Consolidation takes 12 days. Group CFO wants Day 5. The entity hierarchy lives in three places — the legal entity register, the ERP setup, and an Excel that the group controller maintains. FX translation runs in Excel with last-quarter's rates because the macro is broken. Equity-method investments are a manual JE every period because nobody knows where the share of associate income should land. Segment reporting is two days of reformatting after consolidation closes because the chart of accounts is not aligned across subsidiaries.
Consolidation Agent reads the Astral entity hierarchy directly, translates every subsidiary at the right rate, eliminates intercompany in one pass with Reconciliation Agent, calculates minority interest and equity-method investments, posts goodwill amortization, and generates the disclosure pack. Group close drops from 12 days to 6 — the operating brain, not the spreadsheet, runs the rollup.