Consolidating company accounting functions

So we need to be able to fully understand group accounts.

The consolidation of business activities reduces operational redundancies and eliminates superfluous staff and administrative functions.We also need to appreciate the important legal distinction between the various different companies in a group, and the group as a whole. Different sets of accounts are used for different purposes.The individual accounts show the position and the performance of each individual company, but not the group as a whole.Some large businesses organise themselves as a single company.More frequently, a larger business will be organised as a group of companies.