Preparing and presenting group and individual company data is one of the most complex tasks within the Consolidation system due to the large number of variants. Different analysis purposes and addressees must be taken into account in the process.
- Data that forms the basis of Consolidation enters the Consolidation system by various routes. It basically comprises individual FS data (master data and transaction data) of the companies to be included, additional financial data for the individual consolidation activities and control parameters. You can set control parameters to determine how the consolidation steps are to be executed in Consolidation Customizing.
At this point it is essential that you attain knowledge of the important master data, financial data and control parameters and its structure.
- Journal entry reports are needed in order to verify the changes to the individual financial statement data due to consolidation postings.
- The reports must meet both external and internal requirements.
From an external point of view, data must be recorded in lists that can be printed and submitted to the auditor, for example. On the other hand, you may require lists with a different level of detail, different formatting and so on, for internal purposes. You can create printed lists in the Consolidation system by defining totals reports and reports in the Report Writer or Report Painter.
For quick, internal information purposes the system should also provide the ability to query certain data interactively on the screen. Interactive Reporting in the Consolidation system allows you to do this.
- Numerous requirements must be met by reports of totals data:
- In addition to simply drawing-up a balance sheet or an income statement, you should also be able to generate comparisons of multiple fiscal years with absolute and relative deviations, as well as show the changes between local and group valuations.
- The specifications in the notes to the group statements require you to generate reports on the aging of receivables and payables and show horizontal developments on asset history sheets. The group asset history sheet, in particular, can differ considerably from that of an individual company, so you may have to create separate columns in the asset history sheet for currency translation differences and changes in the consolidated entity (acquisitions and retirements).
- Due to internal requirements, sales revenue reports must often be drawn up by geographical and operating area, ratios calculated and their development over a period of time shown.
As well as meeting these functional requirements, computer-assisted reporting should also allow you to visually adjust the design of printouts. Furthermore, you should encounter as few restrictions as possible when defining headings and texts, and placing them in the report.
- Database lists provide an insight into the data stored in the database.
- In some cases you will need to transfer consolidation data to other systems. This can be done by creating data extracts.
