When community accounting is called consolidation

Accounting is a verb and I love conjugation. My daughter is currently learning French as well and I help her with all the verbs and conjugation. My favorite one, of course, is the verb “ to count”. In French, to count also translate into “to matter”, which makes sense, because you would not spend time counting or recording things that do not matter.

Je compte - I count - I matter

Tu comptes - You count - You matter

Il compte - He counts - He matters

Nous comptons - We count - We matter

Vous comptez - You count - You matter

Elles comptent - They count - They matter

Whoever can count is/ can be an accountant. We count our assets, and our monies and more is always better than less and as such more assets, or more balance sheets are better than one balance sheet. A lonely balance sheet is a sad, sad thing. (I am purposely ignoring more problems, more liabilities, or joint liabilities). The act of counting together is also more rewarding than counting alone. Community accounting is the equivalent of “Unity is Strength” (L’union fait la force - is also a Haitian motto and inscribed in the Haitian flag).

We count, we matter, we get together and we consolidate. Per Google, consolidation is the action or process of making something stronger or more solid or the action or process of combining a number of things into a single more effective, or coherent whole. In accounting, consolidation is the process of combining financial data from several subsidiaries or business entities within an organization and rolling it up to a parent company for reporting purposes.

Last week, I acquired a new understanding of community and consolidation that I will share with you in the next paragraphs.

On Monday, at the first event, the Digital CPA (in Austin) was a congregation of accounting professionals to discuss innovation in the accounting world, with a significant focus on streamlining client advisory services(CAS 2.0). The event was hosted by the AICPA and gathered many small and medium-sized accounting firms. It was my first time getting so close to the organization that reigned and accredited my professional life for multiple decades, to be honest, I don't even know where my AICPA certificate is. A select group of vendors providing software, tools, and services were also in attendance, however, the event was not about selling but about a futuristic view of accounting. All the attendees were part of a community, related to our common accounting profession, and our purpose of clients' services and support. Support for businesses, support for organizations, support for individuals. Even though they all spoke my language, I felt lonely on the first day. My balance sheet was lonely. I had succumbed to my inevitable routine of manually counting all the Black and other diverse attendees and as usual, representation was scarce.

On Tuesday, when I started to get over myself on the second day after reconciling (once again) with the fact that I was the representation, I met other representatives of my melanated group. It was a pure Black Girl Magic moment that made up for all the adequacies. For me, there is nothing better than meeting and talking with other fierce and well-rounded Black female professionals. We were the representation, we consolidated, and we mattered, together.

On Wednesday, I went to the Chief flagship location in NYC and joined a group of Black female executives. We shared our tribulations, our achievements, our observations, our hesitations, and our findings. They were not accountants, but they were leaders, professionals, wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends, all facing the same implicit biases in the journey to break this elusive glass ceiling. We bonded over cocktails, and wine and hugged each other to fit in the needed selfies. Each one of these ladies is a balance sheet filled with determination, resilience, and wisdom, each one could recite a story of survival and deception. All of us together mattered with our consolidated conviction that we were in the right place at the right time.

On Thursday, I woke up early for a breakfast with the beautiful ladies of my organization. It was my first time meeting most of them. Remote work doesn’t make it easy for personal connection and as one of the elders in the group, I felt accomplished sharing how I manage my calendar between team meetings, gymnastic classes, and soccer practices. My cup got filled up while I was filling up their cups and reassuring them that our soft voices together could fill up the rooms and command armies. And although there were no written promises, our unspoken solidarity was the only hope needed for a consolidated future of wealth and success.

That night, I wore my uncomfortable high heels and the dress that looked better when I tried it for my daughters and attended Ramp's holiday party. It was fun, and light and I forgot (again) how a terrible dancer I am when I went to the floor. I moved my stiff body to the sound of the music joining the community, one that just liked a good party and some good music and for a couple of hours, race, sex, and age did not matter. We were just a consolidated group of bodies moving to the sound of music. We were only physical balance sheets, vibrating, shaking, profusely sweating, and somewhat indifferent to embarrassment. Nothing mattered, except, of course, that amazing DJ.

On Friday night, I returned home and rejoined the family unit. I was tired and was nursing a headache from a lack of sleep and forced socialization. It didn’t help that my face looked strange from too many forced smiles (I suffer from RBF and overly compensate with 😁 ). I was made whole again with my little community and refilled my supplies of hugs, cuddles, and dog licks.

Community is indeed about consolidation, and last week, I navigated all these communities where I was able to consolidate my assets with others; it felt great. I am grateful to Ramp for providing me with all these opportunities. Additionally, I realized that consolidation in accounting is about belonging and acceptance. It is also about parenting, support, common affiliations, common traits, structures, opinions, heritages, and cultures. It is about rolling and combining into one. In consolidation accounting, inter-company accounts, amounts owed from companies to others eliminate, and contributions and investments made by the parents to the subsidiary also eliminate. And the results are beautiful consolidated balance sheets and income statements.

And the other best thing about last week is that once again, I was able to indulge in one of my (monthly) guilty pleasures. I run the consolidation module (my privilege) at the end of our accounting close and got my monthly professional orgasm when all the entities and inter-company accounts were properly consolidated.

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