Is Quick Books right for me?

Yes, you can use QuickBooks to extract different reports depending on what kind of information you need, @Davejaydj. Let me provide details about how QuickBooks Online (QBO) works to help you determine what best fits your business needs.

QuickBooks can be a suitable option for consolidating your accounting processes into one platform because it allows you to manage multiple aspects of finance. This includes tracking income and expenses, handling invoices and receipts, managing and paying bills, and generating various reports. It offers multiple-user access which can be useful if a bookkeeper is involved.

It also supports multi-company management, which means you can track transactions for your different businesses and properties separately.

For your specific scenario, you can have as many companies as you'd like under the same QBO account allowing you to manage financial records for your property-related companies and personal finances separately. Each QBO account would have its own subscription, enabling you to have different fiscal year-ends as required. 

You can access them with the same sign-in info. This lets you quickly switch between companies so you can manage everything more efficiently. Refer to this article that details the process: Create or add another company file to QuickBooks Online

To learn more about the price and features offered in each QuickBooks plan, check out this link: Whatever your business needs, there's a plan for you. It also indicates answers to frequently asked questions. 

Be sure to let me know if you have concerns while working with QBO, @Davejaydj. I'm here to lend a helping hand. Have a good one!

@Davejaydj 

We are not VAT registered and do not employ anyone.

If you don't need to run any online services (e.g bank feed) or payroll or need to comply with MTD requirements, you can use an old QB Desktop with a non subscription license to manage multi company files.

Thanks for your response - no, I don't have to comply with MTD requirements. I don't know what you mean by a bank feed, though. The other thing is I would like our bookkeeping not to be all on a specific computer (at present an ageing laptop) but online somewhere so a bookkeeper, myself and my wife could all add records from whichever computer we are working from. Maybe I could start with a desktop version and then upgrade and import the records?

Hello Nicole

So, you say, " Each QBO account would have its own subscription, enabling you to have different fiscal year-ends as required." That sounds expensive!

Our property lets, holiday lets, art & author records are submitted at the end of January. Could they all be combined in a sole trader plan? Then, would we need two more sole trader plans for the two Ltd companies?

If you're looking for accessibility, you should have QBO Essentials to share with 2-3 people. One QB Online account for one company file. However, if your budget is limited, you have to sacrifice comfort. You can start using QB Desktop to lower startup costs and you can consider switching to QB Online or another cloud-based accounting application later.

It's best to separate your services rather than combine them into a single sole trader plan, @Davejaydj. I'd gladly explain how our subscriptions and sole trader business can benefit your taxes in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

Each subscription plan is for a single company to maintain clear financial records and tax obligations. This separation is essential for compliance and accurate reporting to authorities like HMRC.

If you want to manage multiple companies under one subscription, you can use class or location tracking for data consolidation. However, you'll need to manually segregate the financials for tax calculations and filings, as the subscription won't do this automatically.

For tax purposes, each company’s finances must be calculated and reported separately to HMRC. Using separate subscriptions for each business streamlines this process, reducing errors and ensuring compliance.

We recommend acquiring individual subscriptions for each company to streamline financial management and meet your tax obligations. For pricing and features of QuickBooks plans, visit this link: Whatever your business needs, there's a plan for you.

On the other hand, here are some articles to help you add more details to your report and keep your current settings for future use:

• Customise reports in QuickBooks Online
• Memorise reports in QuickBooks Online

Don't hesitate to click the Reply button below if you have other concerns about managing your sole trader business. I'm always here to help you. Have a good one.