Multi-entity organizations are becoming mainstream as companies look for ways to diversify supply chains and ensure they establish a solid presence in disparate operating locations.

The challenge? More locations mean more complexity, especially when it comes to reconciling financial and accounting data. Here’s how Sage Intacct can help accelerate productivity with robust automation and accurate multi entity consolidation.

The Benefits of Going Multi-Entity

As noted by Investment Monitor, the world’s leading businesses have created more than 370,000 subsidiaries worldwide. And this doesn’t account for other multi-entry options such as franchise locations and satellite offices that help companies generate revenue or ensure they have access to relevant local data.

Look at the growing impact of legislation such as the EU’s GDPR. Any company that does business in the EU or collects data from EU citizens is responsible for both the secure storage of this data and for notifying individuals about how and why their personal information is being used. Failure to do so can result in significant fines or operational sanctions.

As a result, it’s often easier to have a satellite entity in an EU country to help streamline the compliance process and ensure consumer data is effectively handled.

Multi-entity options can also help companies increase revenue while providing a separate presence in multiple locations. Consider a franchise operation with businesses in 10 states. Each of these franchises represents potential ROI but depending on the state and city of their operation, may be subject to different regulations. By opting for multi-entities, companies can ensure that each location aligns with local rules.

Potential Drawbacks of Multi-Entity Management

Operating more than one entity also comes with potential drawbacks, however.

First is complexity. As the number of locations increases, so do the number of regulations that must be met and the documents that must be filed. For example, one state may have additional tax forms or operational permits you need to obtain, which creates more data for your finance and accounting teams to manage. This is especially problematic as companies leverage the cloud to streamline accounting processes — while businesses benefit from the on-demand resources and scalability offered, it’s often challenging to sort through multiple entity records and ensure the right actions are applied to the right location.

The multi-entity approach can also lead to accounting errors, which in turn wastes time and money. This becomes even more challenging if you’re manually creating spreadsheets with relevant entity data — even small errors can cause significant problems down the line.

Sage Intacct supports Multi Entity Consolidation

Sage Intacct offers multi currency and multi entity consolidations globally to help companies coordinate hundreds of entities in minutes, not hours or days.

With Sage Intacct, you can:

• Bring it all together, quickly and accurately

The Sage Intacct platform automatically consolidates financial consolidation activities including currency conversions, inter-entity transactions, and local tax reporting. This makes it possible for teams to more quickly close the books and bring on business growth.

• Continuously multiple entity consolidation

Get granular visibility into all your entities with eliminations and currency impacts recorded as journal entries, and easily consolidate multiple ownership types such as minority and partial ownerships to get a clear picture of what’s happening, when, and why.

• Streamline multi-currency management

From automated currency conversions to multi-currency conversions, Sage Intacct has you covered. Using up-to-date exchange rates, you can create cumulative currency adjustments (CTAs) and product reports in either the entity’s local currency or the currency used by your head office.

• Unify multi-entry architecture

Easily handle domestic and global locations, single and multiple base currencies, and multiple ownership types with our unified architecture. Then, leverage shared definitions to collaborate on vendor, customer, and item lists.

• Easily set up multi-entry consolidation

Get up and running ASAP with Sage Intacct. Instantly set up new entities with configurable rules, or have new entities inherent existing rules. Quickly configure each new entity with your own definitions, then choose whatever works best — centralized payables and receivables, or multiple charts of accounts. Whatever works best for you.

The result? Companies can reduce error rates, improve close times and boost productivity by more than 50%.

Opting for a multi-entity approach can help companies expand business operations and ensure they have a local presence where it matters most. But multi-entity operations come with increased complexity and the risk of accounting errors — take control of your multi-entity enterprise with Sage Intacct. Effectively manage your multi-entity business with Sage Intacct. Contact IWI Consulting Group today. Let’s talk.