Financial consolidation for IBM Planning Analytics (TM1)
Every consolidation entry posts as a system journal you can trace to its balances.
CorClose runs the group consolidation inside your TM1 database, whether you already plan in Planning Analytics or are choosing it for planning and consolidation. Companies submit and lock their numbers through a guided workflow, and the group sees what is outstanding before it runs.
System journals
Investment eliminations, intercompany eliminations at the lowest common parent, currency translation, non-controlling interest and equity accounting post as system journals you can trace to the balances that produced them.
Submission workflow
Each company resolves its intercompany differences, then submits and locks its numbers; only the consolidator can unlock them. The group sees what is outstanding, and the results are marked out of date if anything changes after a run.
A maintained product
Built and supported by Cortell. The automated setup handles around 80% of the configuration on a new or existing model, and Model Updates add new versions to a live model without rebuilding it.
- Submissions - 7 of 9 submittedCompany submissions
- Journals to submit - All submitted
- Translation rates - Rates present for every company currency
- Intercompany differences - 2 out of balanceRecon report
- Intercompany eliminationsDone · 6 Oct 14:15
- Minority interestDone · 6 Oct 14:16
- Investment eliminationsDone · 6 Oct 14:17
- Currency translationDone · 6 Oct 14:12
- Full consolidationDone · 6 Oct 14:17
| 2026-09 | 2026-08 | |
|---|---|---|
| Intercompany | 3,612,300 18 jnl | 3,409,120 17 jnl |
| Minority interest | 301,880 3 jnl | 289,211 3 jnl |
| Investment | 2,700,000 2 jnl | 2,700,000 2 jnl |
- Consolidation checks1 of 14 failing· 6 Oct 14:18
- Retained earnings brought forward
- Consolidation proofs6 passed · 6 Oct 14:18
- 1
Group submission. How many companies have submitted, sub-group by sub-group, and who the group is waiting on.
- 2
Readiness to consolidate. Submissions, unsubmitted journals, missing rates and intercompany differences. Each is a count that links to the item in the way.
- 3
Out-of-date results. A company that submits after the last run marks the consolidated numbers out of date, and says which company.
- 4
Eliminations posted. Eliminations by type against last month, flagged when a type stops posting or its journals do not balance. The latest checks and proofs sit beside them.
30+ years building finance systems for multi-entity, multi-currency groups.
- IBM Business Partner, Partner Plus Silver
- IBM certified: Planning Analytics
- Chartered Accountant-led delivery
Whether you already run Planning Analytics or not
Add consolidation to the model you have
CorClose maps to your dimension names, adds the consolidation cubes and rules beside what is already there, and runs the consolidation on the model you use today.
- No rebuild and no data migration
- Your planning models keep working as they are
- No second system to reconcile against TM1
Planning and consolidation in one database
Cortell implements Planning Analytics and builds your planning model in it. CorClose builds and runs the consolidation on the same cubes. They are two products, licensed separately, that share one set of numbers.
- Budget versus actual comes from one database, with nothing to reconcile between systems
- Budget versions consolidate with the same eliminations and translation as actuals
- One Cortell team implements both
What changes in the month-end process
Whether the consolidation lives in Planning Analytics, a separate system or a workbook, the month-end process around it usually runs on email and spreadsheets.
| At month-end | Today | With CorClose |
|---|---|---|
| Collecting results | Trial balances arrive by email in different layouts. Someone rekeys or remaps them. | Each company imports its trial balance in one of two ways: a TM1 process that loads it directly from the ledger or trial balance system, or a template already filled with the company's own account codes. New accounts get mapped before anything reaches the group. |
| Intercompany | Differences surface at group level after the deadline and get chased by phone. | Each company sees its differences by partner and type on its own dashboard, and fixes them with a journal or a trial balance adjustment before it can submit. |
| Eliminations, translation and NCI | Prepared in a workbook and pasted back into TM1. Hard to review and hard to audit. | Calculated in the run and posted as system journals, each traceable to the balances that produced it. |
| Signing off | Manual comparison against last month. | Checks and proofs run in the application and name any line that does not tie. |
Each subsidiary's month-end, on one dashboard
A financial manager in Frankfurt or Singapore signs in and the close is in front of them. Each step of the submission has the button that does the work. Submit stays locked until the checks above it are clear, and once submitted, only the consolidator can reopen the period.
Intercompany reconciliation across currencies. The recon compares a euro balance with a Singapore dollar one by translating both at the period's rates, so the differences shown are genuine and not exchange rate effects.
Monthly income statement trend. Each month's own result against the year to date. An unusual month or a reversed sign is visible before the results reach group.
