Running Irish and UK Companies in One NetSuite Account

A growing number of Irish companies trade into the UK through a UK company of their own, and plenty of UK groups run an Irish subsidiary. Running both on separate accounting packages works until someone asks for group figures, and then it becomes a spreadsheet exercise every month.

NetSuite OneWorld is designed for exactly this setup. Here is how the pieces fit together.

One account, a subsidiary per company

In OneWorld, each legal entity is a subsidiary with its own base currency, tax registration, fiscal calendar and legal details. An Irish company reports in euro, a UK company in sterling, and a parent sits above them for consolidation.

Users see the subsidiaries they are allowed to see. A UK finance assistant can work only in the UK company, while the group financial controller sees everything.

Currencies handled at the transaction

Every transaction is recorded in its own currency and in the subsidiary’s base currency. An Irish company invoicing a UK customer in sterling keeps both figures, and NetSuite revalues open balances at month-end using the rates you load or pull in automatically.

Realised and unrealised gains and losses post to the accounts you choose, so the currency effect is visible rather than buried in a spreadsheet adjustment.

Intercompany trading without double entry

When the Irish company sells to the UK company, NetSuite can create the matching purchase on the other side, and track intercompany balances so they agree. At month-end, intercompany elimination removes those internal sales and balances from group figures automatically.

The common failure here is designing intercompany too late. Decide early which flows exist (goods, services, management charges, loans) and how each is recorded, so the configuration matches how the group actually trades.

VAT on both sides of the border

Each subsidiary carries its own tax setup. The Irish company calculates Irish VAT and prepares figures for its returns on ROS, while the UK company handles UK VAT under its own rules. Sales between them, and to customers in the other jurisdiction, need the right tax treatment on each transaction, which is set through tax codes and customer and item settings.

Since the UK left the EU, goods moving between Ireland and Great Britain also carry customs considerations. Duty, freight and clearance charges can be allocated to the items that carried them through landed cost, so margins reflect what goods really cost to bring in.

Group reporting, from one source

With every subsidiary in one account, consolidated financial statements are a report, not a project. The same is true of group sales, margin by product across both companies, and stock across every location.

That is usually the moment the finance team notices the time it has back: no exports, no lookup tables, no reconciling two systems that were never designed to agree.

Getting the design right first

Most of the value comes from decisions made before configuration: how subsidiaries are structured, how intercompany works, which chart of accounts serves both companies, and how tax is applied to cross-border sales. Get those right and the rest is straightforward.

If you run, or are about to run, companies on both sides of the Irish Sea and want to talk through the design, book a free 20-minute consultation with one of our consultants.