QuickBooks multiple companies: does each entity need its own file?

Can you have multiple companies in QuickBooks Online?

Yes. Intuit's help article says you can add multiple companies under a single QuickBooks Online account and use the same sign-in for all of them. To add one, you pick a plan on the pricing page, sign in with your existing user ID and choose Create a New Company. To move between them, open Settings and select Switch company.

Does each company need its own subscription?

Yes. Intuit's wording is direct: "Each company you create requires its own separate paid subscription." Three entities on QuickBooks Online means three subscriptions, even when the same person signs in to all three.

What do the companies share, and what stays separate?

Only the sign-in. Intuit says the data in each company remains completely separate. In practice that means:

• Users. Someone set up in one company doesn't get access to the others. Invite them to each company.
• Bank and card connections. An account connected to one company isn't visible in another. Connect each bank account to the company it belongs to.
• Lists. You can move vendors, customers, inventory and the chart of accounts into a new company. After that, a change to a list in one company doesn't update the other.

Copying a whole company to start a new one is a QuickBooks Online Advanced feature, according to the same article.

Does each entity need its own QuickBooks company?

Usually, if the entities are separate legal entities. Each legal entity has its own tax ID and reports on its own, so each keeps its own books. A group with Denver LLC, Phoenix LLC and Portland LLC would normally run three companies.

If every location sits inside one entity, one company is enough. You tell locations apart inside it with classes or locations, and the comparison of QuickBooks classes and Xero tracking covers which to use. The structure question, one entity or an LLC per location, is a decision for your CPA and attorney.

Can QuickBooks Online combine several companies into one report?

Not on a standard plan. Each company reports on its own. Intuit sells consolidation as part of Intuit Enterprise Suite, whose multi-entity page describes consolidating every entity into one real-time view, a shared chart of accounts and automatic eliminations linked to the source transaction. Without it, groups combine the entities' reports outside QuickBooks and remove the intercompany amounts by hand. See multi-entity accounting.

Who manages several companies for a living?

Accountants and bookkeepers. Intuit's Accountant Suite (formerly QuickBooks Online Accountant) puts "all your client files in one place at no cost" on its Core plan. Intuit describes it as built for accounting firms.

What should a group with several entities set up first?

• One company per entity, named the way the entity is named on its tax filings.
• The same chart of accounts in each, so the entities' reports line up.
• Each entity's own bank account connected to its own company.
• Each entity's payments landing in that entity's account. Stripe requires a separate Stripe account for each legal entity, so a payment collected for Phoenix belongs in Phoenix's Stripe account and Phoenix's company. See Stripe and QuickBooks.

General information, not accounting or tax advice.