic Journals (in common currency), and Reclassifications. You have to run the Consolidation Process, then Eliminations, and then the Consolidation Process again so that interim and reporting currency would reflect the eliminated intercompany transactions. With the User Defined Consolidation Process, you can process local currency and common currency, post Eliminations and common currency adjustments (if any), and then consolidate interim and reporting currency.

Follow the steps in the    Process Consolidation with Configurable Steps topic below. Alternatively, run the Consolidation Process from Cloud Scheduler. You can choose Interim Currency and Reporting Currency by selecting the Configurable Steps option shown below.

Process Consolidation With Configurable Steps

To learn about processing consolidation, click here. 

How to Post Eliminations During the Consolidation Process?

Optionally, include Eliminations (along with Dynamic Journals, Non Controlling Interest, Interim Currencies, and Reporting Currencies) in the Consolidation Process, which can then be scheduled to run in Cloud Scheduler. This eliminates the need for manual execution, however, you can continue to post Eliminations independently as well. Having both options provides additional flexibility and convenience.

Active Elimination Sets are processed and posted during the processing of common currency in the Consolidation Process. More specifically, the sequence of execution within the Consolidation Process is as follows:

1. Local Currency
2. Common Currency
3. Interim Currency
4. Reporting Currency

During the processing of Common Currency, the following happens:

• Local currency is converted to common currency
• Dynamic Journals Posting
• Non Controlling Interest Calculations
• Active Elimination Sets are processed and posted - this happens the first time Elimination Sets are posted and for subsequent Consolidation processing the Elimination Sets are first cleared and then posted.
• Current Year Retained Earnings calculations
• Beginning Retained Earnings calculations
• Hyperinflationary Company Processing
• CTA calculations

If the posting of any Eliminations fails during the Consolidation Process, the entire process fails. If a Cloud Scheduler task includes the posting of Eliminations for a company and the Elimination company under the roll-up company is deleted at some point in time, the Cloud Scheduler task will fail. To resolve this issue, update the existing Cloud Scheduler task and uncheck the Eliminations checkbox. Save it and run it again.

In Practice

1. Navigate to Consolidation to open the Consolidation Control Panel
2. Select the Consolidation Process under Processes.
3. Click the Process under Entry Actions. The Process Setup page appears as shown below.
4. Select the Eliminations checkbox and click Process or set up a Cloud Scheduler process. Note that the Eliminations checkbox is only available/visible in the selected company is a rollup and has an Elimination company as one of its descendants.

How to Clear Eliminations Posted as Part of the Consolidation Process?

When Eliminations are posted as part of the Consolidation Process, the only way to clear Elimination postings is to perform the following steps.

1. Navigate to Consolidation to open the Consolidation Control Panel
2. Click the Eliminations Process in the left pane. Eliminations are shown in the center pane.
3. Select an Elimination and click the Clear Data action as shown below.
   

Clearing Dynamic Journals and Non Controlling Interest Posted as Part of the Consolidation Process

When you select to process Dynamic Journals and Non Controlling Interest as part of the Consolidation Process, the Consolidation Process will not clear data for inactive artifacts (Dynamic Journals and Non Controlling Interest).

How to Process Consolidation Without Configurable Steps?

You can set up a process in Cloud Scheduler or run Consolidation from the Consolidation Control Panel. For Centralized Consolidations, all company/legal entities will be updated for the selected scenario and time periods when Consolidation is run. For Decentralized Consolidations, only the selected company/legal entity(s) will be updated for the selected scenario and time periods when Consolidation is run.

1. Navigate to Consolidation to open the Consolidation Control Panel
2. Select Consolidation Process from the Processes pane.
3. Select Process from the Entry Actions pane.
   
   
   
4. The Process Setup page is opened. Scenario selection includes Actual, Budget, and Forecast scenario types. If Actual scenario is selected then the Year and Period selections are applicable. If Budget/Forecast scenario types are selected then the Year selection is disabled and a single period is displayed for processing. You can select this to process all of the periods within a Budget or Forecast scenario type.
5. Select a Year to drive periods displayed for processing.
6. Select from the list of available periods based on the Scenario and Year selections. Locked periods are not available for selection.
7. Click Process to execute the Consolidation Process. Once the Consolidation Process is complete, a Process Status page will appear indicating whether or not the process was successful.

Some prerequisites must completed before you can process consolidations, which include:

• Post Journal Entries
• Execute Intercompany Eliminations
• Update Foreign Currency Exchange Rates
• Define Consolidation Setup selections