Intercompany for real groups. Now with up to four levels of subholdings.

A real holding is rarely a single-storey structure. Parent company → intermediate subholding → operating subsidiaries, sometimes subsidiaries of subsidiaries and joint ventures. We have extended the intercompany features in Symfio so they can model a multi-level ownership structure – and consolidate at the right level, automatically.

Why we are tackling this

Most consolidation tools assume a group is flat: one parent, a few subsidiaries. Real holdings don’t look like that. A typical structure has three to five levels – an investment parent, sector subholdings, operating companies, foreign branches, JVs.

When you flatten that structure, you lose two things: the right level for eliminating intercompany relationships, and an overview of what is eliminated where. Then you either consolidate manually in Excel level by level, or your report shows eliminations nobody understands.

What’s new

A company hierarchy with no limit on the number of levels. Every company has a Parent entity field. You set up the chain of relationships, and Symfio works with the real tree.

Elimination level on the account. On each account in the categorisation, you set where the intercompany transaction should be eliminated:

• Group – elimination at the level of the whole consolidated group
• Subgroup – elimination at the level of the subsidiary subholding
• Subgroup 2, 3, 4 – for deeper ownership structures
• 0 – the account is not part of the intercompany consolidation

Counterparty directly on the account. For accounts where it makes sense, you assign the specific group company with which intercompany transactions typically take place. Tracking intercompany relationships between individual pairs of companies is therefore a matter of one dropdown, not complex analytics.

Checking the hierarchy in reports

In the Reports section, next to the search field, click the eye icon and then the hierarchy (org chart) icon. The complete tree of the configured structure appears – a quick check that ownership relationships match reality, and at the same time a filter for reporting on individual layers of the group.

What to watch out for

Keep the hierarchy up to date. Acquisitions, restructurings, new JVs – update the Parent entity with every change in the ownership structure. Otherwise your elimination lands at the wrong level.

Save. After making changes in Categorisation → Lists, click Save data at the bottom right. Unsaved changes are lost when you leave the page.

How to start

The full procedure for setting up the hierarchy, intercompany columns and counterparties is described in the documentation – from adding the first parent entity to answers to the most common questions.

→ Setting up the group structure (intercompany) and consolidation