Import trial balances for a Group from Microsoft Excel

Overview

If you have set up a Consolidated Tax Group, you can import trial balances into multiple entities (group members) at the same time via a Consolidated Financial Statements group. if you have not yet set up a group, you can learn to do so here: Create a Group.

You can set up a Consolidated Financial Statements group with any type of entity as a member, which means you can also use the group trial balance import to quickly set up workpapers for other entity types too. 

Prepare the Consolidated Financial Statements group In TaxLab

• Ensure that each member of the group is an Entity in TaxLab.
• Ensure that the Tax year you need to upload is open in each entity.
• Ensure that each group member entity has an entity code in the accounting system.
  
• Ensure that the group has been set up as a Consolidated Financial Statements group in the system.
  
• In the group entity, open the Members tab and add each entity to the group.

From the members tab you can check to make sure that all of the members have been added to the financial statements group, and they have entity codes.

Prepare the Microsoft Excel file

1. Add the following column headers: Company (entity code), Code (account code), Description (name of account) and Amount. 
2. Organise the trial balance data for the first group member (entity) under the column headers.
3. On the next blank row, organise the trial balance data for the next group member under the column headers
4. Repeat the above step until the trial balance data for all the group members is organised under the column headers, one group member after the other.
5. Save and close the file.
   

A template trial balance and information about what you can import including mappings for workpapers can be found here.

Import the File

1. In TaxLab, open the Consolidated groups Home page
2. Open the group’s Members tab, click the Import button.
3. Check the default tax year and destination.
4. Click the Import to [tax year] button.
5. Locate and select the Microsoft Excel file, and click Open.
6. If the import is successful, a message displays in a green banner informing you of the number of accounts that were imported into the group members. 
7. Click Close.

Assigning Accounts at Group Level

Once the group trial balance is imported, you can assign accounts to the Income statement or Balance sheet from the group screen.

1. Open the Consolidated Financial Statements group.
2. On the Workpapers > Accounts menu, all the accounts that have been imported successfully should be displayed on the All accounts tab. The Type column identifies if the account has been assigned to the Income statement (IS), Balance sheet (BS) or unassigned (UN).
3. To assign an account, click the cog against that line and select Income statement or Balance sheet. This will assign the account for all members of the group.
   

View the Group’s Tax Position

To view the group’s tax position:

1. Open the group’s Tax Position page.
2. Ensure the relevant year is selected in the top right corner.

Add a foreign tax credit

Troubleshooting

Issue: Accounts Have Not Uploaded into One or More Entities

• Verify that the tax year you are uploading trial balances to is open in each entity.
• Check that each entity in TaxLab has the correct entity code assigned.
• Ensure that the accounting code in your spreadsheet matches the corresponding entity code in TaxLab.

Issue: Error Message - "Please try again"

• Confirm that each entity in TaxLab has a unique and properly assigned entity code.

Issue: Import failed because Entity Codes were not found for these entities

• Review the entity codes on your spreadsheet and ensure they match the entity codes in TaxLab. Update the entity codes either in your spreadsheet or in TaxLab as necessary.

Issue: Import failed because Destination was not found for these entities

• Confirm that the entity codes in TaxLab are correctly added to your spreadsheet under the column header "Company".

What's next?

Now you can continue work on your group tax return. You can add or transfer a tax loss, add a foreign tax credit, and  prepare your Imputation credit account (ICA).