What this tutorial covers: How to build your group structure in BrizoConsol from scratch — adding your entities, using groups for sub-totals, handling companies that own other companies, and where ownership percentages are recorded. By the end, your hierarchy will be set up and ready for account mapping and consolidation.
Your group structure is the foundation of everything in BrizoConsol. It tells the system which companies are in the group and how their figures add up to group totals. Ownership percentages are recorded separately, under Ownership & Equity. Getting this right before connecting data sources saves significant rework later.
Before You Start
Have the following ready before building your hierarchy:
What you need
Why
List of all entities
Every legal entity in the group — holding company, subsidiaries, sub-subsidiaries
Ownership percentages
The parent's ownership % in each subsidiary — recorded under Ownership & Equity → Ownership after the hierarchy is built, and used to calculate NCI
Reporting currency per entity
The functional currency each entity reports in — required for multi-currency translation
Acquisition dates (if applicable)
Needed for NCI and goodwill calculations if subsidiaries were acquired mid-year
Step 1 — Access the Organisation Hierarchy
Go to Global Settings → Organisation Hierarchy from the left navigation. You will see a visual tree with your group at the top. Your group has no figures of its own — it adds up everything beneath it.
⚠ If you are using a demo organisation: Remove it before building your real hierarchy.
Remove Demo deletes the demo companies and turns the demo group into your own empty group under the name you enter. See
Removing the Demo Organisation for instructions.
Step 2 — Understand the Building Blocks
BrizoConsol uses two types of nodes in the hierarchy:
Node type
What it is
Entity
A company that holds financial data. Connected to an accounting system (Xero, QuickBooks, MYOB, Zoho Books) or loaded via Excel/CSV. This is where real numbers come from. An entity cannot contain other entities, and each one counts towards your subscription’s entity limit.
Group
A container with no financial data of its own. It aggregates all entities beneath it and can contain entities and other groups. Each group has its own consolidated figures and appears in the organisation selector. Groups do not count towards the entity limit.
💡 Rule of thumb: Use an Entity for every company with its own books. Use a Group wherever you need a sub-total — for example, "APAC Operations" grouping several subsidiaries by region, or a subsidiary together with the companies it owns.
Step 3 — Add Your Entities
Add an entity for each company in the group, including the holding company if its own figures are to be consolidated.
1
Select the group in the treeTo begin with, select your group at the top. If an entity is selected, the new entity is added to that entity’s group.
2
Click + Add OrganisationThe New organisation dialog opens, showing Under and the group the entity will be added to. Enter the name as it should appear in reports and click Add organisation.
3
Repeat, then click Save ChangesNothing you add, move or delete in the tree is kept until you save. Each new entity shows an UNCONNECTED badge until a data source is connected — this is expected at this stage.
4
Set Currency and Fiscal Year StartsSelect each saved entity and use the edit icon in the right panel. For entities you will connect to Xero, QuickBooks, MYOB or Zoho Books, leave these — they are taken from the accounting system when you connect.
Step 4 — Add Groups (optional)
Use a Group for any sub-total you want to report: regional groupings (APAC, EMEA), product lines, brands, or a subsidiary together with the companies it owns.
1
Select where the group should go, then click + Add GroupThe group is added inside the selected group, or inside the selected entity’s group. Enter a name and click Add.
2
Drag entities into the groupDrag each entity that belongs in the group onto it. You can drag groups too.
3
Click Save ChangesThe group and its entities are saved in their new positions.
Step 5 — Companies That Own Other Companies (if applicable)
An entity cannot sit under another entity in the tree. When a subsidiary owns another company, add both as entities and, if you want a sub-total for them, put them together in a group. Who owns whom is recorded separately, in Ownership & Equity → Ownership, by choosing the owning company as the Parent entity.
Example:
HoldCo SG (group)
↳ Australia & NZ (group)
↳ OpCo Australia (entity)
↳ OpCo New Zealand (entity)
↳ OpCo Malaysia (entity)
In Ownership: OpCo Australia — parent HoldCo SG, 80%. OpCo New Zealand — parent OpCo Australia, 75%. OpCo Malaysia — parent HoldCo SG, 100%. BrizoConsol then calculates the effective group interest in OpCo New Zealand through the chain (80% × 75% = 60%). The Australia & NZ group gives a sub-total for the two companies.
Step 6 — Record Ownership Percentages
Ownership percentages are not set in the hierarchy. Record them in Ownership & Equity → Ownership — see Ownership and NCI — Non-Controlling Interest.
💡 100% ownership: NCI only arises where the group owns less than 100% of a subsidiary. A wholly owned subsidiary has no NCI.
Step 7 — Review and Confirm
Before moving on, verify your hierarchy is correct:
Checklist
☐Every company in the group has an entity in the tree
☐Each entity sits in the group whose sub-total it belongs to
☐Ownership percentages are recorded in Ownership & Equity → Ownership, with the owning company as the parent entity for any company owned by a subsidiary
☐Each entity has the correct functional currency assigned
☐Entity count shown in the top-right of the tree matches your expected number of entities
💡 You can rearrange at any time: Drag and drop nodes in the tree to restructure how figures roll up. Rearranging does not change ownership percentages — those stay as recorded in Ownership. Click Save Changes after any rearrangement.
What Happens Next
With your group structure in place, the next steps in the onboarding flow are:
Step
What it covers
2
Connect Data Sources
Link each entity to its accounting system or upload trial balances via Excel/CSV
3
Map the Chart of Accounts
Map each entity's accounts to the Common Chart of Accounts using AI-assisted mapping
4
Review Consolidated Output
View your first consolidated P&L, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow
