Core Platform Terms
Aggregation
- The simple arithmetical sum of the financial data (P&L or Balance Sheet) by Company.
💡Tip: Aggregation provides the raw data of underlying books before consolidation adjustments are applied through journals and eliminations.
Company
- A Xero or QuickBooks company/legal entity.
GATHER Platform
- Multi-entity financial management Platform including modules for Group Financial Reporting, Group Financial Planning and Group Financial Control (Intercompany Management).
- Key Benefit: The integrated platform eliminates the need for multiple spreadsheets or software applications and reduces manual workflows across your group structure.
Group
- A group of companies for financial reporting purposes. Typically a holding company with a number of subsidiaries.
- Example: A holding company with subsidiaries in US, UK, Australia, and Canada would constitute one Group for consolidated reporting.
Group Class
- A Group Class consists of one or more Xero Tracking Categories and/or QuickBooks Classes.
💼 Business Use: Perfect for segmenting by regions, departments, or business units across your entire group structure.
Group Reporting Template (GRT)
- Profit and loss account or Balance Sheet format for Consolidated Group Reporting.
- The user maps the underlying Xero or QuickBooks ledgers into the GRT (with the option of using GATHER AI to help).
- The user can select Industry or GAAP templates or create their own.
Currency Terminology
Group Reporting Currency
- The Currency in which Group Financial Reporting is prepared. This translates local entity accounts at:
Average Rate for the month for the P&L account
Month End Rate for the Balance Sheet
Presentation Currency
- Reports can be re-translated from the Group Reporting Currency to the Presentation Currency.
The exchange rates used are:
Average Rate for the month for the P&L account
Month End Rate for the Balance Sheet
Use Case: Useful when your Group Reporting Currency differs from what stakeholders need - for example, reporting in USD internally but presenting in GBP for UK investors.
Efficiency: Change presentation currency without recreating entire report structures.
Journals Terminology
Consolidation Journals and Stacked Journals
- Consolidation Journals can be Automatic or added Manually.
- In each case, the Consolidation Journal is added to the Consolidated Working Papers as an adjusting journal between the Aggregated P&L or Balance Sheet financial data and the Consolidated P&L or Balance Sheet financial data.
Consolidation Journals may be:
Balance Sheet Journals (in which both debit and credits relate to Balance Sheet Accounts)
Profit and Loss Account Journals (in which both debits and credits relate to Profit and Loss Accounts)
Linked Journals (in which the debits and credits relate both to Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Accounts)
- Each Consolidation Journal is presented as a column in the Working Papers. Each journal column can be edited or added to each reporting period to create a Stacked Journal. This means that the Working Papers do not contain too many columns.
- Each Stacked Journal acts in a similar way to a standalone company – in the sense that a Balance Sheet Journal entered in month 1 will continue to be included in subsequent months – whilst Profit and Loss Account journals only relate to a specified period – and are not carried forward.
- Meanwhile Linked Journals (which impact both the Profit and Loss account and Balance Sheet) act in this same way – with Balance Sheet journals being carried forward into future periods and Profit and Loss account journals impacting only the related P&L period). Any change to earnings for the P&L period will be reflected in Current and Prior Year earnings in the Balance Sheet.
Auto Journals
- Elimination journals which the user sets up to eliminate Profit and Loss Account or Balance Sheet ledger codes between Companies. These elimination journals work on an automated basis and recur until the user chooses to stop them at a specific date.
💡Setup Tip: Configure Auto Journals for recurring intercompany transactions like management fees, royalties, or service charges.
Manual Journals
- The user may add manual journals to their Consolidated Working Papers in addition to – or instead of – auto journals.
Manual Journals can either be:
Balance Sheet Journals (in which both debit and credits relate to Balance Sheet Accounts)
Profit and Loss Account Journals (in which both debits and credits relate to Profit and Loss Accounts)
Linked Journals (in which the debits and credits relate both to Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Accounts)
Profit and Loss Account Journal
There are three types of Profit and Loss Journal:
Journal – this is a standard single entry in a particular profit and loss period
Recurring Journal (with fixed data) – the P&L journal recurs in the period specified by the User. The quantum of the journal does not change.
Recurring Journal (with updated data) – this is the same as the Recurring Journal (with fixed data) except the Journal remains in Draft and is not Published – allowing the User to update the Journal before it is Published.
