You can get one consolidated finance dashboard across several companies without moving everyone onto a single accounting system. Each entity stays in its own Xero or MYOB file. Its data is pulled out through the Xero or MYOB API on a schedule, and each entity's chart of accounts is mapped to one group reporting structure. Intercompany transactions are eliminated, and the result is presented in Power BI or Tableau. Your bookkeepers and accountant keep working exactly as they do now. The consolidation happens in a reporting layer that sits on top.
Why multi-entity groups end up stuck in spreadsheets
Many Australian businesses run as a group rather than a single company. Common examples:
- An operating company, a trading trust and a property-holding entity
- A separate company for each site or brand
- A business that acquired another business and kept its books separate
Xero and MYOB both treat each file as its own organisation, and neither consolidates a group on its own. So at month end, someone exports a profit and loss and a balance sheet from each file, pastes them into a workbook, lines up the accounts by hand, and adjusts for money moving between the companies.
That works until it doesn't. The accounts don't quite match across files. Intercompany management fees get counted twice. The workbook has three versions, and the group picture only exists once a month, usually a couple of weeks after it would have been useful. If that sounds familiar, the problem isn't your accounting software. It's that nothing joins the files together.
Option one: a marketplace consolidation app
It's worth being honest here. If your group is fairly simple, a reporting or consolidation app from the Xero or MYOB marketplace may do the job. Examples are Fathom, Spotlight Reporting or Joiin. These tools connect to multiple files, let you map accounts and produce consolidated statements. Their licence is a modest monthly subscription.
A custom reporting layer starts to make sense when one or more of these is true:
- You have a mix of Xero and MYOB files, and the app you like only handles one well.
- You want more than finance data. For example, you might want job costing, inventory, CRM pipeline or production figures alongside the numbers.
- Your intercompany arrangements are complicated: loans, recharges, shared staff costs, or entities that trade stock with each other.
- You need refreshes more often than monthly, or KPIs and layouts the app can't produce.
- You want to own the data in your own database, not only inside a third-party tool.
How a consolidated finance dashboard is built
Here is the approach we use. It's the same thinking behind the executive reporting dashboards we've built for forestry operations: get clean data out of each source, agree on one structure, and only then make it look good.
1. Connect to each entity through the API
Each Xero organisation and MYOB company file is connected through its API. A Xero API integration can authorise several organisations under one connection. A MYOB API integration does the same for your MYOB files. The connection extracts trial balances, journals, contacts and tracking categories on a schedule. Nobody has to export anything.
2. Land the data in a small reporting database
Rather than pointing a dashboard straight at five accounting files, we land the data in a database first. That might be Azure SQL or, for larger groups, Snowflake. The database keeps history, makes refreshes reliable and gives you one place to hold the mapping and elimination rules.
3. Map each chart of accounts to a group chart
This is where most of the real work sits. Each entity's accounts are mapped to a single group reporting chart. Your finance team maintains that mapping in a simple table. For example, if one company codes motor vehicle costs to 6-1400 and another splits them across three accounts, both roll up to one "Vehicle costs" line. When someone adds a new account in Xero, the dashboard flags it as unmapped so it doesn't silently fall through the cracks.
4. Eliminate intercompany transactions
Management fees, recharges, intercompany loans and stock sold between entities all need to be removed from the group view. Otherwise revenue, expenses and balances are overstated. The cleanest approach is to use dedicated intercompany accounts in each file. The reporting layer can then match and eliminate them automatically. It can also flag any where the two sides don't agree, which is often the first time a group discovers its intercompany balances have drifted.
5. Handle currencies and timing
If you have an entity in New Zealand or elsewhere, its figures need translating into Australian dollars. Profit and loss lines use average rates and balance sheet lines use closing rates. The reporting layer applies the translation consistently every refresh.
6. Build the dashboard
Finally, Power BI or Tableau sits on top. If you're choosing between them, our Power BI vs Tableau comparison covers the trade-offs. A typical group dashboard includes:
- A consolidated P&L and balance sheet
- The ability to drill down to any single entity
- Cash across all bank accounts
- Intercompany balances
- Any operational measures that matter to you
Our business intelligence and analytics work covers this layer in more detail.
When you should consolidate onto one system instead
A reporting layer is the right answer when the separate files make sense for legal, tax or practical reasons and the main pain is visibility. It's not the right answer if your entities share stock, staff and customers so heavily that running them in separate files creates daily double handling. In that case, moving the group onto a multi-entity system such as MYOB Advanced or NetSuite may be the better long-term step. That's a different project, covered on our multi-entity ERP consolidation page.
Plenty of groups start with the dashboard and decide later. The mapping work isn't wasted, because it's the same thinking you'd need for a system consolidation anyway.
What it costs and how to start
Costs vary widely depending on the size of the business, how many systems are involved and how much needs to be custom-built. So we scope every project first and give you a fixed quote after a free initial chat.
If you'd like a structured look before committing, our $2,500 Health Check is a paid diagnostic. It reviews your entities, charts of accounts, intercompany arrangements and current reporting. You receive a written report setting out what a consolidated view would need and the options available to you.
Frequently asked questions
Can Xero consolidate multiple companies on its own?
Not as a built-in feature. Each Xero organisation is separate, so a group view needs either a marketplace consolidation app or a reporting layer that pulls data from each organisation through the API.
Can one dashboard combine Xero and MYOB entities?
Yes. Both have APIs, and once the data is landed in a reporting database and mapped to a group chart of accounts, it doesn't matter which system each entity uses.
Do we have to change our chart of accounts?
No. The mapping table handles differences between files. That said, if you're setting up intercompany accounts anyway, it's often a good moment to tidy up inconsistent account names and codes across the group.
How up to date will the figures be?
That depends on how the refresh is scheduled and how current your bookkeeping is. Most groups refresh daily, so the dashboard reflects whatever has been entered in Xero or MYOB up to that point.
Does this replace our statutory consolidated accounts?
No. This is management reporting to help you run the group. Your accountant still prepares statutory accounts and tax returns, although clean, mapped data usually makes their job easier.
If you're running several companies and still stitching the numbers together by hand, book a free initial chat. Tell us how your group is set up, and we'll give you a straight answer on whether a consolidated dashboard, a marketplace app or a different approach suits you best.