Can quickbooks online handle a parent company with subsidiaries? Or do you need the desktop version?

Thank you for adding a post, @userversventures20.

Allow me to share with you some information about managing companies with QuickBooks.

QuickBooks Online (QBO) only allows one company per subscription. For the additional companies, you need to purchase another plan. With the QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) version, yes, you can create multiple company files in one subscription.

Here's how:

1. Open QBDT, then select New Company from the File menu.
2. Set an option on Who are you creating the company for?.
3. Select how you want to create the file or click on Start Setup.
4. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process.

For additional tips, I recommend checking out the instructions from this article: Create a QuickBooks Desktop company file.

I'm also adding our QuickBooks Plan and Pricing links for more options you can choose that's best your business needs:

• Choose your QuickBooks Desktop product.
• Choose the plan that's right for your business

Please feel free to post again if you have any additional questions, I always have your back. Happy weekend!

@userversventures20 

Consider using QB Desktop Enterprise. It has the consolidating feature. You may purchase the license thru a partner to get up to 20% off perpetual discount for renewal. You may deploy a private cloud should you need to access your company file by internet connection.

A little advice... Create the company for the parent or use the current one and make classes. Classes are used for divisions within a company, so in theory, subsidiaries are divisions of a company. When you do transactions, place a class under it/ whatever company it belongs to. When you run reports and need it for the companies named as a class, choose the class and it will pull the report for that. Works for me. Its a workaround, but is a little different. Saves money and time having to switch back and forth between companies. Also helps with tax time when you need financials for all companies within the corporation for the corporate tax.

Hi can I ask you a little more about this? 

Hi what if the companies have different EINs and charges and bank accounts? How does classes work for that? 

Allow me to chime in on this conversation, Janelle. I'm here to answer your queries regarding class tracking for companies that have subsidiaries with diverse EINs, banks, and charges.

If you have a company with subsidiaries and have independent EINs, it's advisable to have separate QuickBooks Online (QBO) subscriptions to manage them. Also, it's essential to know that one business is equal to one QBO plan.

However, if you have other subcompany with the same EIN with the parent, that's the time when the class or location tracking is applicable. Take note that classes in QBO are only intended to represent meaningful parts of your company, like store departments or product lines. With this, I recommend seeking assistance from an accounting professional to keep your books accurate.

You can set up separate classes for each company based on their respective, charges, and bank accounts. To use the feature, kindly turn on the class tracking from the Accounts and settings. Then, follow the steps I've laid out below to add a new class:

1. Go to the Gear icon and then All list.
2. Select Classes and click New.
3. Enter a name for this class. Also, you can add a sub-class by ticking the Is a sub-class option and choosing its parent class.
4. Once ready, hit Save.

Afterward, you can apply classes to your transactions by selecting them from the Class field. For more information about organizing the feature, kindly access this link: Create and manage classes in QuickBooks Online.

Moreover, if you want to categorize data from different locations, branches, regions, or divisions of the same company, you can utilize the location tracking in the program. Here's an article for reference: Set up and use location tracking in QuickBooks Online.

Finally, you may run a balance sheet report by class or location in QBO. It can help you review your business stability in a given period.

Tag me on this thread if you have follow-up questions about class tracking with different banks, charges, or EINs or whenever you need assistance managing your transactions and reports. I'll be here to help you every step of the way.

Hey thank you! I will check this out. It's super interesting to have them all in one place. I have a new client who has the parent company we set it up with all different subscriptions but this might be nice to have within the parent to see the inter company transactions and for reports. I just wouldn't want it to hit the parent company books. I will keep in touch. @Ivan_G