The consolidation logic, written down and run the same way every month
Every step is documented inside the application, in the words your team uses. When a number looks wrong, the guide says which attribute or rate drives it.
Intercompany eliminations
Matched by partner and posted at the lowest common parent of the two companies in your group structure. A partner outside the group produces no elimination, by design.
Currency translation
Closing and average rates by account method, historic accounts held at their locked values, and the translation difference posted to the reserve account you nominate.
Minority interest and equity accounting
Non-controlling interest from ownership per company and period, including sub-groups with outside shareholders. Associates and joint ventures are equity accounted in the same run.
Investment eliminations
Cost of investment against the subsidiary's equity, posted as system journals you can trace back.
Company and group journals
Draft, submit, post and reverse, with an optional approval step for each journal type. Where approvals are on, an author can never approve their own journal. The journal report exports in the layout reviewers expect.
Checks and proofs
The consolidation proof pack, rebuilt in the application. Proofs read live from TM1 and recalculate for any period, flagging the line that does not tie. Checks catch missing rates and blank attributes before they post the wrong number.
| Group | Currency | IC | Investment | Minority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| └ Americas | ||||
| └ Europe, Middle East and Africa | ||||
| └ Asia Pacific | ||||
| Meridian Group |
From a consolidated figure back to the journals and the calculation
Every consolidated value can be traced to the journals that make it up. An optional AI assistant explains how a figure was calculated, using the records CorClose keeps for each run.
The AI assistant is read-only. It cannot write to TM1, post journals or run a consolidation. It can use Claude, Gemini or a model you host yourself, and everything else in CorClose works without it.
Journal drill-down
Click a value on the consolidated income statement or balance sheet and see every journal behind it, by type, number and company. This is part of CorClose and works whether or not the AI assistant is switched on.
Explain a number Optional AI
Ask the assistant where a figure came from. It shows the calculation CorClose recorded in the last run: the rate used for a translation, the ownership percentage behind minority interest, the companies and accounts that contributed. CorClose produces the breakdown; the AI explains it in plain language.
Explain a failed check Optional AI
Checks and proofs pass or fail by arithmetic, without AI. Where an assistant is configured, it reads the failures and the description of each check, and suggests the likely cause and what to look at next.
Answers from the user guides Optional AI
How-to questions are answered from the CorClose user guides, and the answer names the guide it used.
| Account | 2026-09 | 2026-08 |
|---|---|---|
| Equity | ||
| Share capital | 5,000,000 | 5,000,000 |
| Retained earnings | 12,384,210 | 11,906,455 |
| Foreign currency translation reserve | (412,560) | (398,904) |
| Equity attributable to owners | 16,971,650 | 16,507,551 |
| Non-controlling interest | 301,880 | 289,211 |
| Total equity | 17,273,530 | 16,796,762 |
| Liabilities | ||
| Borrowings | 8,250,000 | 8,500,000 |
| Trade and other payables | 4,118,340 | 3,962,115 |
| Total liabilities | 12,368,340 | 12,462,115 |
Non-controlling interest of 301,880 is the outside shareholders’ share of two partly owned subsidiaries. It was posted by the Minority interest step in the last full run (6 Oct 14:16).
Meridian Pacific Pte Ltd contributes 225,120, which is 20% of its equity. Andes Distribución SA contributes 76,760, which is 25% of its equity. The two lines add up to the reported value.
| Type | Company | Formula / inputs | Journal | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minority | Meridian Pacific Pte Ltd | equity × NCI % 1,125,600 × 20% | MI 0031 | 225,120 |
| Minority | Andes Distribución SA | equity × NCI % 307,040 × 25% | MI 0032 | 76,760 |
How CorClose compares with the alternatives
Groups that use or are choosing Planning Analytics usually consolidate in one of three ways: in a second consolidation system that has to be fed and reconciled back to the plan, in spreadsheets, or in custom TM1 rules where adjustments happen with no journal behind them. This is what each option involves, beside CorClose.
Implement a separate consolidation platform
A dedicated consolidation application with its own data model, usually alongside a separate planning tool. Actuals are loaded into both, and budget-versus-actual reporting means reconciling numbers between two databases.
Build consolidation in TM1 yourself
Custom rules and TurboIntegrator processes can do the calculation. Collecting results, reviewing intercompany balances and approving adjustments still happen outside the system, by email and spreadsheet. Adjustments calculated in rules have no journal behind them, and the logic is documented only as well as the developer documents it.
Continue with spreadsheets
No additional software cost. Eliminations, translation and minority interest are prepared by hand, depend on the few people who understand the workbook, and leave no audit trail in the system.
