Intercompany eliminations are used to remove from the
financial statements of a group of companies any transactions involving
dealings between the companies in the group. There are three types of
intercompany eliminations, which are:
•Intercompany debt. Eliminates any loans made from one
entity to another within the group, since these only results in offsetting
notes payable and receivable, as well as offsetting interest expense and
interest income. These issues most commonly arise when funds are being moved
between entities by a centralized treasury department.
•Intercompany revenue and expenses. Eliminates the sale of
goods or services from one entity to another within the group. This means that
the related revenues, cost of goods sold, and profits are all eliminated. The
reason for these eliminations is that a company cannot recognize revenue from
sales to itself; all sales must be to external entities. These issues most
commonly arise when a company is vertically integrated.
•Intercompany stock ownership. Eliminates the ownership
interest of the parent company in its subsidiaries.
Intercompany transactions can be difficult to identify, and
so require a system of controls to ensure that each of these items is properly
identified and brought to the attention of the corporate accounting staff. The issue
is of particular concern when an acquisition has just been completed, since the
reporting controls are not yet in place at the new acquiree. If an enterprise
resource planning (ERP) system is in place throughout the company, these
transactions can typically be identified by flagging a transaction as it is
created as being an intercompany item.
When an intercompany transaction has been identified in one
period, it is entirely possible that the same type of transaction will occur
again in the future. Accordingly, a reasonable control is for the corporate
accounting staff to make a list of all intercompany transactions that have been
identified in the past, and see if they have been dealt with again in the
current period. If not, there may be an unflagged transaction that needs to be
eliminated.
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