I have 2 businesses with 2 seperate bank accounts. Can I run them both on quickbooks online

Hey there, adventuresinorga!

Welcome to QuickBooks Online! *throws confetti* We're so happy to have you! I really think you'll love it :) I'm really glad you asked me this, because this kind of question has a couple different aspects to it.

First, depending on how your businesses are classified with the government, you may be legally required to keep two separate sets of books for the businesses. You may want to check with an actual accountant on this point, as I'm definitely not one, and I wouldn't want you to get into legal trouble based on something I said! That would be terrible.


Secondly, you'll want to think if your businesses are really two entirely different businesses, or is one a subset of the other? Think of it this way - my dad is a contractor who does both kitchen remodels and builds decks and patios. He could have one set of books for remodeling, and one for decks, but instead, they're all a part of the same overall contracting business. Conversely, your organizing business may not be a part of your daycare business...or it may be!

Finally, do you plan on sending invoices or sales receipts to your customers? We can only have one business name in each QuickBooks Online subscription, so if your businesses have different names, that may be a consideration. 

So there you go! You can have two businesses involved in one set of books, but most people prefer to have separate sets of books to keep things easier and more separate. I hope this gets you what you need today, adventuresinorga!

Thanks IntuitMeg.    

One of my business can be legally run through my personal checking and the other is a registered business with separate bank accounts.   The registered business is the only one that I send invoices from.    Can this be done and if so how?  Also I tried to connect a business credit card to my account today and live in Canada - Quickbooks would only link to the US company which of course did not recognize by username or pass.   Newbie with a big, big headache tonight

Hi again adventuresinorga! - I had just typed you up a whole comment and then I clicked "Cancel" instead of "Comment"! Arg! Okay. So in terms of running your two businesses out of one set of books, I'm really going to have to refer you to a real accountant on this one. I'm far from an accountant, and I get really nervous when it comes to questions that could possibly have future tax or legal implications. I'm really sorry, but I just don't want to steer you wrong. Regarding the banking issue - what bank are you trying to connect to? Are you getting any kind of error message or error codes? You can reply to this post and I'll be able to get back to you as soon as I can - my shift ends in seven minutes, but I'll be more than happy to pick this back up tomorrow! :)

Hey IntuitMeg, it really is not an accounting issue.   If I can hook a personal account and a business account to Quickbooks online, that solves the issue.      As for the bank.   The cc is with Chase.ca but when I went to hook it up, Quickbooks only allows Chase.com which is US only.

Hi again adventuresinorga - QuickBooks Online will have no problem with you running both out of one set of books. It would probably be easiest if you were to use the Plus level of the program, as the Plus version has Location Tracking and will allow you to classify your transactions for either daycare or organizing. The reason I said that about legal reasons is because I know that in America, the IRS can be really restrictive with regulations around businesses and their books, but I really don't know how things are in Canada. If you feel that it will be okay to run both businesses out of one subscription, it can be done. QuickBooks Online won't tell you "no." In terms of connecting to your bank, I logged into one of my Canadian companies, went to Transactions > Banking, clicked +Add on the left, and entered "Chase" into the search and clicked "Find." The first result for me was Chase Canada. Have you tried connecting through that route? Maybe we could try connecting through that Chase Canada link, and let me know the results! :)