One portfolio view across every Xero or QuickBooks SPV

How we standardise charts of accounts, keep entities aligned, and deliver clean, drillable portfolio dashboards

If you manage property through multiple SPVs, you've probably lived this month-end routine:

• Export P&Ls from 8, 15, 40+ Xero or QuickBooks entities
• Paste into a master spreadsheet
• Fix account-name mismatches ("Rent", "Rental income", "Gross rent")
• Rebuild rollups because one SPV added a new account mid-month
• Reconcile intercompany movements manually
• Ship an investor pack... and immediately get asked, "Can you break this down by asset?"

This is the reality of SPV-based property portfolios: the structure that protects risk and simplifies financing can make reporting painfully complex.

The goal isn't just consolidation. It's a single portfolio view that stays reliable over time, with the ability to drill from portfolio -> asset/SPV -> account -> transaction, without rebuilding your spreadsheets every period.

This post explains the practical approach: standardise the chart of accounts, enforce alignment across entities, and produce clean, drillable dashboards-directly off Xero or QuickBooks.

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The real problem isn't "too many entities"

It's inconsistent financial language

When each SPV has its own Xero or QuickBooks file, small differences compound fast:

• One SPV books service charge income under "Other income"; another uses "Recoveries"
• Capex sometimes hits "Repairs & Maintenance", sometimes "Improvements"
• Finance costs live in different buckets
• Management fees are coded inconsistently across assets
• New accounts appear without warning during the year

Even if every SPV is "accurate" on its own, portfolio reporting becomes fragile because the portfolio is not speaking one chart of accounts.

And that's why spreadsheet consolidation becomes a recurring project instead of a repeatable process.

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What "one portfolio view" actually means

A proper portfolio view should give you:

Portfolio-level clarity

• Consolidated P&L, balance sheet, cash flow
• Portfolio KPIs (NOI, yields, gearing, occupancy, cash runway)
• Trends and variance explanations month-on-month

Drill-down you can trust

• Click NOI -> see which SPVs/assets drove the change
• Click an account -> see underlying journals/transactions
• Filter by asset, region, strategy, lender, PM, etc.

Consistency over time

• Same rollup logic every month
• Same definitions of income/opex/capex
• Controls for new accounts and miscodings

This is what we're building: a one-stop view across multiple Xero or QuickBooks entities (SPVs), powered by multi-entity consolidation and a standardised chart of accounts + mapping layer, with real estate metrics and scenario planning built on top.

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The foundation: a standardised portfolio chart of accounts

You can't consolidate cleanly until you decide what "clean" means.

A Portfolio Chart of Accounts (Portfolio COA) is your canonical structure-the one set of headings your board and investors expect.

Example categories you might standardise:

• Income

  • Gross rent
  • Recoveries / service charge income
  • Other income

• Operating expenses

  • Property management fees
  • Repairs & maintenance
  • Utilities
  • Insurance
  • Rates / taxes

• Net Operating Income (NOI)

• Capital expenditure

  • Refurb capex
  • Lifecycle capex
  • Letting / leasing capex

• Finance

  • Interest
  • Fees
  • Hedge costs

• Balance sheet

  • Cash
  • Deposits / prepayments
  • Payables / accruals
  • Debt balances

The win here is not "prettier accounts"-it's portfolio comparability:

• Asset A vs Asset B
• Region vs region
• Business plan vs business plan
• Actuals vs budget

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The mapping layer: how each Xero or QuickBooks SPV rolls up

In the real world, you rarely get every SPV perfectly aligned from day one. So you need a mapping layer that translates each SPV's Xero or QuickBooks accounts into your Portfolio COA.

Think of it as "account translation":

SPV account (Xero or QuickBooks) -> Portfolio reporting line

A simple example:

• "400 - Rental income" -> Gross rent
• "410 - Service charge income" -> Recoveries
• "520 - Cleaning" -> Utilities & services
• "610 - Repairs - reactive" -> Repairs & maintenance
• "810 - Bank interest" -> Finance costs

This is the difference between:

• Consolidation that breaks whenever an SPV is "different", and
• Consolidation that absorbs differences without losing meaning.

Key principle: mappings are explicit, not "best-effort"

A robust mapping approach:

• Flags unmapped accounts (nothing silently disappears)
• Highlights duplicate or conflicting mappings
• Makes changes auditable (who changed what and when)

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Entity alignment: keeping SPVs consistent after onboarding

Standardisation isn't a one-time setup. SPVs drift over time.

The practical solution is to introduce light governance that keeps entities aligned without slowing operations.

What "alignment" includes

• Naming conventions (entities, tracking categories, bank accounts)
• Portfolio account templates (recommended account codes and groupings)
• Controls on new account creation (flagging new accounts that need mapping)
• Month-end checks (reconciling cash, debt, intercompany, capex classification)

Why this matters

Without alignment, every month becomes a fresh consolidation exercise. With alignment, month-end becomes a repeatable workflow.

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Drillable dashboards: from headline numbers to transactions

Most investor packs fail in one place: when someone asks "why?"

Drillable dashboards solve this by keeping the "answers" connected to the source data.

What a drillable portfolio dashboard typically includes

• Portfolio overview

  • Revenue, opex, NOI, EBITDA (where relevant)
  • Cash balance, cash movements, runway
  • Debt summary, interest cost, covenant headroom

• By SPV / by asset

  • Contribution analysis: what moved and where
  • Ranking: best/worst performers

• By account

  • Consistent account definitions across every entity

• Transaction drill-through

  • Journals and postings that explain variances

The outcome: you can run portfolio reviews without sending 12 separate P&Ls around or reopening the spreadsheet rabbit hole.

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The "clean consolidation" checklist

When teams say they want consolidation, they usually want these outcomes:

1) No manual copy/paste

The portfolio view should refresh from the underlying Xero or QuickBooks entities.

2) Consistent KPIs and definitions

NOI means the same thing across every SPV.

3) Confidence checks

You can reconcile:

• Portfolio cash = sum of SPV cash
• Debt = sum of SPV debt
• Intercompany positions are visible and explainable
• Unmapped accounts are surfaced

4) Auditability

When a mapping changes, you can see:

• what changed
• who changed it
• from what date it applies

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Implementation approach: how teams usually roll this out

A practical rollout avoids boiling the ocean.

Phase 1: Establish the Portfolio COA

Define:

• reporting lines
• KPI definitions (NOI, capex classification, finance costs)
• required dimensions (asset, region, strategy)

Phase 2: Map your first wave of SPVs

Start with 3-5 entities:

• build mappings
• validate reports vs Xero or QuickBooks outputs
• refine definitions before scaling

Phase 3: Scale and govern

Bring in remaining SPVs, and add:

• controls for unmapped/new accounts
• consistent month-end workflow
• portfolio dashboards and investor pack structure

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Why this matters for real estate operators and investors

A clean portfolio view changes decision-making speed.

Instead of asking:

• "Can finance consolidate these numbers by Friday?"

You can ask:

• "If occupancy drops 3 points in two assets, how does that affect cash and covenants?"
• "Which refurb programmes are actually lifting NOI?"
• "Where is cost creep happening, and is it structural or one-off?"

Once the portfolio is standardised and aligned, FP&A and scenario planning become dramatically easier to do well-because you're working with a consistent data model, not a patchwork of spreadsheets.

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Want to see what a single portfolio dashboard looks like across your Xero or QuickBooks SPVs? Book a walkthrough and we'll show how consolidation, mapping, and drill-down works in practice.

Create a single portfolio view across every Xero or QuickBooks SPV by standardising charts of accounts, mapping entities cleanly, and delivering drillable dashboards.