Consolidated Accounts, Done Right for UK Groups

A parent company must prepare group accounts unless its group counts as small. A group is small if it stays under two of these three limits: turnover of £15m net (£18m gross), a balance sheet total of £7.5m net (£9m gross), and 50 employees. Medium and large groups must consolidate, as must any group with a listed or regulated member. We check your group against the test every year-end.

Most UK and owner-managed groups use FRS 102. It has simpler disclosure, more options on goodwill, and easier pension accounting. IFRS, and specifically IFRS 10 for the consolidation, is required for listed groups. It is also often expected by overseas investors, US parents or private-equity backers. We show you the disclosure and tax differences before you choose, because switching later is painful.

We remove all dealings between group companies. That covers sales, loans, balances, dividends, and any unrealised profit on stock sold within the group. Ledgers that do not match between companies are the biggest cause of failed consolidations. So we reconcile them monthly, rather than fighting it all at year-end. Any currency-translation differences are worked out and disclosed too.

We bring the subsidiary's profit into the group from the date you bought it, not before. Its assets and liabilities are adjusted to fair value, and any goodwill is recognised. Profits the company made before you bought it do not flow to the group. We carry out the purchase price allocation, work out the goodwill, and document it so auditors do not reopen the figures.

Once your ledgers are clean and reconciled, a straightforward group of three to five companies takes about ten working days. Bigger groups, foreign subsidiaries, or a change of standard take longer, and we quote those on scope. We produce audit-ready files as standard, so your auditor is not billing you to tidy up after us.

We start from each company's individual accounts, align them onto consistent accounting policies and reporting dates, then eliminate intra-group transactions and balances, including intercompany loans, sales, dividends and unrealised profit on intra-group stock. We calculate goodwill and any fair value adjustments on acquisition, recognise non-controlling interests where you own less than 100%, and translate any overseas subsidiaries into sterling. Finally we produce the consolidated balance sheet, profit and loss and cash flow statement, ready for filing at Companies House and for the CT600 corporation tax return, tagged in iXBRL.

A normal balance sheet shows a single company. A consolidated balance sheet shows the parent and all of its subsidiaries as one entity, after intra-group balances such as loans and internal trading have been removed. Instead of a single investment in subsidiary figure, it presents the underlying assets and liabilities of the whole group, along with any goodwill and non-controlling interests.

A private company files its accounts with Companies House nine months after its financial year-end. Consolidated accounts follow the same deadline as the parent's own accounts, so there is one date to plan around, not several. We build in time before that date so filing is never a last-minute scramble.

Often yes. Under Section 479A a subsidiary can be exempt from its own audit if the parent guarantees its liabilities for the year. We prepare the parent guarantee paperwork and the group filings that support it, so a qualifying subsidiary does not need a separate audit.