A multi-entity business needs two different consolidations. Statutory consolidation is the group accounts prepared to the accounting standards, once a year, by your accountant, with the eliminations, fair value adjustments and disclosures the standards require; leave that where it is. Management consolidation is the group P&L, balance sheet and cash view you need every month to run the business: each entity side by side, the total, intercompany trading removed, in one currency, with the KPIs alongside. Xero and QuickBooks Online don't do the second natively (Xero has said it's not on the roadmap); Business Central and Sage Intacct do; add-ons such as Joiin, Fathom, Spotlight and Syft (which Xero now owns) fill the gap for the small-business products. Power BI can produce the management consolidation from any of those systems, and the reason to do it there rather than in an add-on is that the group view then sits next to the CRM, the projects and the operational numbers, on one page, for people who don't log into the accounts.
What does each system offer?
| System | Native consolidation? | Common add-ons | Power BI route | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Xero | No, and not planned | Joiin, Fathom, Spotlight, Syft (Xero-owned), Calxa, Konsolidator | Each organisation connected separately (third-party connector or API), stacked in the model | Xero Analytics on Ultimate is single-entity |
| QuickBooks Online | No | Fathom, Joiin, Spreadsheet Sync on Advanced for manual roll-ups | Each company connected separately (connector, export or API) | The native Power BI connector was retired in 2025 |
| Sage 50 Accounts | No (Sage 50 has a consolidation feature in some versions for the P&L and balance sheet; check yours) | Excel | ODBC per company data set, stacked in the model | |
| Sage 200 | Partial: multi-company with consolidation via Excel Integrated Reporting and group nominal structures | Excel | SQL (Professional) or the Sage 200 connector (Standard), per company | |
| Sage Intacct | Yes: multi-entity with eliminations and currency, built in | Not needed for consolidation | API via connector or staged extract; entity is a dimension on everything | Use Intacct's consolidation; Power BI adds the management view |
| Business Central | Yes: consolidation across companies, with eliminations and currency translation | Not needed | Native connector; companies as separate sources, or the consolidation company | The Finance Power BI app is per company |
Source: each vendor's product documentation and public roadmap statements, read 21 September 2026; feature availability depends on version and plan.
The honest reading: if you're on Intacct or Business Central, use their consolidation and let Power BI present it. If you're on Xero or QuickBooks with two or three entities, an add-on may be the cheapest answer for the finance team's pack, and Power BI earns its place when the group view needs to sit alongside non-finance data or reach a wider audience. If you're on five or more entities on the small-business products, the add-on and the model are both doing the same join, and the model is the one you'll own.
What does a management consolidation need?
Five things, and the fourth is where the time goes:
1. A group chart of accounts. Each entity's nominal codes mapped to one group reporting line. If the entities share a chart, this is trivial. If they don't (two acquired companies, each with their own), it's a mapping table: entity, local code, group line. This table is the most valuable thing in the model and it's usually a few hundred rows.
2. An entity dimension on every transaction. Obvious, but it has to be there before anything else works.
3. A common calendar. Especially if entities have different year ends. Report by calendar month and let each entity's fiscal year be an attribute.
4. Intercompany identification. Sales from entity A to entity B, and the matching purchase in B, both need to be removed from the group total. This means the intercompany transactions have to be identifiable: a flag, a dedicated intercompany customer and supplier account per counterparty, or a nominal code range. If they aren't identifiable today, that's the first job, in the ledgers, before any tool. Then the model shows entity A, entity B, intercompany eliminations as their own column, and the group, so every number is traceable.
5. Currency. If entities report in different currencies, the model needs a rate table (period average for the P&L, period end for the balance sheet, the way your accountant does it) and the translation done in measures. Show local currency and group currency both; the difference is a real number the FD will ask about.
With those five, the management consolidation is a set of measures over a stacked GL table, and the report is entity columns, an eliminations column, and a group total, for the P&L, the balance sheet and cash.
What does the group report show?
- Group P&L by group reporting line, entities across the columns, eliminations, total, budget, variance. Month and YTD.
- Group balance sheet, same structure, with intercompany balances shown before elimination so you can see they net off (and how much they don't, which is a reconciliation item).
- Cash by entity and total, with the intercompany loan positions.
- Entity comparison: the same KPIs (margin, overheads as a percent of revenue, debtor days) for each entity side by side. This is the page the group MD actually uses.
- A reconciliation page: each entity's trial balance total in the model against that entity's ledger, and the intercompany matching (A's sales to B against B's purchases from A). Any difference is shown, not hidden.
Where does Power BI fit against an add-on?
An add-on like Joiin or Fathom produces a clean consolidated pack for the finance team quickly, with the eliminations handled in its interface, and for a finance-only audience with two or three Xero organisations that's often the right buy.
Power BI is the answer when: the group view needs to sit next to pipeline, projects or operations; the audience is wider than finance (entity MDs seeing only their entity via row-level security, a board on a phone); there are more than a handful of entities; or the business wants to own the model rather than rent the view. It's also the answer if the entities are on different systems (one on Xero, one on Sage 200, one on Business Central), which add-ons handle unevenly and a model handles as three sources.
Costs: Power BI Pro is £10.80 per user per month on Microsoft's UK page as of September 2026, for each viewer. A management consolidation across several entities on one system, with the group chart, eliminations and reconciliation, is a Reporting Sprint (£9,500), because it's a model not a single report. A single-entity pack that will later become part of the group view is a First Report (£1,950), and building the group chart of accounts mapping during it is a good use of the ten days.
Common questions
Can Xero consolidate multiple companies?
No. Xero has no native multi-entity consolidation and has said it's not on the roadmap. Add-ons (Joiin, Fathom, Spotlight, Syft, Calxa) consolidate Xero organisations, or a Power BI model reads each organisation and consolidates for management reporting.
Does Business Central consolidate?
Yes. Business Central has built-in consolidation across companies with eliminations and currency translation. Power BI reads either the individual companies or the consolidation company; the free Finance app is per company.
What's the difference between statutory and management consolidation?
Statutory consolidation is the group accounts to the accounting standards, once a year, by your accountant, with the required adjustments and disclosures. Management consolidation is the monthly group view you run the business from: entities side by side, intercompany removed, one currency, KPIs alongside. Power BI does the second; leave the first with the accountant.
How do you handle intercompany transactions in a Power BI consolidation?
They have to be identifiable in the ledgers first: a flag, dedicated intercompany accounts per counterparty, or a nominal range. The model then shows them as an eliminations column between the entities and the group total, and a reconciliation page matches each pair (A's sales to B against B's purchases from A).
How do you consolidate entities with different charts of accounts?
With a mapping table: entity, local nominal code, group reporting line. Every transaction maps through it to the group line. It's a few hundred rows, it's the foundation of the model, and it's worth building carefully once.
What if our entities are on different accounting systems?
That's three sources rather than one, but the model is the same: each system's GL detail, mapped to the group chart, stacked with an entity dimension. Power BI handles it as three connections; most add-ons handle mixed systems less well.
How much does group reporting in Power BI cost?
Power BI Pro at £10.80 per viewer per month (Microsoft UK, September 2026). The build, as a multi-entity model with group chart, eliminations and reconciliation, is a Reporting Sprint at £9,500; a single-entity starting point is a First Report at £1,950.