Services
Monthly bookkeeping run entirely in Xero — closed, reviewed and proven every period by the team that does the work.
Bookkeeping packages
The foundation
One Entity, One Organisation
Each legal entity gets its own Xero organisation. Every alternative eventually fails, and it fails at the worst moment.
The temptation is to run two companies in one file and separate them with a tracking category. It works until something needs to be true at the entity level: a balance sheet for a lender, a tax return, a sale of one business, an audit, or a partner who owns part of one entity and none of the other. At that point the file has to be unpicked retrospectively, which costs more than running two organisations ever would have.
Unlimited users on every Xero plan means the per-seat cost of additional organisations does not multiply the way it does elsewhere. The cost of a second organisation is the subscription, and the cost of not having one is a restatement.
A group of entities under common ownership still files separately, banks separately and owes separately. The consolidated view is a reporting output, not an accounting record. Keeping those two things distinct is the single most useful idea on this page.
The prerequisite
The Chart of Accounts Has to Match
Consolidation is addition. Accounts that do not line up cannot be added, and every mismatch becomes a manual mapping someone maintains forever.
A group where one entity calls it “Subcontractors”, another “Contract Labor” and a third splits it across two accounts produces a consolidated report that requires a translation table. The table lives in someone’s head or in a spreadsheet, and it breaks whenever anyone adds an account.
- One master chart, applied to every entity. Entities that do not use an account simply carry a zero.
- Same codes, same names, same account types. Account type is what drives where a line appears on the statements, so a mismatch there moves a number between sections.
- One owner for changes. New accounts get added to the master and pushed out, not created locally by whoever needed one that day.
- Entity-specific detail goes in tracking, not in accounts. A department that exists in one entity is a tracking option there, not a new account across the group.
Aligning the chart is far cheaper at setup than later. Changing it after a year of history means restating comparatives in every entity.
The design decision
Entity or Tracking Category
Not every division needs its own organisation. The test is legal and financial separation, not organisational tidiness.
| Use a separate entity when | Use a tracking category when |
|---|---|
| It files its own tax return | It is a department, location or service line |
| It has its own bank accounts and creditors | It shares banking and liabilities with the rest |
| Ownership differs from the other entities | Ownership is identical |
| It could be sold or closed on its own | It exists for management reporting |
| A lender or investor holds it specifically | Nobody outside the business asks about it alone |
Xero provides two tracking categories per organisation, which is enough for the two dimensions most groups actually report on. Choosing those two deliberately matters more than the number, because a third dimension usually turns out to be one of the first two described differently.
The discipline
Intercompany
Money moves between entities constantly: one pays a supplier for another, the parent covers payroll, an entity charges management fees. Whether those balances clear is the clearest indicator of whether a group’s books are under control.
Record both sides, every time
Every intercompany transaction has two entries in two organisations. A receivable in one entity must have a matching payable in the other, entered at the same amount on the same date. Recording one side and intending to do the other later is how balances stop agreeing, and the gap is rarely found until someone tries to consolidate.
One account per counterparty
Separate intercompany accounts for each relationship, named for the entity on the other side. A single “intercompany” account across a group of four entities cannot be reconciled, because there is no way to tell whose balance is in it.
Reconcile them monthly, in both directions
Entity A’s receivable from Entity B should equal Entity B’s payable to Entity A, with opposite signs. Checking this every month takes minutes. Checking it once a year takes days, because by then the difference is a dozen transactions deep.
Settle or formalise
An intercompany balance that grows indefinitely is either a loan that should be documented with terms, or a series of transactions nobody has reimbursed. Both have tax consequences worth raising with your CPA before the balance is large.
The test
Pick any two entities and ask what one owes the other. If nobody can answer from the ledger in under a minute, the intercompany discipline has already slipped.
The group view
Consolidation: Syft and Fathom
Consolidation sits above the ledger, and the two tools most groups use in the Xero ecosystem are Syft and Fathom. Both connect directly, both eliminate intercompany, both handle multiple currencies.
Syft
Xero acquired Syft in September 2024, and it is available natively as Analytics powered by Syft, which makes it the closest thing to a first-party consolidation layer for Xero.
- Unlimited entities, and consolidations that can themselves be consolidated into larger group structures.
- Eliminations, acquisitions and disposals, and fractional ownership, which covers the structures most real groups actually have rather than the simple ones.
- Support for more than 170 currencies, with foreign currency translation.
- Consolidation across platforms. A group with one company on Xero and another on QuickBooks, Sage Intacct or NetSuite can be consolidated into one report set, and trial balance uploads cover anything else.
- Data beyond the ledger. Square, Shopify and Stripe data, plus operational and non-financial figures uploaded from Excel or Google Sheets.
- SOC 2 Type I and Type II accreditation, which matters when a lender or investor asks where group reporting is produced.
- AI-powered anomaly detection across connected entities.
Consolidations are included on every paid Syft plan, with per-entity or unlimited-entity billing. It rates 4.8 out of 5 on the Xero App Store.
