# Xero for a group of companies: the complete guide

> What Xero's own pages say about running several organisations as a group, the one country where Xero offers consolidation, and the four jobs between the organisations and one set of group accounts.

Source: https://finconsol.com/blog/xero-for-a-group-of-companies/ (updated 12 November 2026)

## In short

Xero runs each company as its own organisation. The Xero pages we opened describe no native report that combines organisations, and a Xero staff reply dated 23 July 2025 says consolidated reporting is not currently planned. One exception: in Australia, Xero's Ultra plan includes consolidation through Syft. Everywhere else, the group view is a separate step.

Key takeaways

- **One company, one organisation.** That keeps each company's books clean and its own currency and tax rules intact.
- **No native consolidation, with one dated exception.** A Xero staff reply of 23 July 2025 says it is not planned. Xero's Australian Ultra plan includes consolidation through Syft.
- **Four jobs sit between the organisations and the group accounts:** a shared chart, translation, eliminations and ownership.
- **A Xero company can join a mixed group.** It connects directly, next to companies kept in other systems.

*Checked against Xero's own pages on 30 Oct 2026. Every Xero page used here is listed under Sources.*

## What does Xero give a group of companies?

Xero is built around the organisation, which is one set of books for one company. A group of five Xero companies has five organisations, each with its own chart of accounts, its own base currency, its own users and its own subscription. That is a sound design for the company. Each one closes its own month and answers to its own auditor and tax authority.

The questions start when the board asks for the group. How much revenue did the group earn in September? What does the group owe to banks? How much of Kestrelwick's profit belongs to the 20 percent shareholder outside the group? None of those answers sits in any one organisation, and Xero's own pages are the place to start looking for whether the product offers them.

## Does Xero combine organisations into one report?

Not natively, according to what Xero itself has said. The Xero Ideas forum has a request titled “Reporting - Ability to consolidate multiple Xero organisations”. When we opened it on 30 Oct 2026 its status was Accepted and it had 279 votes[1](#src-1). The most recent staff reply on the page is from a Xero Community Manager and is dated 23 July 2025: “work on developing consolidated reporting is not currently planned.”[1](#src-1)

Two cautions about that statement. It is a forum reply, not a product page, so it is a statement of current plans and not a promise either way. And it is a global forum. It does not say which countries it covers, so the next section matters.

## Is there a country where Xero does consolidate?

Yes, one that we found. Xero's Australian site describes the Ultra plan as “our new plan for growing Australian businesses”, and says it includes consolidation for up to five entities, with the option to add more[2](#src-2). The consolidation is delivered by Syft Advanced, which the page says “connects directly to your Xero data” and “works alongside Xero” rather than within it, with a separate Syft login after you upgrade[2](#src-2). Xero's Australian analytics page lists “Multi-entity consolidations” as included in Syft Analytics and excluded from Xero Analytics[3](#src-3).

So the accurate statement is narrower than either “Xero cannot consolidate” or “Xero can consolidate”. As of 30 Oct 2026, Xero's own pages say that in Australia the Ultra plan includes consolidation of up to five entities through Syft, and the forum reply says Xero itself is not planning consolidated reporting. We opened no equivalent page for other countries, and we do not quote prices because the Ultra page we opened shows only a time-limited discount. The dedicated post on whether Xero can consolidate several organisations sets the position out country by country.

## What does a Xero subsidiary look like in the group accounts?

Whatever tool builds the group view, a Xero company has to be changed in the same few ways before it can be added to the others. Take Kestrelwick Pte Ltd, the Singapore company in our example group. Zenvara owns 80 percent. Its Xero organisation reports in Singapore dollars. In September 2026 it earned revenue of SGD 900,000 and costs of SGD 780,000.

*Exhibit 1. Kestrelwick translated and split between owners, Sep 2026GBP*

| Kestrelwick, Sep 2026 | SGD | GBP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Revenueaverage rate 0.5850 | 900,000 | 526,500 |
| Costsaverage rate 0.5850 | (780,000) | (456,300) |
| Profit for September | 120,000 | 70,200 |
| Non-controlling interest20 percent of the profit |  | (14,040) |
| Attributable to Zenvara's shareholders |  | 56,160 |

Example group used across Finconsol guides. Figures rounded to the pound.