ℹ️ Note: Recurring Journals are not available for Balance Sheet or Linked Journals.
Reversing Journal
- It automatically creates a reversing journal in the next month.
- Works for Balance Sheet journals and Linked Journals (which affect both Balance Sheet & P&L).
- Lets you make temporary adjustments in prior months without messing up future months’ Working Papers.
- It keeps future reports clean, saves manual reversal work, and ensures accurate accruals, provisions, and timing adjustments.
- For Example:
June (During Consolidation):
While consolidating group accounts, you find an intercompany transaction (e.g., Company A sold goods to Company B).
To avoid double counting, you create a linked journal in June:
Account 1 (P&L) → Intercompany Sales is debited (removes sales).
Account 2 (Balance Sheet) → Intercompany Receivables/Payables is credited (removes the balance).
✅ You enable “Reverse in next month” for this journal.
July:
Because the reverse option was enabled, the system automatically reverses this adjustment:
Account 1 (P&L) → Intercompany Sales is credited (reversed).
Account 2 (Balance Sheet) → Intercompany Receivables/Payables is debited (reversed).
FX Journals
Auto FX 1
- The GATHER Platform automatically generates "AUTO FX 1" journals. AUTO FX 1 journals are calculated on the basis of the difference between:
Current Period Earnings as reported in the Aggregated P&L (translated from local currencies into the Group Reporting Currency at the average rate for the Period)
Current Period Earnings as reported in "Equity and Reserves" in the Aggregated Balance Sheet (translated from local currencies into the Group Reporting Currency at the rate at the Balance Sheet date)
- By posting the Auto FX 1 Journal - the Current Period Earnings reported in the Consolidated Balance Sheet are in line with the Current Period Earnings in the Profit and Loss account - with the other side of the journal entry in the GATHER consolidation being posted to FX Differences in Reserves (1).
- The user can click on the blue link for the AUTO FX 1 Journal and review how the balance for the month has been calculated.
Auto FX 2
- The GATHER Platform can also generate "AUTO FX 2" journals (if the user opts to do so). AUTO FX 2 journals are calculated to adjust for the following such scenarios:
Example scenario:
- In the reporting period, there has been an Intercompany transaction between two entities - each of which has a different local reporting currency (let's assume one company's local books are in GBP and one company's local books are in USD).
- Assume the transaction itself (£1000 GBP) is recorded as an invoice in GBP - raised in the GBP company (and recorded in revenue) and recorded as a bill in the USD company.
- In this example, the GBP denominated bill is initially translated as a cost in the P&L account in the USD local books at the GBP:USD FX rate at the transaction date - let's say this is 1:1.3 on the 1st of January 20XX. The transaction is therefore recorded in the USD P&L for the month of January as $769 USD.
- Now, let's assume the Group Reporting Currency in GATHER for these two companies is GBP.
- For the purposes of the GATHER consolidation, the above transaction recorded in the USD P&L is re-translated back into GBP at the average FX rate for the month.
- Let's assume that the average GBP:USD FX rate for the month of January 20XX is 1.25.
- The $769 reported as a cost in the USD company P&L is now retranslated back to £961 GBP in the GATHER consolidation.
- In the GATHER working papers - you will now see £1000 GBP reported in Sales in the GBP company and £961 GBP reported in Costs in the USD company.
- As can be seen, there is an imbalance of £39 between the two.
- The GATHER Auto FX journal removes this imbalance from Profit After Tax in the GATHER Consolidated P&L (which rolls into Current Period Earnings in the Balance Sheet) - and moves this imbalance below the PAT line in the GATHER Consolidated P&L to FX Differences (2) P&L.
- Similarly in the GATHER Consolidated Balance Sheet, the imbalance is removed from Current Period Earnings (mirroring the P&L treatment) and moved into FX Differences In Reserves (2).
ℹ️ Note: GATHER maintains separate accounts for FX Differences in Reserves (1) and FX Differences in Reserves (2) to maintain a clear audit trail.
Reporting Cadence
- The frequency with which a User wishes to complete a set of Consolidated Financials. This may be monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually.
Working Papers
- Digital working papers on the GATHER Platform to record work performed to complete financial consolidations. The Working Papers include the underlying financial data for each Group company as well as the consolidation journals applied to each period (including FX journals where relevant).
Have questions or need assistance❓
Contact our support team at support@gather.nexus