Consolidation shouldn't be a project every month
If your group has several entities, you know the ritual. Each company closes in its own system. Someone exports each one's general ledger, pastes it into a spreadsheet, maps accounts that aren't named the same, eliminates transactions between group companies and converts currencies. Only then does the consolidated P&L appear.
That work adds no value. It's the toll you pay to get to the number. And by the time the report reaches management, the month is already closed and there's no room left to correct anything.
Excel isn't the problem. It's an extraordinary tool for thinking. The problem is using it as a bridge between the ERP and the decision, because every manual bridge is a place where the number can break.
Step by step: how the close is built in each case
| Close step | With Excel | With Fibady |
|---|---|---|
| Bringing in each entity's data | Export the general ledger from each ERP and paste it | API connection to each entity's ERP, or a general ledger upload if the ERP has no connector |
| Mapping the chart of accounts | VLOOKUPs and mapping tables that need maintaining | Classified once; new accounts are flagged for classification |
| P&L structure | Fixed; changing it means rebuilding formulas | Unlimited drill-down levels, from the big picture to the entry |
| Multiple currencies | Exchange rates pasted by hand | Reports in the currency you choose, with two currencies side by side |
| Consolidation | Sum of tabs plus manual adjustments | Group consolidation and entity detail from the same base |
| Traceability | Depends on who built the spreadsheet | Every number opens down to the entry behind it |
| Budget and variances | Another spreadsheet, another cross-check | Budget by department and variance against actuals in the same place |
| Management's questions | Another version of the Excel file | Answered from the report, or by asking your AI connected to the numbers |
The difference isn't that Fibady does things Excel can't. It's that it does them the same way, every month, without anyone rebuilding them.
When Excel is enough and when it isn't
With a single entity, an ERP that already produces good reports and nobody asking for the number before the close, Excel is enough. There's no need to change anything.
The spreadsheet starts to cost you when any of these happens:
- You have two or more entities, or you're about to add one.
- Each entity uses a different ERP, or the same ERP with different charts of accounts.
- You report in two currencies.
- The CEO asks for the number mid-month and you don't have it.
- Only one person knows how the consolidation file works.
If you recognise yourself in two or more, the cost is no longer the tool. It's the days the close takes and the decisions made too late.
From data to decision, without the bridge
Fibady is used by groups of 13 entities and more than €100 million in revenue, and also by companies with one or two entities. In every case the starting point is the same: connect what already exists, without migrating ERPs or changing how the team works.
We have API connectors for many ERPs. Tell us which one you use and we'll show you your consolidated close with sample data in 30 minutes.