Dynamics Community Forum Thread Details

Consolidation and advanced combined analytics

Hello,

We have a group of companies, some in business central and some using custom OEM compatible software to report to Car Manufacturers.

Does anyone have any experience, just dumping in incremental monthly trial balances in "dummy" BC companies and then using those to roll into a Consolidated Company?

Pros and cons of this approach?

Pulling out some intercompany transactions, seems like would involve some effort if two who transact have that level detail outside BC.

Ideally an API from the OEM software using companies seems like the long term answer, but for now...

Ability to incorporate with the Power Platform for advanced analytics?

I know some would be purely financial data, but we do have a group inventory application built in Dynamics, to deal with the inventory component.

We wouldn't be able to analyze customers and vendors as a group as easily since the "dummy" TB companies would have that data externally.

Any help or suggestions appreciated!

Cedric

Categories:

Dynamics 365 Business Central

Hey Cedric,

Your idea of dumping incremental monthly trial balances into "dummy" BC companies for consolidation can work, but there are trade-offs. Let’s break it down:

Pros:

Quick & Simple – If you just need financial consolidation and don’t want to overhaul systems right now, this is a fast way to bring numbers together.
Minimal Disruption – You’re not forcing legacy systems into BC, just pulling in high-level financials.
Works Well for Financial Reporting – If your main goal is consolidated P&L, balance sheets, and cash flow, this method does the job.

Cons & Challenges:

Intercompany Transactions – Since transactions happen outside BC, manually eliminating intercompany activity could be a pain. If two entities trade but only one reports in BC, balancing things might take extra effort.
No Granular Data – You won’t get customer/vendor insights at the group level because the “dummy” TB companies only have summary numbers. If you need deep financial analysis (e.g., margins by customer, product trends), this method won’t be enough.
Scalability – Doing this manually month after month could become tedious. If the group expands, maintaining it will be a headache.

Short-Term Fix vs. Long-Term Solution

For Now: What you're doing is fine if it's just about high-level financials. Power BI can still help with dashboards, but it won’t be a complete picture. You can import the dummy TB data into Power BI and blend it with inventory insights from your Dynamics-based application.
Long-Term: The API route from OEM software to BC is definitely better. It would automate things, allow deeper analysis, and reduce errors.

If you're open to a middle-ground solution, maybe Power Automate or an ETL tool (like Azure Data Factory or Power Query) could help automate the TB imports rather than doing it manually.

Regards,

Dr. Gomathi S

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