Offshore Bookkeepers guide

Intercompany recharge review with Philippines bookkeeping support

Keep intercompany recharges traceable by giving a Philippines bookkeeper the source, allocation, counterparty, and confirmation steps for each balance.

Keep intercompany recharges traceable by giving a Philippines bookkeeper the source, allocation, counterparty, and confirmation steps for each balance.

The short answer

  • Identify the service, period, allocation basis, and counterparty before posting.
  • Confirm both sides independently and track differences by age.
  • Keep legal-entity and tax judgments with the authorized finance team.

Define the recharge basis

Record the client-approved agreement, participating entities, covered period, service or cost being recharged, source costs, allocation key, approved markup rule, currency, and named approver before calculating a recharge. If the basis is missing or conflicts with the source records, hold the line as an exception rather than choosing a method.

Build the schedule from evidence

Link source invoices, payroll or vendor costs, time records, and the approved allocation. Record assumptions separately so the reviewer can challenge them without rebuilding the entire calculation.

Show the allocation in a bridge

If Entity A paid a shared software invoice, the workpaper should show the source bill, service period, allocation driver, each entity’s share, any currency conversion, and the proposed intercompany entry. A Philippines bookkeeper can calculate the documented split and flag an unsupported markup. The entity owners approve the basis and treatment.

Post both sides deliberately

Use matching references, dates, currencies, and counterparty names. A support role can prepare or post under a documented rule, but an entity owner should approve a new basis or unusual balance.

Match and confirm both sides

Compare the sender’s recharge receivable with the recipient’s payable, including the invoice number, amount, currency, and period, and request confirmation from the other entity. A difference may arise from timing, an exchange-rate choice, or a missing entry; do not force the accounts to agree by overwriting one side. Preserve correspondence, confirmations, and unresolved differences in the shared reconciliation file, and route policy questions to the authorized finance reviewer.

Age the exceptions

Sort differences by period and cause: timing, missing invoice, currency, duplicate, coding, or disputed allocation. Escalate old items and policy questions instead of rolling them forward without explanation.

Prepare the consolidation handoff

The final pack should show the schedule, entries, confirmations, open items, and reviewer decision. That gives a controller the evidence needed for close while preserving entity-level accountability.

Questions owners ask

What can the bookkeeper do?

They can prepare the recharge schedule, post approved entries, compare both ledgers, and track confirmations. Entity owners or controllers should approve policy and tax treatment.

How should a difference be handled?

Record the amount, entity, period, source, likely cause, owner, and next action rather than forcing both ledgers to agree.

Keep planning