Alternatives to multiple companies

If you answered no to most or all of the questions in Company Structure Recommendations section, then it is a good indicator that you only need to define a single company. See Company structure recommendations. You might be wondering, however, how you will be able to get reports and inquiries that reflect your organizational structure without the use of multiple companies. Lawson provides options for customizing your company structure without defining additional companies.

Accounting units	Accounting units provide an alternative way to include multiple legal entities in a single general ledger company. Define any portion of your organization as a summary level accounting unit. One company can include multiple legal entities, each defined as an accounting unit.
Zones	A zone represents a group of company accounting units that stay in balance when transactions are transferred between defined zone areas. The number of zones in a company is equal to the number of accounting units at level one in the company. If your organization requires multiple balanced balance sheets, then you can divide one company into zones and define interzone relationships to make sure each zone remains in balance. See What Is a Zone?.
Attributes	Use attributes to develop alternative views of a company for inquiry and reporting. This enables you to use accounting units for primary reporting requirements, but still have the option to view information from another perspective such as by region, type of business, or manager. Attributes provide an effective way to manage organization information that tends to change frequently, such as sales territories. With attributes, you can make these changes without having to redefine the company structure. See Using Attribute Matrix attributes.
Report currency	You can have up to two report currencies for a company. Report currency is a nonbase currency that is used for reporting and analysis. For example, your base currency is US dollars, but you also need create reports in British pounds. See the Currency User Guide for details.
Multi-Ledger	The Multi-Ledger application provides an alternative to creating a separate company for the purpose of holding elimination or adjustment entries. Multi-Ledger lets you maintain parallel books to handle these entries. Multiple ledgers are assigned to an accounting unit and account or to an account, with a ledger representing the consolidating entity.