Using the Bank Balancer utility

This planning utility allows you to:

  • Balance your organization's balance sheet plan.

  • Declare dividends payable from subsidiaries to parent companies.

  • Book consolidating entries for parent company investments in subsidiaries and equity in earnings of subsidiaries.

Your organization may have one or more subsidiary companies that pay dividends to one or more parent companies. With this utility, you can:

  • Factor dividends payable to parent companies into the calculation of retained earnings and the dividends payable account. The dividends payable account is configured in the Bank Balancer Acct Assignments driver.
  • Post a consolidating entry to the parent company for its investments in the respective subsidiary. This amount is reflected in the Total Calculated Equity row of the Bank Balancer utility. The parent companies’ investment in the subsidiary account is configured in the Bank Balancer Acct Assignments driver document.
  • Post the consolidating entry to the parent company for its equity in the earnings of the respective subsidiary. This amount is simply the subsidiary’s net income. The parent companies’ equity in earnings of the subsidiary account number is configured in the Bank Balancer Acct Assignments driver document.

Configuring the utility

Complete the following steps before using this utility.

IMPORTANT: Make sure to populate the ACCT.BudgetBalancing column before you configure the utility. For more information, see Mapping accounts.

To configure the utility:

  1. Configure the Bank Balancer Account Assignments driver.

    IMPORTANT: This driver must be configured before you can process this utility.

  2. Configure company-specific tax rates, if any, in the Tax Rates driver.

  3. To save the configurations, in the Main ribbon tab, click Save.

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Entering dividends, taxable income adjustments, and reviewing balances

To enter dividend amounts, taxable income adjustments, and reviewing balances:

  1. Open a budget, scenario, or forecast.

  2. On the Plan Utilities tab, click Bank Balancer from the list of planning utilities.

    NOTE: The utility opens in the Desktop Client.

  3. In the Main ribbon tab, click Refresh.

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  4. In the Refresh Variables dialog, do one of the following:

    • To select one or more companies to review in the utility, click Choose Value, select the companies, and click OK.

    • To include all of the companies, leave the field blank, and click OK.

  5. In the Report tab, do the following in the Dividends Declared section, as needed:

    1. In the first row (Dividends Payable), type the planned declared dividend amounts for each period.

    2. In the second row (Dividends Paid), type the dividend amount paid out for each period. After you save your dividend entries, the utility uses them for subsequent balancing.

  6. In the Other Manual Adjustments to Taxable Income section, type manual tax income adjustment amounts for each period, as needed.

  7. At the bottom of the Summary Balance Sheet - End of Month and Summary Balance Sheet - Average sections, check the Assets - (Liabilities + Equity) row (highlighted in yellow).

    TIP: If the BUDACCT.BudgetBalancing column has been properly mapped, then the calculation in this row should equal zero for all historical and plan periods.

  8. If you have entered dividends and/or manual tax adjustments, in the Main ribbon tab, click Save.

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  9. When you are done, close the utility.

NOTE: Given the circular nature between the balancing amount, interest income/expense, and retained earnings, the utility is intentionally designed with circular references, so do not attempt to resolve the circular reference errors. These errors will be resolved with Excel’s iterative calculation option, which is temporarily enabled when the utility is processed.

Processing the utility for a budget

To process the utility for a budget:

  1. Open a budget, scenario, or forecast.

  2. Click the Plan Utilities tab.

  3. Do one of the following:

    • To process only this utility, in the Process Plan Utilities column, locate Bank Balancer in the list, and click Process.

    • To process all planning utilities, click Process All.

TIP: Axiom will notify you when your scheduled job is completed. for more information, see Viewing notifications in the Web Client.