Three things happened that Xero did not do. The Singapore dollar figures were translated at the group's [average rate](/blog/glossary/average-rate/) for the month. The whole of Kestrelwick was kept in the group accounts, because Zenvara has [control](/blog/glossary/control/). And the 20 percent that belongs to outside shareholders was shown separately as [non-controlling interest](/blog/glossary/non-controlling-interest/), 14,040, so that the remaining 56,160 is what belongs to Zenvara's shareholders. The balance sheet needs the same treatment at the closing rate, which our guide to [currency translation](https://finconsol.com/guides/currency-translation-in-consolidation/) explains.

**In Finconsol**[How Xero consolidation works →](https://finconsol.com/xero-consolidation/)

******Profit and non-controlling interest, Sep 2026, GBP3 overseas companies

| Company | Books in | Owned | Profit | Non-controlling interest |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Fernhollow | QuickBooks Online (direct) | 100% | 52,026 | 0 |
| Palmridge | Other system (trial balance) | 100% | 385,762 | 0 |
| Kestrelwick | Xero (direct) | 80% | 70,200 | 14,040 |
| Total |  |  | 507,988 | 14,040 |

*Each company is read from its own books and translated at the group's rates. The outside shareholders' share is shown on its own line, and the amounts stay visible.*

## How should you structure the companies in Xero?

Structure comes before reporting, and the choices are ours, not Xero's. The simple rule we suggest is that a legal entity gets its own organisation, because it has its own books, its own base currency and its own tax and audit trail. Divisions and sites inside one company can be handled with tracking inside that organisation. We have not described Xero's tracking features here because we have not opened the pages for them for this guide.

Group structure also needs a record that Xero does not hold for you: who owns what. Kestrelwick's 80 percent is a fact about Zenvara's investment, not a field in Kestrelwick's books. Keep it in one place with a date, because it drives non-controlling interest and every ownership change that follows.

## How do intercompany, currency and ownership work across organisations?

**Intercompany.** The Xero pages we opened for this guide describe no tool that compares or eliminates balances between two organisations. Each side books its own half. Zenvara lends to Fernhollow and records a receivable. Fernhollow records the payable. Whether the two agree is a monthly comparison by counterparty, and our post on [why intercompany balances never agree](/blog/why-intercompany-balances-never-agree/) shows how a small gap splits into timing and rate. The guide to [intercompany eliminations](https://finconsol.com/guides/intercompany-eliminations-explained/) covers the entry that removes it.

**Currency.** Each organisation has its own base currency. Presenting the group in one currency is a group-level step, the translation shown in Exhibit 1. A group that wants the effect of exchange rates on its subsidiaries to be right needs one closing rate and one average rate per currency, set once and used for every company.

**Ownership.** Any company the group owns less than all of produces non-controlling interest. Exhibit 1 shows the profit side. The same percentage applies to the net assets of the subsidiary, and it changes when the group buys or sells shares in it.

## What are the options for the group view?

There are three routes, and the right one depends on size, not loyalty to a tool.

| Route | What it does well | What you still do by hand |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Spreadsheet | Cheap, familiar, fully flexible | Rates, mapping, eliminations, ownership, version control and the audit trail |
| Syft, in Australia2 | Xero's own consolidation for Ultra plan customers, up to five entities | Check what it does for intercompany, rates and ownership: the pages we opened do not say |
| Consolidation software | Maps, translates, eliminates and reports for companies from several systems | Reviewing the output each month and posting the judgement entries |

*Exhibit 2. Three routes to a group view, compared on 30 Oct 2026*

The Syft row is deliberate about what it leaves out. The Xero pages we opened state that consolidation is included. They do not describe how intercompany balances, exchange rates or non-controlling interest are handled, and we have not tested it, so a group considering it should ask for those three answers before relying on it.

