Financial consolidation: requirements checklist
From the guide at bestfinancesoftware.com/guides/consolidation, published 29 October 2026. Use your browser's print command; the site header and footer are left off the page.
| Requirement | Vendor A | Vendor B | Vendor C |
|---|
| Must have |
|---|
| Loads of trial balances from every entity's ledger, with mapping to a group chart of accounts. | | | |
| Currency translation with rate tables you control, and a currency translation adjustment you can explain. | | | |
| Intercompany matching and elimination, with a report of unmatched items by counterparty. | | | |
| An audit trail from each consolidated figure to entity balances and adjustments. | | | |
| Locking of closed periods, with a log of any reopening. | | | |
| Depends on you |
|---|
| Ownership structures, minority interests and equity method, if you hold less than 100 percent of some entities. | | | |
| Disclosure management and XBRL tagging, if you file with a regulator. | | | |
| Planning and forecasting in the same product, if the same team does both. | | | |
| Tax reporting outputs such as country-by-country data, if your group is large enough to need them. | | | |
Questions to ask in the demo
- Load two of our entities in different currencies and show the translated, consolidated balance sheet.
- Show an intercompany mismatch and how each counterparty sees and resolves it.
- Trace one consolidated revenue figure back to the entity ledgers and every adjustment.
- Add an acquired entity halfway through a period. What changes?
- How are rate tables loaded and who can change them?
- What leaves with us if we cancel: rules, mappings and history, or data only?
Back to the guide, with the reasons behind each item and the vendors described from their own pages.