November 24, 2025

How Business Central Handles Multiple Companies and Currencies: What You Need to Know

If your organization operates across multiple legal entities, subsidiaries, or international markets, you know the challenges: Duplicate data entry across systems, manual intercompany reconciliations that take days, currency conversions done in spreadsheets, and the nightmare of pulling together consolidated financial reports. When evaluating a new ERP system, understanding how it handles these complexities can be the difference between streamlined operations and ongoing frustration.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central was built with multi-company and multi-currency operations in mind. Here’s how it addresses these common pain points and what that means for your business.

The multi-company challenge: One system, many entities

Most growing businesses eventually face this familiar scenario:

You’ve acquired another company, opened a subsidiary in a new region, or separated business units for legal or operational reasons. Suddenly, you’re managing multiple sets of books, trying to maintain consistency across entities, and spending hours consolidating results.

How Business Central solves the problem

Business Central uses a company structure where each legal entity operates as a separate company within the same system. Think of it as having multiple businesses within one database—each company maintains its own chart of accounts, customer lists, vendor records, and transaction history, but they all exist in a unified environment.

This approach offers the best of both worlds: complete separation when needed for legal reporting, different operational processes, or regulatory requirements, while maintaining the ability to view the big picture across your entire organization when desired.

The Company Hub feature provides that big picture. Instead of logging into separate systems or constantly switching between companies, you get a single dashboard that shows key metrics across all your entities. Need to check cash position across three subsidiaries? It’s available on one screen, not through three separate logins.

Master data: Enter once, use everywhere

One of the biggest time-wasters in multi-company environments is maintaining the same customer, vendor, or product information across multiple systems. Business Central’s Master Data Synchronization eliminates this problem. Designate one company as your master source, and the system automatically pushes updates to your other companies. Add a new vendor once, and it appears everywhere you need it. Update pricing, and all entities get the change.

Multi-currency: Beyond basic conversions

If you’re doing international business today, you’re likely dealing with currency management in one of two ways: Either you’re performing manual conversions in spreadsheets, or you have basic currency support that still requires significant manual intervention. Both approaches are error-prone and time-consuming.

What multi-currency support looks like in Business Central

Business Central treats multi-currency as a core feature, not an add-on. Here’s what that means in practice:

Your business operates in a base currency (often called Local Currency), but you can transact in any currency you need. For example, when you receive a payment in euros, invoice a customer in British pounds, or pay a vendor in Japanese yen, the system handles it automatically. Every transaction is recorded in both the original transaction currency and your base currency.

Automated Exchange Rates keep your conversions up to date. Instead of manually looking up rates and entering them, Business Central can connect to exchange rate services that automatically update rates daily, weekly, or as frequently as you need. The system applies the correct rate based on transaction dates, eliminating a common source of errors.

The revaluation reality

Here’s a scenario every international business faces: You invoice a customer in euros on March 1st for €100,000. By March 31st, the exchange rate has changed. How much is that receivable actually worth in your base currency now?

Using a manual system, you track this in spreadsheets and make manual adjustments. Business Central’s Adjust Exchange Rates process does this automatically. It revalues your foreign currency balances, calculates unrealized gains and losses, and updates your financials accordingly. It’s not just about compliance—it gives you accurate financial positions in real-time.

Dual-currency reporting

Some businesses need to view their finances in more than one currency. Maybe you’re a U.S. subsidiary of a European parent that reports in euros. Or you operate in a country with currency instability and want to track performance in a stable currency as well.

Business Central’s Additional Reporting Currency feature allows you to maintain your books in two currencies simultaneously. Every transaction posts to both currencies in real-time, giving you financial statements in both currencies without additional processing. This isn’t just currency conversion at reporting time—it’s genuine dual-currency accounting.

Intercompany transactions: Stop the double entry

Suppose your companies regularly transact with each other. In that case, things can become complicated: Company A records a sale, Company B records a purchase, and someone (usually at month-end) spends hours ensuring they match and are properly eliminated. It’s duplicate work that adds no value.

Automated intercompany processing

Business Central fundamentally changes this workflow. When Company A creates an intercompany transaction, the system can automatically create the corresponding entry in Company B. A single person enters the transaction, and both companies’ books are updated correctly.

