# Group accounts for several clients on Zoho Books: a workflow for accounting firms

> A seven-step workflow for a firm preparing group accounts for clients whose companies sit in separate Zoho Books organizations: scope, group chart, rates, onboarding, monthly cycle, review, delivery.

Source: https://finconsol.com/blog/group-accounts-for-accounting-firms-on-zoho-books/ (updated 23 December 2026)

## In short

Treat the group as a client of its own. Agree the ownership and the group chart of accounts with the client, keep each company's books in its own Zoho Books organization, fix one rate table, and each month bring every company's trial balance together, review, then deliver one pack. A second person reviews before it goes out.

Key takeaways

- **The group is a separate engagement,** with its own scope, ownership schedule and review, not a by-product of the single-company work.
- **Zoho Books keeps each organization apart.** Zoho's help pages we checked describe no view across organizations, so the group step happens outside them.
- **Fix three things once:** the group chart of accounts, the rate source and the monthly cut-off.
- **Separate preparer, reviewer and read-only viewers** so the client's finance director sees the group without opening every company.

## What does a firm have to deliver for a group?

A firm that looks after several companies owned by the same people is often asked a new question: “What are the group's numbers?” Nobody asked for it when the work was one set of accounts per company. Now the client wants one profit and loss, one balance sheet and the group's cash, in one currency, with the intragroup trade taken out.

That is a different deliverable from the single-company accounts, so it needs its own engagement letter, its own review and its own timetable. The work is the one set out in [a five-day group close](/blog/five-day-group-close/), carried out by the firm for a client rather than by an in-house team.

## What does Zoho Books give a firm for a group?

Zoho's help centre says a user can create up to five organizations with one email address by default, and that each new organization gets a 14-day trial before you subscribe to a plan[1](#src-1)[2](#src-2). Zoho's pages on managing organizations describe how to create and manage them, and we found no page that describes a combined or consolidated view across organizations[2](#src-2).

So the arrangement most firms end up with is one organization per client company, each with its own chart, its own base currency and its own lock date. That is a good setup for the single-company work. It leaves the group step to be done somewhere else. *Checked against Zoho's help centre on 29 Oct 2026.*

## What is a workable workflow?

The steps below are in the order a firm meets them. The example client is the Zenvara group, with two companies on Zoho Books (Zenvara and Quillfern) and three kept elsewhere.

1. **Scope and ownership.** Write down which companies are in the group, the percentage held in each and the dates of any change. A schedule of ownership drives the [non-controlling interest](/blog/glossary/non-controlling-interest/).
2. **The group chart.** Agree one [chart of accounts](/blog/glossary/group-chart-of-accounts/) for the group and map each company to it once. Review the mapping with the client, then lock it.
3. **The rate policy.** Choose one source and one set of rates for the whole group: an average for the month and a closing rate. Put the choice in the engagement letter.
4. **Onboarding each company.** For companies on Zoho Books, connect read only. For companies on Xero, QuickBooks or another system, agree the date and the form of the [trial balance](/blog/glossary/trial-balance/) you will receive.
5. **The monthly cycle.** Each company is closed in its own books first. Then the firm checks every trial balance, translates, compares intercompany and eliminates.
6. **Review.** Someone other than the preparer checks the pack against a checklist.
7. **Delivery and lock.** Deliver the pack, then lock the month so that later changes are visible.

## What does the firm hold for a client's group?

Before the first month, the firm should be able to produce a one-page view of the group. The net assets of each company in its own currency, then in pounds, is a good first check on a mapping.

*Exhibit 1. Net assets by company, 30 Sep 2026GBP*

| Zenvara, Zoho BooksGBP 5,400,000 | 5,400,000 |
| --- | --- |
| Fernhollow, QuickBooks uploadUSD 500,000 at 0.7560 | 378,000 |
| Palmridge, trial balanceAED 13,905,000 at 0.2040 | 2,836,620 |
| Kestrelwick, Xero uploadSGD 4,120,000 at 0.5870 | 2,418,440 |
| Quillfern, Zoho BooksEUR 3,000,000 at 0.8470 | 2,541,000 |
| Sum of company net assets, before consolidation entries | 13,574,060 |

Example group used across Finconsol guides. Palmridge is opening AED 12,000,000 plus the September profit of AED 1,905,000; Fernhollow and Kestrelwick are as in the translation post; Zenvara and Quillfern are illustrative. Balance sheet items at the closing rate[3](#src-3).

