3 must-read consolidation accounting books

There aren’t many books out there about consolidation accounting. Here are 3 must-reads for anyone heading up consolidation accounting.

The Art of M and A Integration: A Guide to Merging Resources, Processes and Responsibilities by Alexandra Reed Lajoux

This gem tackles a very challenging part of consolidation accounting - the initial stages after an acquisition or a merger. All the decisions that need to be taken during the first consolidation can be challenging to navigate.
This book is not only theoretical research – it contains many real-life examples and decisions describing how they impacted mergers and acquisitions and features cases from dozens of executives who have been involved in the process. They share their experiences, successes and failures, and allow the readers to delve into their hindsight.
It’s like a private conversation with the executives behind mergers and acquisitions of world conglomerates like NationsBank and Lockheed Martin.

Financial Shenanigans: How to Detect Accounting Gimmicks & Fraud in Financial Reports, Third Edition by Howard M. Schilit and Jeremy Perler

If you want to become good at spotting whether any of your subsidiaries are manipulating their accounting data, this one is for you. Dubbed the "Sherlock Holmes of Accounting" by BusinessWeek, Howard Schilit and forensic accounting expert Jeremy Perler take you deep into the analysis of corporate trickery and ‘adjustments’ that mislead investors into thinking a company is performing better than it is.

This is a great book for any consolidation accountant and CFO because it helps professionals learn how to follow accounting forensic evidence to discover data manipulation. In consolidation accounting, the same approach will teach accountants and CFOs to identify the mistakes that affect reporting. Financial Shenanigans gives a deep understanding of how data changes and adjustments affect the overall reporting and it will teach you how to minimise errors in inter-company consolidation.

The Complete Guide to Mergers and Acquisitions: Process Tools to Support M&A Integration at Every Level (Jossey-Bass Professional Management) by Timothy J. Galpin

Described as the ultimate guide to post-merger and acquisitions, this book will take you into a deep dive into the processes and tools necessary to rapidly (and effectively) integrate new companies.
Poor integration puts the financial goals of the acquisition at huge risk. The book addresses issues that are key to financial consolidation such as due diligence, integration management, team dynamics and common mistakes. The updated latest edition contains new information and tools to help groups of companies in any industry, of any size.

Find yourself a quiet corner and read up!

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