Case Study · Manufacturing
Multi-Entity Manufacturing Company
How a manufacturer with 12 entities eliminated reporting silos and gave leadership a single source of truth — reducing errors by 90%.
90%
fewer reporting errors
12
entities consolidated
JD Edwards
ERP environment
The Challenge
This mid-market manufacturer operates 12 separate legal entities across multiple states, each with slightly different chart of accounts structures, cost centers, and reporting requirements. All entities run on JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, but the reporting processes had evolved independently — creating silos that made consolidated reporting painful.
Each entity's controller maintained their own set of Excel-based reports. Month-end consolidation required the corporate accounting team to manually collect, normalize, and merge outputs from all 12 entities. Intercompany eliminations were handled in a separate spreadsheet. And the final consolidated package often took 3-4 days to produce after all entities had closed.
The error rate was unsustainable. Mismatched account mappings, inconsistent hierarchies, and manual data entry errors meant that the team frequently had to restate or correct numbers after they'd already been distributed to leadership. Trust in the reporting process was eroding.
The Solution
The company implemented Cetova's C-FAR across all 12 entities with a centralized governance model. Cetova's native JD Edwards integration meant the platform could read each entity's data directly, applying consistent definitions and hierarchies regardless of local chart of accounts differences.
Key implementation steps included:
- Unified hierarchy management — Cetova's hierarchy engine reads JDE level-of-detail and category codes to create consistent rollup structures across all entities, eliminating the manual mapping spreadsheets.
- Automated consolidation — scheduled reports that pull from all 12 entities, apply intercompany eliminations, and produce consolidated financial statements without manual intervention.
- Entity-level drill-through — leadership can see the consolidated view and drill down to any individual entity's detail, maintaining full context throughout the navigation.
- Role-based access — entity controllers see their own data; corporate finance sees everything; leadership sees the consolidated view with drill-through.
The Results
90% fewer reporting errors
Governed definitions and automated calculations eliminated the manual entry and formula errors that had plagued the consolidation process.
Consolidation in hours, not days
What previously took 3-4 days of manual work now runs automatically, producing consolidated outputs within hours of entity close.
Single source of truth
One governed reporting layer replaced dozens of independent spreadsheets, ensuring everyone works from the same definitions and data.
Restored leadership confidence
Numbers delivered to leadership are accurate, consistent, and defensible — no more caveats, corrections, or restatements.
See how Cetova handles multi-entity reporting
Whether you have 3 entities or 30, Cetova scales to deliver governed, consolidated reporting without the manual work.