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.