Field notes
Mapping Subsidiary Charts of Accounts for Consolidation
Many Taiwanese groups inherit subsidiaries that kept their own chart of accounts after acquisition. Consolidation then becomes a manual remapping exercise every period, with the same accounts debated again and again.
A durable mapping table lists each local account, the group account it rolls into, and any split rules (for example, when a local ‘other income’ line must be divided between operating and non-operating group lines). Store the table under version control and update it only when the local chart actually changes.
Test the map with a prior-period trial balance before year-end. Unmapped accounts and one-to-many splits surface quickly. Fixing them in a quiet month is far easier than during consolidation crunch.
Once the map is stable, normalised trial balances can be produced with less judgement, and elimination entries reference consistent group lines. That consistency is what auditors look for when they sample consolidation worksheets.