Consolidate the history
Built consolidated historical results across all three entities and both currencies from a common starting point, resolving the intercompany and translation treatment before any forecast was attempted.
Selected work · 06
Financial modelling · Covenant reporting · Lender relations
Consolidating a cross-border group for its lender
Three entities and two currencies brought into a single model the bank could underwrite, then handed to the client’s finance team.
The situation
What was at stake.
The group operated through a Canadian company and two United States entities, reporting in two currencies. There was no consolidated view. Each time the bank asked for something, the numbers were assembled by hand from separate sets of records.
The lender needed consolidated historicals, a forecast it could rely on, and covenant calculations it could check. None of those existed in a form that could be sent.
The work
A focused path from problem to outcome.
Build the forecast on a consolidated base
Extended the model forward from the consolidated history rather than forecasting each entity separately and adding them together.
Calculate the covenants the way the agreement defines them
Built the fixed charge coverage and leverage tests to the definitions in the client’s own credit agreement, which differ from the standard formulas. A model that calculates covenants the textbook way can show compliance where the agreement shows a breach.
Refine the treatment of capital spend
Reworked capitalised repairs and maintenance to derive from movements in the original cost accounts rather than from an estimate, so the capital expenditure line reconciled to the balance sheet.
Deliver it in a form the bank could use
Prepared the model for submission to the lender and answered the credit team’s questions on the scenario assumptions behind it.
Hand it over
Trained the client’s controller and finance lead, who now load monthly trial balances and run the updates themselves.
Results
What changed.
3Entities consolidated into one model
2Currencies handled without manual adjustment
Agreement-definedCovenant calculations
Client-runMonthly model updates
The group can now produce consolidated reporting and covenant calculations on demand, in a form its lender accepts, without reassembling the numbers each time. The model went to the bank and supported the financing discussion it was built for.
Why this experience matters
Covenants are defined by the agreement, not the textbook.
Two lenders can use the same covenant name and mean different things by it. A model that calculates the standard version can show comfortable headroom where the agreement shows a breach. Building the tests to the language in the credit agreement itself is what makes a model usable in the conversation it was built for.
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