Intercompany Eliminations : JustConsolidate

This workflow books intercompany elimination entries directly to your consolidation entity using specific intercompany accounts defined in its chart of accounts.

It's optional — you can always book elimination entries manually, the same way you'd handle any other consolidation adjusting entry. The value of this workflow is that it automates the extraction of intercompany balances by subsidiary and calculates the elimination entry for you.

Initial setup (first-time use)

1. Choose where elimination entries will post

At the top of the screen, set the Fiscal Year and Fiscal Period you're working on, then choose where the elimination entry should post.

Elimination entries post to your consolidation entity tagged with a dedicated value, which keeps them segmented from your subsidiary-sourced balances for reporting purposes. A name like x-Interco makes them easy to pick out.

You can either select a value that already exists, or have JustConsolidate create a new one for you. Your selection becomes the default going forward and can be changed at any time.

For QuickBooks Online users

This is the Division (the Location field value in QuickBooks Online). Select an existing Division from the drop-down list, or choose Add New Division and JustConsolidate will create it in your consolidation company for you.

For Xero users

Use the Entity Name for Elimination JE Posting drop-down. This is Category 1 (Entity) — the same tracking category JustConsolidate uses to tag each consolidation line with the subsidiary it came from. Your elimination entries get their own value within it, so they appear alongside your subsidiaries in any report segmented by entity rather than being mixed into one of them.

Once you've made your selection, a table will display. Confirm the correct accounting period is selected before proceeding.

2. Select the intercompany accounts

Click Select Accounts to open the picker. It lists your consolidation entity's chart of accounts with account number, name and type, and keeps a running count at the top of how many you've ticked.

Three ways to find what you need:

Scroll the list — tick accounts directly, or use the checkbox in the header row to select everything currently shown
Search by name — comes pre-loaded with the naming conventions intercompany accounts commonly use, such as interco, I/C and IC-, so the accounts you're after are usually surfaced without typing anything. Edit or clear the terms to search for something else.
Filter by type — narrow the list to a single account type

When you're done, choose one of:

Save — keeps your selection and closes the picker
Save and Extract — keeps your selection and immediately pulls the period activity, so you land straight on the populated elimination table

Your account list becomes the default going forward and can be changed at any time by reopening the picker.

Each account you select becomes a row in the table, which has three sections:

Intercompany Accounts — the accounts you've chosen
Elimination Journal Entry — the debit or credit needed to net each account to zero
Period Activity by Entity in Parentco — one column per entity, showing where each account's balance came from. Your elimination value appears here as a column too, so you can see its balances alongside the subsidiaries.

How to review and post elimination entries

Step 1 — Extract period activity

Once you've set your period, elimination value and intercompany accounts, click Extract Period Activity. The system pulls current-period activity for each selected intercompany account from the consolidation entity and displays the balances by subsidiary, so you can see exactly where they're coming from.

If you closed the account picker with Save and Extract, this has already run and your table is populated.

Step 2 — Review the proposed entry

For each intercompany account with a non-zero net balance, the system calculates the debit or credit needed to zero it out.

If intercompany activity was booked correctly on both sides: the proposed elimination entry will balance (debits = credits) and the Post Journal Entry button turns green. Click it to post the elimination entry to your consolidation entity.

Once posted, JustConsolidate re-extracts the balances. The elimination value's balances will update and the Elimination Journal Entry column will show zero for every account, confirming no further action is needed.

If intercompany activity was not booked correctly — one side missing or mismatched — the proposed entry won't balance. This signals that the underlying intercompany accounting at the subsidiary level needs to be corrected.

Manual override: If you want to post the elimination entry without correcting the subsidiary-level issue, click directly into any debit or credit cell in the table and enter an amount, the same way you would in a journal entry form. This forces the entry to balance so you can post it.

Special handling for foreign currency subsidiaries

When your CTA account is included in the intercompany account list, it's treated as a plug — the value in the Elimination Journal Entry column isn't the amount needed to zero CTA, but the amount needed to balance the overall elimination entry. Some difference is normal, due to exchange rate movement across accounting periods.

Caution: because CTA absorbs the plug, it can mask an intercompany accounting error where one side of a transaction wasn't booked correctly, since the overall entry will still balance. Inspect the CTA plug value carefully before posting.

Re-posting elimination entries

If you've previously posted an elimination entry using this workflow and need to re-post because subsidiary balances have changed, clicking Post Journal Entry triggers an alert: the system has detected an existing elimination entry. You have two options:

Remove existing elimination entries — JustConsolidate removes the existing entry, re-extracts balances, recalculates the elimination entry and posts a single clean new entry. Best if you prefer one consolidated entry per period.
Post as adjusting entry — JustConsolidate posts the new entry alongside the existing one as an incremental adjustment. Best if you prefer to preserve the original entry plus an audit trail of subsequent adjustments.