Run CorClose on Planning Analytics
A separate application that adds the consolidation calculations and the submission workflow to the same cubes your planning uses. Every consolidation entry posts as a system journal. Nothing is copied between systems, TM1 stays the system of record, and existing Planning Analytics clients migrate no data.
Coming from another consolidation system, or from Excel?
We load your entity and account structures and your historical results into Planning Analytics, consolidate them in CorClose, and reconcile the output against the figures you previously reported. You move across once the two agree.
Set up on your existing model, or on a new one
On an existing model, CorClose validates your dimension mapping, proposes the cubes and adds only what consolidation needs. On a new model, it builds the dimensions and cubes for you. Either way it creates the rules, attributes, period dimension and currency rate measures automatically.
The real work is your master data. Provisioning creates the attributes; your team fills them in, and the checks list every one still blank.
| CorClose slot | Your TM1 dimension | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Legal Entity | Mapped |
| Account | GL Account | Mapped |
| Period | Month | Mapped |
| Version | Scenario | Mapped |
| InterCompany | Counterparty | Mapped |
| Currency | Currency | Mapped |
| Dim1 | Cost Centre | Optional |
Upgrades that respect a live close. Model Updates pushes new rules, subsets and attributes to a model that already holds data. Anything needing a decision is reported in the application with the steps to take. No re-provisioning mid-year.
Runs on your servers, next to your TM1
The questions your IT team will ask in the first meeting, answered here.
Ask for the architecture brief- Deployment
- On-premise, as Docker containers on your own server. Users work in the browser.
- TM1 connection
- Your existing Planning Analytics instance, over the TM1 REST API with SSL.
- Sign-in
- Local accounts, or single sign-on through your identity provider (OIDC).
- Audit trail
- An activity log of sign-ins and changes, kept as long as your auditors need. Optional journal approvals with segregation of duties. Submission locks per company and period.
- Your data
- Financial data stays in your TM1 and your network. The optional AI assistant is read-only, and can run on a self-hosted model if nothing may leave your environment.
- Licence check
- An outbound HTTPS check-in to Cortell's licence service. It sends user counts, plus usage and error counts only if you opt in. No financial data, names or email addresses.
Software, implemented by the people who wrote it
Cortell installs CorClose, connects it to your model and supports your finance team through the first month-end closes. The same team provides support after go-live.
The team includes Chartered Accountants who also build in Planning Analytics. When your auditors ask how a figure was calculated, such as minority interest on a partly owned sub-group, the person who configured it can explain it.
Questions finance and IT teams ask us
Is CorClose part of IBM Planning Analytics?
No. CorClose is a separate application built by Cortell. It runs on IBM Planning Analytics and keeps its consolidation data in your TM1 database. The two are licensed separately, and Cortell can supply both.
How is this different from other consolidation add-ons for Planning Analytics?
Most ship a predefined model and ask you to move your data into it. CorClose maps to the model you have, then runs the full consolidation on it, from each subsidiary's trial balance to the consolidated result.
What does setup not do for us?
Your accounting decisions. Account codes for the translation reserve, retained earnings and NCI, ownership percentages and exchange rates are yours to supply. CorClose never guesses an account code, and its checks list whatever is still missing.
We are reworking our reporting for IFRS 18. Is this the right time?
IFRS 18 applies to annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027, and most listed groups are re-cutting their reporting layer now. If the consolidation process is being opened up anyway, it is a sensible moment to fix how it runs. Talk to us about both together.
How long does implementation take?
Setup is fast. The automated setup handles around 80% of the work: connecting to TM1, mapping your model and building the consolidation structures. The rest differs from client to client, depending on your requirements. Most of that time goes into master data, attributes and a parallel close, so it depends on the size of the group and the state of the data.
What if IBM changes Planning Analytics?
CorClose writes ordinary TM1 cubes, rules and attributes, and talks to TM1 through its REST API. Your consolidation stays readable in TM1 with or without CorClose, and Cortell tracks IBM releases as an IBM Business Partner.
Does the AI assistant change any numbers?
No. It is read-only and optional. It explains figures from the calculation records CorClose keeps, explains failed checks, and answers questions from the user guides. It cannot write to TM1, post journals or run a consolidation. You choose the provider: Claude, Gemini, or a model you host yourself if no data may leave your network.
Book a demo
Thirty minutes with a consultant who has run a Planning Analytics close, on video or by phone. We will reply within one business day to find a time.
- We ask how your close runs today and where it stalls
- We show the company and group dashboards on a working model
- If it is not a fit, we will say so
Thank you. We have your request.
Someone from the CorClose team will reply within one business day to arrange a time.