How to consolidate multiple Xero organisations

Xero doesn't consolidate organisations

Each Xero organisation is a separate set of books, with its own chart of accounts, contacts, base currency and subscription. Reports run inside one organisation at a time. There is no group view that adds several organisations together, removes the trading between them and translates foreign currencies.

Customers have asked. The idea "Ability to consolidate multiple Xero organisations" on Xero's product ideas site has a few hundred votes. On 23 July 2025 Xero replied that work on consolidated reporting is not currently planned.

Xero does own Syft Analytics, which consolidates. As of October 2026, Xero Analytics (built on Syft) doesn't consolidate, and Xero Ultra, which bundles Syft with consolidation for five entities, is sold in Australia only. Everyone else uses a spreadsheet or a separate tool. The steps are the same either way. The options compared page sets out what each route costs.

Before you start

Write these four decisions down. Every month's consolidation depends on them, and your auditor will ask.

• The group. Which organisations are in it, which one is the parent, and what percentage the parent owns of each.
• The reporting currency. Usually the parent's currency, or the one your board or lender reads.
• The period. Ideally every organisation shares the same financial year end. If one doesn't, you need its figures for the group's months, not its own year.
• Accounting policies. Depreciation, revenue recognition and capitalisation should match across the group, or you adjust for the differences.

Then, for each organisation, run the trial balance (or the P&L and balance sheet) for the same date.

Step 1: map the charts of accounts

Two organisations set up by different people rarely share a chart. One says "Sales", another "Revenue – UK", a third splits sales by product. Before anything can be added up, every account needs a line on a single group chart.

• Map within account types. Xero gives every account a type (revenue, direct costs, expense, current asset, current liability, equity and so on). Never map a revenue account to an expense line.
• Keep intercompany on its own lines. If "Due from Northwind Pte" disappears into trade receivables, you can't see whether it eliminates.
• Check for new accounts every month. An account someone added last week and nobody mapped is the commonest reason a consolidation doesn't balance.

Step 2: find the intercompany

List every balance and transaction between members of the group. The usual ones:

• receivables and payables for recharges, sales and fees ("due from" and "due to");
• loans between companies, and the interest on them;
• sales and purchases of goods or services between companies;
• management fees and cost recharges;
• dividends paid by a subsidiary to the parent;
• the parent's investment in each subsidiary, against that subsidiary's share capital.

Groups that keep a dedicated account per counterparty in every organisation ("Due from Northwind Pte", "Loan to Holding Ltd") are the easiest to consolidate. If intercompany sits in ordinary trade debtors with the other company as a contact, run aged receivables and payables for that contact to find it, and consider moving it to its own account.

Then reconcile before you eliminate. Both sides should agree in the reporting currency. When they don't, the cause is usually one of three things: timing (an invoice or payment posted on one side and not yet on the other), currency (one side holds the balance in a foreign currency and hasn't revalued it), or misposting (the wrong account or contact). Fix differences in the books where you can, not in the consolidation. Our guide to intercompany eliminations works through each case.

Step 3: eliminate

An elimination removes both sides of an intercompany item from the group totals. It is made in the consolidation only. Nothing is posted in Xero, because each organisation's own books are still right for its own accounts.

Here Holding Ltd charges Northwind Pte a £60,000 management fee, and £25,000 of it is still unpaid at month end. The figures are already in pounds; in practice you translate first and eliminate second.

Step 4: translate currencies

Under IAS 21 (and its equivalents, such as Ind AS 21), a subsidiary whose functional currency differs from the group's presentation currency is translated like this:

• Assets and liabilities at the closing rate on the balance sheet date.
• Income and expenses at the rates on the transaction dates. An average rate for the period is the usual practical substitute, as long as rates didn't swing sharply.
• Share capital and reserves at acquisition at the historical rate. Retained earnings build up from each period's translated profit.

Translate the P&L month by month at each month's average, rather than the whole year at one annual average. The year to date is then the sum of the months, and it doesn't change retrospectively when a new month comes in. Pick one source of rates, such as a central bank's published rates, use it every month and note it in your working papers.

Step 5: the currency translation adjustment

Because the balance sheet and equity use different rates, the translated balance sheet won't balance on its own. The gap is the currency translation adjustment (CTA), also called the foreign currency translation reserve. It goes to other comprehensive income and builds up in equity, not in profit.

Northwind Pte, in its first year, issued SGD 160,000 of shares when £1 bought SGD 1.60. It made SGD 85,000 of profit at an average of 1.70, and the year closed at 1.75.

The CTA stays in equity until the subsidiary is sold, when IAS 21 moves it to profit or loss. If your consolidated balance sheet is out by an amount that isn't the CTA, look for an unmapped account or a one-sided elimination before blaming the rates.

Step 6: non-controlling interests

Now say Holding owns 80% of Northwind Pte. Under IFRS 10 you still consolidate 100% of the subsidiary's revenue, expenses, assets and liabilities. You don't add 80% of each line. The other shareholders' 20% appears separately, as non-controlling interests (NCI): a share of profit below net income, and a line in equity.

When a subsidiary is bought rather than set up, NCI and goodwill are measured at the acquisition date under IFRS 3, which needs fair values from the purchase. That is a one-off calculation for your accountant or auditor.

Step 7: review

Run this list every month before the numbers go anywhere:

• Every account in every organisation is mapped.
• Eliminations net to zero, in the P&L and in the balance sheet.
• Each intercompany pair agrees, or the difference is explained (in transit, or currency).
• The consolidated balance sheet balances, with the CTA as the only translation balancing line.
• The CTA moved in the direction the currencies did this month.
• The NCI share of profit is the minority percentage of the subsidiary's profit.
• Rates are documented and the same in every report for the month.
• Lines that moved sharply against last month or last year have a reason.
• The month is locked, so a late edit in Xero doesn't change what you reported.

Doing it in a spreadsheet, or with a tool

The spreadsheet version: export each organisation's trial balance to Excel, paste each into its own tab, map with a lookup table and SUMIFS, and keep tabs for eliminations, rates and the consolidated result. It works, and plenty of groups run it for years.

A spreadsheet is reasonable for two organisations in one currency, with little intercompany, consolidated once a year. A tool pays for itself when you report monthly, have more than one currency, or have more than a handful of organisations. See how the options compare on our comparison pages.