Consolidation consultant: tools, close and consolidated accounts.

What does a consolidation consultant do?

Consolidation is a process before it is a result. Consolidated accounts come out of a chain that starts with each entity's ledger, goes through the submission of reporting packages, a tool, elimination and translation rules, then a file read by the auditor. A consolidation consultant works on that chain: he or she finds where it loses time or reliability, then fixes it, or rebuilds it when the tool no longer keeps up.

The engagement takes four forms. Tool selection, when the group has to choose. Configuration and integration, when the tool is chosen and must be set up and fed by the entities. Migration, when one tool replaces another. Use and support, when the team needs senior reinforcement on closes or a relay on configuration.

The boundary is clear. We prepare, configure, operate and document. We do not certify: the statutory audit of consolidated accounts is reserved to the approved statutory auditor, and the separation is an independence requirement, not a commercial reservation. For the duty to consolidate, thresholds and methods, see our page on consolidation in Luxembourg.

The pain points of a consolidation team and the answer to each

The group close takes too long. Time is rarely lost in the calculation itself. It is lost in late submissions, back-and-forth on incomplete packages and last-minute corrections. The answer is a calendar built backwards from the publication date, one standard submission pack for every entity and blocking controls at source, before the package reaches the consolidator.

Intercompany differences come back at every close. Two entities rarely show the same reciprocal balance: timing differences, exchange differences, unrecorded credit notes, disputed invoices. We set up an adversarial reconciliation before the cut-off, with a written tolerance threshold above which a difference must be explained, and a differences report that entity controllers read before submitting their figures.

The process depends on one person or on the integrator. When configuration is known only to one employee or one provider, every absence or departure puts the close at risk. The answer is documentation and coaching: written elimination rules, described configuration and an organised transfer of skills to the finance team, so that the tool is run by the group and not by those who installed it.

The auditor asks the same questions every year. That is the sign of a file without an audit trail. A consolidation file contains the dated structure chart, the justification of scope and methods, the detail of eliminations and restatements with their supporting documents, and the bridge between entity accounts and consolidated accounts. Structured that way, it reduces control time.

Harmonisation restatements are manual. Between local standards and the group framework, the same restatements are redone every period in spreadsheets. We formalise them in the tool or in a replayable, versioned set, so the previous period's result can be reproduced and explained.

Consolidation tools: SAP BPC, SAP Group Reporting, Talentia, Sigma Conso

We work on the configuration, integration and use of consolidation tools, notably SAP BPC, SAP Group Reporting, Talentia and Sigma Conso. Other tools can be considered after a scoping step that checks the required skills: we would rather say so before the engagement than after. The brands mentioned belong to their respective owners, and Financial Services Luxembourg is not affiliated with any vendor.

That independence has a practical consequence: no recommendation is tied to a licence or a resale agreement. When the group has to choose, we compare tools on written, weighted criteria. When the tool is already chosen, we work so that it serves the group's process rather than the other way round.

Seven criteria structure a tool choice. The methods supported: full consolidation, proportionate consolidation, equity method. The frameworks: Lux GAAP, IFRS, local standards and the bridge between them. Currency handling and translation differences. Intercompany treatment, with reconciliation before elimination. The audit trail of every entry. The interface with entity ledgers. Finally the autonomy of the finance team, meaning its ability to change the configuration without calling the provider at every scope change.

An eighth criterion comes on top of these seven: total cost over time. It adds licence, initial configuration, changes, support and internal closing time. Comparing two tools on licence price alone is the most frequent mistake in a requirements document.

Migrating a consolidation tool: method and risks

A consolidation tool migration rarely fails on technology. It fails on a poorly fixed scope, on implicit rules nobody had written down, and on the absence of cut-over criteria. The method therefore starts with an inventory of the rules actually applied in the current tool, including those that live in spreadsheets or in one person's head.

Data migration covers the history needed for comparatives and opening balances, not the whole of the old tool. The new tool's configuration is tested on a period that has already been closed, whose result is known and audited. If the new tool does not reproduce that result, the difference is explained before any cut-over.

Parallel run is the safety net. The group closes one period in the old and the new tool, compares the results and cuts over only when the criteria agreed at scoping are met. It costs time, but it avoids discovering a configuration difference on publication day.

The last risk is human. A migrated tool poorly adopted by the team soon falls back to workarounds in spreadsheets. User training and documentation are therefore part of the project, not an optional phase.

Group close: speeding up without weakening control

Speeding up a close does not mean controlling less. It means moving controls upstream. A blocking control at submission, which rejects an unbalanced package or an unreconciled intercompany, costs the entity a few minutes. The same defect found at group level costs the consolidation team a day.

Three levers combine: a backward calendar with milestones per entity, a single submission pack so that every entity delivers the same thing in the same format, and a tracking board that makes delays visible before the cut-off. They rely on the tool where it allows and on process discipline where it does not.

Gains are measured on the group calendar, not on the tool. At scoping we set the tracking indicators: number of days between the entities' accounting close and the consolidated publication, number of corrections after submission, unexplained intercompany differences at cut-off.

Who works on the engagement and under what terms

Mickaël LOC, consolidation consultant, works on the engagements personally. His background is presented on the Mickaël LOC page. A single senior contact avoids information being diluted between a salesperson, a project manager and an executor.

Terms are proposed after a scoping conversation and confirmed in a written quote: time and materials for reinforcement or support, fixed fee when a project's scope is fixed. No generic lead time or price is announced before that scoping, because they depend on the number of entities, the tool, the quality of the packages and the group's calendar.

For groups that also need a broader finance function, the firm offers an outsourced CFO and management reporting, which connect with consolidation.