Features
- Consolidate Unlimited Companies
- Journal Entries and journal entry report.
- Unadjusted and adjusted trial balance. Available on the dashboard, printed or PDF.
- Tax Line and tax line reporting with drill-down to the company/account level.
- Extensive diagnostics
- Exports to Drake, CCH, and Lacerte
General Approach
Generally speaking, this help topic will assume a consolidation of C-Corporations, however, two or more companies of any entity type can be consolidated.
The first consideration when planning a consolidation is the choice of the parent, or . If the consolidation involves brother-sister corporations, either company can be used for the consolidation. A good rule-of-thumb is to pick the company with the most flexible and accommodating chart of accounts.
Accounts from each non-consolidating company are assigned to an account in the consolidating company, for trial balance purposes.
The consolidating company's tax line assignments are applied to the consolidated balances.
The standard tax tools provided by BalanceWare remain fully functional for the consolidating client. For example, the tax and tax preparation dashboards, as well as tax exports, etc. will continue to operate normally and are not impacted by the use of the Company Consolidations dashboard. The Company Consolidations dashboard has it's own set of tax preparation and exporting tools.
Using an empty shell of a company as the is another option. This method provides an opportunity to create a generic chart of accounts, which may be helpful sometimes. For instance, if the consolidating company does not have an account with the appropriate tax line mapping for one of the non-consolidating companies, the addition of the account and tax mapping would be required in the consolidating company. It may be beneficial to use a shell consolidating company to avoid chart changes that are only used for consolidating purposes.
Dashboard Tabs
All images in BalanceWare Help can be enlarged by clicking on the image.
Notes & Attachments (Collapsible)
Use the Engagement Documentation dashboard to associate client s and notes with objects in BalanceWare.
Notes and documents can be linked to the following items (on a per client basis):
- Any journal entry (no icon, double click on preparer notes instead)
- Any cash disbursement batch (no icon, double click on preparer notes instead)
- Any other (using the Documents button from the Client tab)
- Any BalanceWare form (using the icon, below)
Look for the Engagement Documentation icon on BalanceWare forms.
Clicking the icon will open the Engagement Documentation dashboard. In the case of journal entries and cash disbursement batches, double-clicking on the Preparer Notes field accomplishes the same. Once open, click on any attachment to open the document.
Engagement Documentation Dashboard (with callouts)
See the Review Notes button on the Client Tab for reviewing notes from all sources within BalanceWare.
Note: to maintain link integrity, do not manage documents from Windows Explorer. Moving or deleting client documents may break links. Documents can be edited and documents can be added using Windows Explorer, but do not delete or move documents or folders. Broken links will be placed in a special folder in the Documents treeview called "Orphans" and can be relinked from this special folder.
Companies
The Companies Tab
The first tab on the Company Consolidations dashboard simply provides maintenance for the companies to be consolidated. The current company, or is assumed to be part of the consolidation. This first tab, allows the addition of companies to be consolidated with the current, consolidating company.
From this tab, companies can be added, deleted and validated.
Account Mapping
The Account Mapping Tab
All of the non-consolidating company accounts, on the right side of the dashboard, should be mapped to the accounts, on the left side of the dashboard.
First select a company to map, then select an account in the consolidating company, and finally select one or more accounts for the non-consolidating company. Use the Control Key in combination with a left mouse-click to select multiple accounts, or deselect from multiple accounts. Alternatively use a combination of the Shift Key and Up and Down Arrow Keys to select/deselect a range of accounts.
Map Diagnostics
The Map Diagnostics Tab
This tab lists accounts that have a balance and are not assigned. The list can be printed to any available printer or print driver, or displayed as a PDF file.
The Unadjusted Trial Balance Tab
The unadjusted trial balance displays tax balances from this in column 1, the non-consolidating companies in column 2 and a total in column 3. The unadjusted trial balance can be printed or displayed as a PDF.
NOTE: The balances brought into the consolidation are tax balances; i.e., if tax adjustments are made on the individual companies, those adjustments are brought into the consolidation.
Journal Entries
The Journal Entries Tab
The journal entries tab provides for the maintenance of journal entries along with a mini-Adjusted Trial Balance on the right side.
Journal entries can be located with the controls found at the bottom of the header section of the journal entry form. These controls provide forward and back record selectors, first and last record selectors, a new record button, and a search box. The controls at the bottom of the form provide the same functionality for the journal entry lines.
The journal entries can be printed and displayed as a PDF.
Trial Balance
The Trial Balance Tab
The trial balance tab displays the accounts from all companies in column 1; the sum of journal entries for each account in column 2; and, the adjusted balance in column 3. The report can be printed or displayed as a PDF.
Tax Lines
The Tax Lines Tab
The tax lines tab displays consolidated balances by tax return line. The reporting on this tab shows the total for the line, as well as the total for each company within a line, and the accounts assigned to each tax line.
The reporting from this tab is an invaluable aid for reviewing the underlying consolidation data.
The Tax Lines Report
Tax Diagnostics
The Tax Diagnostics Tab
This tab exposes all non-consolidating tax line assignments that are different from the tax line assigned to the . The assumption being that tax line assignments should be consistent.
In the example shown above, the Supplies account in Company 3 was assigned a tax line of "Supplies", and mapped to the "Other costs" in the cost-of-goods-sold section in the consolidating company.
The second diagnostic shows the non-consolidating Company 3 assigned officers comp to "Comp. of Officers - 1125-E", but the consolidating company will include the amount in "Salaries and wages"
Exports
The Exports Tab
The tax line data can be exported to DrakeSoftware, WoltersKluwer CCH Engagement/Workpaper Manager and to the Lacerte Trial Balance Utility.
Support Ticket
Submitting a support ticket is the best way to expedite your issue. The support ticket automatically includes information we need to service your installation properly. By submitting a support ticket, we won't have to ask you all the preliminaries and, if you add a brief description, we will be better prepared to get to the heart of the matter ! We receive your ticket immediately upon submission and will respond ASAP; usually within minutes. Submit your support ticket from the About form on the Help tab.
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See Also
