A consolidation package is the standardised reporting file that each subsidiary submits to the group at every close. It is the raw material of financial consolidation: no package, no consolidated accounts. It is also the point where most of the close calendar is won or lost.
A complete package contains five blocks. The trial balance mapped to the group chart of accounts. The movement schedules for equity, fixed assets and provisions. The intercompany schedules, listing every balance and flow with each other group entity, counterparty by counterparty. The restatements aligning local policies with group standards. The notes supporting the figures.
The intercompany schedule is where packages get stuck. Each entity declares what it believes it owes and is owed. The group then compares declarations pairwise and finds that they do not agree, at which point the package is returned, the accountants of both entities open a discussion, and the calendar slips. The delay comes from the disagreement, not from the reporting effort.
The structural cause is that entities declare in isolation. Nobody sees the other side of the flow until the packages reach the group, days after the accounts were closed locally, when correcting means reopening a period.
Reversing that order is the useful move. Phacet's intercompany flow reconciliation agent compares reciprocal positions across entities continuously, so gaps surface before the package is submitted rather than after it is rejected. Combined with pre-close validation, it turns package review into an exception list and supports genuine month-end close acceleration. See the closing and audit hub.
