Until recently, most accountants and CFOs faced a challenging crossroad: reluctantly open a spreadsheet and begin the herculean task of preparing a group forecast... or forgetting about it altogether. Using a spreadsheet meant struggling with complex formulas and taking massive amounts of time to complete. Not preparing a group forecast at all meant lost visibility on where the group was heading. The long-awaited antidote arrived at the end of 2020 when we launched Consolidated Forecasts for up to 75 entities.

Today, we’re thrilled to step it up (again) with the introduction of Eliminations in Spotlight Forecasting. Now, you can quickly and easily exclude inter-entity balances and values to get the full picture of forecasted group-level performance, and ultimately get the best shot at success 🚀

Consolidate and eliminate, fast

Using the new Eliminations functionality is a (seriously) quick and streamlined way to cancel out balances between entities within a group forecast. Whether it’s eliminating loans made from one entity to another, or accounting for inter-entity trading across multiple currencies, you’ll have no trouble forecasting your group cash flow position.

“Armed with this new functionality, you’ll be ready to move the needle on providing powerful group forecasts to your clients or stakeholders.”
- Matt Kekena, Product Manager

In true Spotlight style, the apparent simplicity of Eliminations hides a lot of power and flexibility. You have complete control with the ability to eliminate an entire account’s values, or selected entity’s values 👇

Once you’ve selected the accounts to eliminate, the Customise Data grid and your report output will exclude the accounts by entity that you selected.

Eliminations in Spotlight Forecasting also supports more sophisticated requirements, like adjusting receivables and payables in periods of actuals. To make this even easier for those operating across borders, these values are entered in the individual entity currency, meaning you don't have to convert them on the fly.

How does it work?

Our Product Manager, Matt Kekena, will show you how it all works in this two-minute video 👇

It’s easy to build powerful, flexible consolidated forecasts, and now with the full strength of Eliminations, you can create them quickly and accurately. We know Eliminations will be a huge step forward for many CFOs and Accountants.

Ready, set... consolidate!

• Already using Consolidated Forecasting? Make sure you sync your data for each entity first, and then select the “Edit Eliminations” button on the Customise Data screen.
• If you’re a newbie to Spotlight Forecasting or Consolidated Forecasting, sign up to one of our Getting Started webinars, start a free trial, chat with a forecasting expert, or read our Guide to Getting Started, and learn how to build the ultimate forecast that you can then feed into your consolidated forecast.
• For more detailed steps, take a look at our Help Centre article.

We'd love to hear your thoughts about Eliminations, so please email customer@spotilghtreporting.com to share your ideas and feedback.

Thanks for reading, and happy group forecasting  🚀