A spreadsheet works for a two-company group with one foreign currency. Groups that outgrow it usually say the same thing: the problem is not the first month, it is the sixth. By then a company has added accounts, a rate has been mistyped and no one remembers why an elimination was posted. The post on [building the consolidation in a spreadsheet](/blog/zoho-books-consolidation-spreadsheet/) shows where it strains, and [consolidating different accounting systems](/blog/consolidating-different-accounting-systems/) covers the mapping side.

## What should a Xero group do in its first month?

1. **List the companies, the base currency and the owner of each.** Include the ownership percentage and the date it started.
2. **Pick the group currency and the rate source.** One closing and one average rate per currency per month, published before month-end.
3. **Agree the cut-off.** The same calendar date for every organisation, with a rule for invoices raised on the last day.
4. **Name the intercompany pairs.** Set each group company up as a contact in the others, so balances can be read by counterparty.
5. **Draw the group chart.** Map each organisation’s accounts to it once, and decide how a new account is added.
6. **Run one month by hand.** You will learn which step takes the time before you choose a tool.

The free checklist linked on this page puts these steps in a form you can send to each company's accountant.

## Where does Finconsol fit?

Finconsol takes the step after the organisations. Finconsol connects to each Xero organisation directly, read only, and syncs it daily, in the company's own currency. Finconsol maps its accounts to the group chart, translates them, compares and eliminates intercompany balances, and shows non-controlling interest.

Not every company in a group keeps its books in Xero, and that does not matter. Zoho Books and QuickBooks Online connect directly, read only, and sync daily, and any other system comes in by trial balance, so a group with a Xero subsidiary in Singapore, a QuickBooks subsidiary in the United States and a parent on Zoho Books still gets one set of accounts. Group currency is one, set once for the group.

Around that sit statistics and KPIs next to the money, budgets and latest estimates, board packs, and locked months with a change log. An accounting firm that looks after several client groups keeps each client in a separate group. The product page for [Xero consolidation](https://finconsol.com/xero-consolidation/) shows the screens, and the series this guide opens goes through each topic.

This guide is the hub for the Xero series. The posts that follow cover what Xero says country by country, Partner Hub (formerly Xero HQ), and intercompany between Xero organisations. The list of posts appears at the foot of this page as each one is published.

## Questions

**Can Xero consolidate multiple organisations?**

Not natively, according to a Xero Community Manager's reply dated 23 July 2025, which says consolidated reporting is not currently planned. In Australia, Xero's Ultra plan includes consolidation of up to five entities through Syft. For other countries we opened no Xero page offering it.

**What is Syft, and is it part of Xero?**

Syft is a reporting and planning platform that Xero's Australian pages present alongside Xero. The Ultra page says it works alongside Xero rather than within it and needs a separate login. Xero's analytics page lists multi-entity consolidations as included in Syft Analytics and excluded from Xero Analytics.

**Why is a group view more than the reports added together?**

No. Adding reports mixes currencies, counts intercompany items twice and ignores outside shareholders. Kestrelwick alone shows it: the 20 percent outside owners take 14,040 of a 70,200 profit, and none of that appears in Xero's own report.

**Can a Xero company sit in a group with companies on other systems?**

Yes. Each company arrives in its own currency, whatever system it keeps its books in, and each is mapped to one group chart.

## Sources

## Sources

1. [Xero Ideas: Reporting - Ability to consolidate multiple Xero organisations](https://productideas.xero.com/forums/967133-reports-tax/suggestions/44960413-reporting-ability-to-consolidate-multiple-xero-o), opened 30 Oct 2026; status, vote count and the staff reply dated 23 July 2025 as shown that day.
2. [Xero Australia: Ultra plan](https://www.xero.com/au/pricing-plans/ultra/), opened 30 Oct 2026.
3. [Xero Australia: analytics, Syft and Xero Analytics comparison](https://www.xero.com/au/campaign/analytics/), opened 30 Oct 2026.