Essentials – Global Settings

Purpose

The Global Settings screen defines the key building blocks of your XLReporting environment. Here you manage the basic data that drives your reports, budgets, and consolidations — such as companies, account types, journal types, currencies, and general settings.

You typically review this setup at the start of your implementation, and occasionally when adding new companies or currencies.

Companies

Use this section to add and manage companies that you want to include in XLReporting.

You can add companies manually or import them automatically from your accounting integration.
Each company can have its own currency, reporting structure, and consolidation settings.
The list of companies determines which entities appear in your reports and budget models.

Example: Add "NL Holding BV" and "UK Subsidiary Ltd" to consolidate both entities into your group reporting.

Tip: Keep company names short and consistent. Avoid duplicates or spelling variations — they will affect reporting filters.

Common mistake: Forgetting to deactivate old companies can lead to duplicated results in reports.

Company Columns Explained

Source – Select the data source for this company. Choose from one of XLReporting’s standard integrations. The option Consolidation is intended for holding companies that must display both their individual and consolidated results.
Currency – Define the transaction currency used by this company.
Active – Indicates whether the company is active in XLReporting. You can deactivate a company to exclude it from reports or data imports.
Budget – Marks whether the company participates in the budgeting cycle.
Group – Specifies the consolidation group to which this company belongs.
Consolidate – Determines the consolidation method with three options: Holding (the company acts as a holding entity), Full (the company is fully consolidated; Full consolidation includes the subsidiary’s 100% of assets, liabilities, revenues, and expenses in the parent’s financial statements, while proportional consolidation includes only the parent’s percentage share of these items), or Proportional (eliminations are applied proportionally across the consolidation group).
Share – Defines the ownership share percentage within the consolidation layer.

Account Types

XLReporting provides 17 predefined account types that classify both Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss accounts. These account types ensure complete financial representation, including full Balance Sheet and P&L structures, EBITDA calculations, and account categorisation for specific purposes such as budgets and forecasts.

Account types define how accounts are grouped and reported in XLReporting. They drive the structure of your financial reports and models (e.g., Assets, Liabilities, Revenue, Expenses).

Each account in your chart of accounts is linked to one account type.
You can rename account types (for example, change "Expenses" to "Kosten" for Dutch users).
Account types ensure consistency between different reports and models.

You can also use account types as filters, either for full or partial account type names.

Example: CONTAINS(data, "BS.") retrieves only Balance Sheet accounts, while BS.ASSET.BANKS returns only bank and cash accounts.

Tip: Use consistent naming for account types across companies for clean consolidations.

Common mistake: Editing account types after reports are published can cause mismatched totals. Always review changes before saving.

Journal Types

Journal types are used in the consolidation process to categorise entries, such as Adjustments, Intercompany eliminations, or Currency revaluations.

You can define any number of journal types.
In Company Settings, you assign a journal type to each account so XLReporting knows how to treat it during consolidation.

Example: Create journal types "Actuals", "Adjustments", and "Eliminations" to structure your consolidation journals.

Tip: Keep journal types simple and consistent across all companies to avoid mapping errors.

Currencies

The Currencies tab defines exchange rates for reporting and consolidation.

Enter currency rates per year and per currency.
XLReporting automatically converts all values from foreign currencies to your reporting currency.

Example: Define EUR → USD = 1.10 for 2025. If your UK entity reports in GBP, its data will be converted to EUR in group reports.

Tip: Review exchange rates regularly — outdated rates may distort consolidation results.

Common mistake: Forgetting to update yearly exchange rates before running consolidations.

Settings

This tab contains several global parameters that are used throughout XLReporting, such as:

Reporting currency – the main currency for consolidated results.
VAT rate – used in specific models and calculations.

Tip: Change these values only if you understand their effect on reports and models.

Summary

The Global Settings screen is the foundation of your reporting and planning structure.

Companies define who you report on.
Account and journal types define how you report.
Currencies and global settings ensure consistent calculations across all models.

Keeping this setup clean and consistent ensures accurate reports and smooth consolidations.

HowTo: Set up Global Settings

Minimal steps to configure your Global Settings for multi-entity reporting and consolidation.

Add companies: create or import entities, set Source, Currency, Group, Consolidate, and Share.
Configure account types: review the 17 predefined types; rename if needed to match your reporting language.
Define journal types: add types for Actuals, Adjustments, and Eliminations; map them in Company Settings.
Enter currencies: set yearly exchange rates for each currency used by your companies.
Set global parameters: choose Reporting currency, VAT rate, and Default period format.
Review: verify filters and sample reports to ensure correct consolidation results.