The total is not the group's net assets. The investments in the subsidiaries and the intragroup balances are still to be removed. But the table shows the firm what it is looking at: five companies, three currencies and two systems, before a single entry.

## Who should see what in the engagement?

Four roles cover most engagements. They are the firm's to set; they are not product settings.

- **Preparer:** a member of the firm who builds the monthly pack.
- **Reviewer:** a more senior member of the firm, never the preparer, who checks the pack and signs it off.
- **Client finance director:** sees the group pack and the numbers behind it, read only.
- **Auditor:** sees the locked months and the log of changes, read only.

The client's finance director usually wants the group view without opening five sets of books. That is a reason to keep the group view somewhere other than in any one company's ledger.

## How does Finconsol handle this?

Finconsol is built to be used by accounting firms for their clients' groups as well as by in-house teams. The firm signs in once and sees the client groups it works on, and each client has its own group, with its own companies, users and settings; nothing is shared between clients. It connects to Zoho Books directly (read only, refreshed nightly), takes Xero, QuickBooks and any other system by trial balance and applies one group chart of accounts and one rate table across them.

**In Finconsol**[How Zoho Books connects →](https://finconsol.com/zoho-books-consolidation/)

******Group companies, 30 Sep 2026, GBP5 of 5 in

| Company | Source | Currency | Net assets (GBP) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Zenvara | Zoho Books | GBP | 5,400,000 |
| Fernhollow | Trial balance upload | USD | 378,000 |
| Palmridge | Trial balance upload | AED | 2,836,620 |
| Kestrelwick | Trial balance upload | SGD | 2,418,440 |
| Quillfern | Zoho Books | EUR | 2,541,000 |

*Each company is listed with where its books come from. The firm maps once; later months follow the same mapping.*

Mapping, translation, intercompany, non-controlling interest and board packs follow from there, and locked months with a change log give the reviewer and the auditor their trail. The [complete guide to Zoho Books for a group](/blog/zoho-books-for-a-group-of-companies/) covers the whole picture.

## Questions

**Can an accounting firm prepare group accounts when each company is its own Zoho Books organization?**

Yes, with a step outside Zoho Books. Each organization keeps the company's books. The firm then brings the trial balances together, translates, eliminates and reports the group. Zoho's help pages we checked describe no combined view across organizations.

**Should the group be set up as another client in the practice system?**

Yes. Treat the group as a client of its own, with its own engagement letter, budget of hours and reviewer. That keeps the group fee and the group review visible and separate from the single-company work.

**How should the firm handle a client company that is not on Zoho Books?**

Agree the form and date of its trial balance, map it once to the group chart, and check it in the first month against the company's own accounts. Xero, QuickBooks and other systems can all be brought in this way.

**Who is responsible for intercompany balances that do not agree?**

The company that is behind owns the difference, and the firm tracks it. The firm should not force the larger side. The [intercompany routine](/blog/why-intercompany-balances-never-agree/) sets out the steps.

## Sources

## Sources

1. Zoho Books help centre, [Add an organization](https://www.zoho.com/books/kb/subscription/add-organization.html). Checked against Zoho's help centre on 29 Oct 2026.
2. Zoho Books help centre, [Manage multiple organizations](https://www.zoho.com/in/books/kb/general/manage-multiple-organizations.html). Checked against Zoho's help centre on 29 Oct 2026.
3. IAS 21 [The Effects of Changes in Foreign Exchange Rates](https://www.ifrs.org/issued-standards/list-of-standards/ias-21-the-effects-of-changes-in-foreign-exchange-rates/), paragraph 39.