Fathom
Fathom has been in the Xero ecosystem for over thirteen years and is built around communicating numbers rather than interrogating them.
- Consolidation for up to 300 entities, with multi-currency handling and intercompany eliminations.
- Three-way forecasting across profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow, with scenario modelling built into the reports rather than bolted alongside them.
- KPI tracking and variance analysis, presented visually enough to put in front of a board without redesigning it.
- Excel and CSV import for financial data from systems that do not connect directly, and for non-financial or operational data that enriches the reporting.
- A faster learning curve, which matters when the person producing the pack is an owner rather than a finance team.
Choosing between them
Syft is the stronger fit for transaction-level analysis, complex group structures, mixed accounting platforms, and anyone wanting the deepest Xero integration. Fathom is the stronger fit where the output is a board or lender pack and clarity of presentation is the priority, and where forecasting with scenarios is part of the monthly rhythm.
Either one removes the same thing: the monthly export, paste, map and eliminate cycle in a spreadsheet, and the quiet worry that something in it no longer ties.
Both tools read from the ledgers. A consolidation built on entities that have not been reconciled produces a group report that is wrong with more authority than the spreadsheet it replaced. Align the chart, clear the intercompany, close each entity, then consolidate.
The rhythm
The Group Close
A group close is the single-entity sequence run in parallel, plus two steps that only exist because there is more than one entity.
- Close each entity to the same standard, in parallel. Cash agreed, aging tied to control accounts, accruals posted, suspense cleared. An entity that is behind holds up the whole group.
- Reconcile intercompany in both directions. Every pair, every month, before anything is consolidated.
- Run the consolidation and check the eliminations. Intercompany revenue and costs should disappear, and the group balance sheet should not carry balances entities owe each other.
- Lock every entity at the same date. One unlocked entity means the consolidated numbers you reported can change after you reported them.
Locking every entity on the same date is what makes a group report reproducible. Without it, running the same consolidation twice can give two answers, and nobody can explain which was right.
The failure modes
Where Groups Come Unstuck
- Charts of accounts that drifted. Each entity added accounts locally, and the consolidation now needs a mapping table nobody owns.
- A single intercompany account. Four entities, one account, no way to tell whose balance sits in it.
- One side of a transaction recorded. Entity A pays a supplier for Entity B, records it as an expense, and the recharge never happens. The cost sits in the wrong entity permanently.
- Entities closing at different speeds. The group cannot report until the slowest one finishes, so one weak entity sets the pace for everything.
- Consolidating unreconciled entities. The group report inherits every unreconciled difference and presents it with a nicer layout.
- Divisions split into entities for management reasons. Legal separation carries real cost: separate filings, separate banking, separate compliance. Where the reason is reporting, a tracking category does it for free.
- One person doing everything across all entities. Separation of duties gets harder as a group grows, not easier, and a lender will ask about it.
Questions
Commonly Asked
Can I run multiple companies in one Xero organisation?
Each legal entity should have its own Xero organisation. Separating two companies with a tracking category inside one file works until something has to be true at entity level: a balance sheet for a lender, a tax return, a sale, an audit, or differing ownership. Unpicking the file at that point costs more than running two organisations would have. Unlimited users on every Xero plan means additional organisations do not multiply per-seat costs.
Does Xero consolidate multiple entities?
Consolidation sits above the ledger, and in the Xero ecosystem it is handled by Syft or Fathom. Xero acquired Syft in September 2024 and it is available natively as Analytics powered by Syft, supporting unlimited entities, eliminations, acquisitions and disposals, fractional ownership and over 170 currencies, including consolidation across different accounting platforms. Fathom consolidates up to 300 entities with multi-currency and intercompany eliminations, and adds three-way forecasting with scenario modelling.
Should I use Syft or Fathom?
Syft suits transaction-level analysis, complex group structures, mixed accounting platforms and the deepest Xero integration, and it carries SOC 2 Type I and Type II accreditation. Fathom suits board and lender packs where presentation clarity is the priority, and where scenario forecasting is part of the monthly rhythm. Fathom has the faster learning curve; Syft has the broader consolidation feature set.
How do I handle intercompany transactions in Xero?
Record both sides at the same amount on the same date, in both organisations. Use a separate intercompany account for each counterparty, named for the entity on the other side, so a balance can be traced. Reconcile every pair monthly in both directions: one entity's receivable should equal the other's payable with opposite signs. A balance that grows indefinitely is either an undocumented loan or an unreimbursed series of transactions, and both have tax consequences worth raising with your CPA early.
When should a division be its own entity?
When it files its own tax return, holds its own bank accounts and creditors, has different ownership, could be sold or closed independently, or is held specifically by a lender or investor. Where the reason is management reporting, a tracking category achieves it without the cost of separate filings, banking and compliance.
How long should a multi-entity close take?
As long as the slowest entity, which is why the pace is set by whichever set of books is furthest behind rather than by the consolidation itself. Each entity closes to the same standard in parallel, intercompany reconciles in both directions, the consolidation runs and eliminations are checked, and every entity locks at the same date. Locking on the same date is what makes the group report reproducible.