Foreign Currency · Track 2 · Tutorial 3 of 4

Reconcile the CTA

The CTA reserve moves every month, and at the year end someone will ask why. Every part of the movement has a source you can open: each foreign company’s CTA, the NCI’s share of it, goodwill retranslation, and any manual CTA journal.

You will needCTA set up for each foreign company, as in Handle foreign currency companies. Rates complete, as in Manage closing and average exchange rates. Journals & Eliminations Admin access. An edition other than Standard.
By the endThe movement on Your Group’s CTA reserve for January to October 2026 built up from its sources, with every auto CTA journal checked.

1Know what makes up the reserve’s movement

The year’s movement on the CTA reserve, 1,621.43, built up from Company B’s CTA less the NCI’s 20%, Company C’s CTA, Company F’s goodwill retranslation and manual CTA journals
Each source of the movement, and where to see it.
Each foreign company’s CTAPosted automatically for every company in another currency. The CTA Report shows it by component.
The NCI’s shareFor a company the group doesn’t own in full, the NCI’s percentage moves out of the reserve to the NCI share of CTA account. See Translate goodwill and the NCI’s share of the CTA.
Goodwill retranslationGoodwill on a foreign company, retranslated at each closing rate.
Manual CTA journalsAnything your team posted by hand.

2Read each company’s CTA

  1. Select Your Group, and open Adjustments → Currency translation → CTA Report.
  2. Choose Actual, YTD and Oct-2026, and click Company B’s row under CTA by company.
  3. Note its This year, then do the same for Company C.

Rates used lists the rates used. Where this year’s … came from splits the total into four components, line by line with each formula, and Posting accounts shows the component and the account each line was posted to:

ComponentWhat it measures
Non-P&L Equity TranslationShare capital and other reserves at the closing rate instead of their historical rate.
P&L-Related Equity TranslationThe year’s movements in equity, at the closing rate instead of the average.
Current Year Earnings CTAThe year’s profit translated month by month at average rates, against the same profit at the closing rate.
Retained Earnings CTARetained earnings at the closing rate against their historical translation, carried from year to year.

Switch Basis to MTD to see one month on its own — the quickest way to find the month a large movement happened.

3Check the CTA journals

  1. Open Adjustments → Currency translation → CTA / FCTR, and choose Actual and Oct-2026.
  2. Under Auto CTA Journals, check every row’s Diff is 0.00, and click a row to see its lines.
  3. Under Manual CTA Journals, check each journal is one your team meant to post.

The auto journals are reposted every time the group is recalculated and whenever a CTA setting is saved, so they always follow the latest rates and figures. Deleting one only lasts until the next recalculation.

Post a manual CTA journal only for something the automatic CTA can’t know about. Click Add Manual CTA Journal, choose the related subsidiary — it is required — and enter balanced lines. A manual CTA journal can’t recur.

4Find the NCI and goodwill entries

  1. Open Review → Elim. & Journals Report for each month of the year.
  2. Search for NCI-AUTO-CTA to list the NCI’s share of each company’s CTA, and NCI-AUTO-GWFX for goodwill retranslation.
  3. Add up the lines on the CTA reserve account.

5Build up the movement

  1. Open the group’s Balance Sheet, and note 3500 CTA Reserve at the end of last year and at Oct-2026.
  2. Add up the sources: each company’s This year on the CTA Report, less the NCI’s share, plus goodwill retranslation and manual journals.

Check

The sources add up to the reserve’s movement. For Your Group from January to October: 12,000.00 − 2,400.00 − 5,300.00 − 2,678.57 + 0.00 = 1,621.43, the movement on 3500 CTA Reserve.

Keep the build-up with the year-end file. Auditors ask for exactly this.

6If something goes wrong

The sources don’t add up to the movementSomething else was posted to the reserve — an ordinary journal, or an elimination using it. Drill into the reserve on the Balance Sheet to find it.
A company isn’t in the CTA Report’s CTA by company tableOnly a company whose currency differs from the group’s has a CTA. If it does differ, check the CTA settings for anything left to fix.
One month’s CTA is much larger than the othersLook at that month in MTD. A rate entered wrongly, or a historical rate that changed, is the usual cause.
A Diff isn’t 0.00The journal is out of balance. Save a CTA setting to repost, and check the posting accounts are mapped.
The CTA Report or CTA / FCTR shows an upgrade messageThey aren’t included in the Standard edition.