This works because Business Central establishes intercompany relationships between your companies. Each company is designated as a partner, and the system knows which customers and vendors are actually your own companies. When you post an intercompany sale, Business Central routes the transaction data to the partner company, where it automatically creates the matching purchase entry.

The time savings are substantial. What used to take days of reconciliation work now happens automatically. More importantly, intercompany accounts always balance because they’re created from the same source transaction.

Flexibility in implementation

Business Central accommodates different organizational structures. If all your companies are in the same Business Central environment, the system handles transfers through the database. If companies are in different environments (perhaps you have separate cloud tenants for other regions), Business Central uses secure API connections. And if you need more control or have companies outside Business Central, you can export and import transaction files.

Consolidation: The monthly close just got easier

Every multi-company organization faces this challenge: You need consolidated financial statements, but each subsidiary has different account structures, operates in different currencies, and closes its books on different schedules. The consolidation process becomes a multi-week ordeal.

Built-in consolidation capabilities

Business Central includes consolidation functionality as a standard feature. You establish a consolidated company (your parent or holding company), define each subsidiary as a business unit, and specify how its financial data should flow into the consolidated entity.

The power here is in flexibility. Your subsidiaries don’t need identical account structures—Business Central maps their accounts to the consolidated chart of accounts. They can also operate in different currencies—the system translates these using methods you specify. You can even consolidate partial ownership (if you own 60% of a subsidiary, you consolidate 60% of the subsidiary’s results).

Currency translation methods that make sense

When consolidating companies with different currencies, you need different translation methods for different account types. Business Central provides the approaches accountants actually use:

• Income statements typically translate at average rates for the period—Business Central calculates this for you.
• Balance sheet accounts translate at period-end closing rates, giving you the current value of assets and liabilities.
• Retained earnings require a composite approach (current period income plus prior period balances at different rates)—Business Central handles this complexity automatically.
• Specific transactions may need historical rates—the system accommodates this too.

You’re not locked into one approach; you specify the translation method for each account based on accounting standards and business requirements.

Making consolidation a repeatable, auditable process

Once consolidation is configured, it becomes a repeatable process. Run it monthly, quarterly, or as needed. The system tracks which exchange rates were used, allowing you to reproduce previous consolidations exactly if questions arise. And if you need to rerun a consolidation after corrections, Business Central maintains rate consistency to ensure accurate comparative reporting.

What this means for your business

If you’re currently managing multiple companies without an integrated ERP, you’re likely experiencing:

• Hours of duplicate data entry across companies
• Days spent on intercompany reconciliations each month
• Manual currency conversions and error-prone spreadsheet calculations
• Week-long consolidation processes that delay reporting
• Limited visibility across your organization requiring multiple system logins
• Compliance risks from manual processes and lack of audit trails

The question isn’t whether Business Central can handle multi-company and multi-currency operations—it’s whether you want to continue managing these processes manually.

Considerations for implementation

While Business Central’s capabilities are robust, successful implementation requires proper planning:

• Define your structure early. How will you organize companies? What will your intercompany relationships look like? Which company will serve as your consolidation parent? These decisions impact your entire implementation.
• Consider your currencies carefully. Which currencies do you transact in regularly? How will you maintain exchange rates? Do you need additional reporting currencies? These choices affect daily operations.
• Plan your consolidation approach. What translation methods will you use? How will account mapping work? What’s your ownership structure? Getting this right from the start saves rework later.
• Think about your processes. Will you use automatic intercompany posting or require approval? How often will you run a currency revaluation? What’s your consolidation schedule? Business Central is flexible, but you need to make informed choices.

Making the right decision

When evaluating ERP systems for multi-company and multi-currency operations, Business Central delivers enterprise-grade functionality without enterprise-level complexity or cost. It handles the technical heavy lifting—automated intercompany processing, currency translation, and consolidation—while remaining accessible for mid-market businesses.

The real value isn’t just in what the system can do; it’s in what your people won’t have to do manually anymore. Those hours spent on double-entry, reconciliation, and consolidation are available for analysis, planning, and value-added activities that actually grow your business.

Contact ArcherPoint by Cherry Bekaert to learn how Business Central can help your business manage multiple companies, multiple currencies, and intercompany consolidations.

Trending Posts