Putting 4 LLC companies together on line

Good day to you, @fa66.

I'm here to share with you some information on how QuickBooks Online (QBO) works with your company files.

Usually, each business entity must have one company file or account in QuickBooks Online for tax reporting purposes. It's not ideal to put them into one since each LLC will have its own tax ID. Combining them may cause mixed transactions or taxes when reporting to the IRS.

If your reporting taxes to one entity for these four LLCs, you can use one account for them and set up classes for each LLC. Please know that this feature is only available for QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced users. On the other hand, I recommend checking with a professional accountant to help manage your account accordingly.

Moreover, assigning classes to your bank accounts is not yet an option with QuickBooks. You can only use classes for your transactions.

You can open this link for more tips about managing your bank accounts in QBO: Add an account to your chart of accounts in QuickBooks Online.

For additional hints while working with QBO, you can also open the topics from this article: Find help articles for QuickBooks Online.

If you have other questions about how to handle your company with QBO, please click the Reply button below. I'll be right here to provide additional assistance. Keep safe!

I agree with @Angelyn_T  you should not combine separate tax entities in a single company file. Each LLC must create and send their own 1099NEC, for example, and your company file can only have 1 EIN..

The only way you could get away with each LLC as a class is if all are single member, same member, and only using SS number for reporting

I have a related question. I am setting up quickbooks for a real estate development firm. The single owner sets up an LLC for each project and everything flows through to him for tax purposes. I need to be able to create GAAP FS for the bank and reporting for the tax accountant that handles filing taxes. A quickbooks rep said that each LLC needs to have it's own subscription or "it will get messy" come tax time. Is that accurate? Why can't I get away with one company file and class each project separately. I can then run a report by class to send to the tax accountant and will have everything together in one file.

Thanks for chiming in on this thread, raeray1st.

Yes, that's right. As mentioned in the previous replies above, it's not ideal to combine multiple tax entities in one subscription or company file. Doing so can cause incorrect accounting records. Each company profile acts as a separate entity (one EIN per subscription).

For further guidance or to check other options, I recommend consulting with your accountant. They'll be able to give you the best accounting advice for your business and to ensure your reports are accurate. If you don't have an accountant, please feel free to visit our Intuit Find-A-ProAdvisor to find certified professionals near you.

Please feel free to reply on this thread again if there's anything else we can assist you with. We're always available to answer your queries. Take care and stay safe.

@raeray1st 

According to QB, you can't run a balance sheet by class in QBO but you can by location.  Here's what their help says:

You can’t filter your balance sheet by class since headers aren’t linked to classes. However, you can filter your profit and loss by class since details are linked to classes.

...Unlike filtering by class, you can filter both your balance sheet and profit and loss by location because when you save a location on a transaction, it's linked to both the header and detail.

Here's the link:

https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/help-article/balance-sheet/run-balance-sheet-class...

In theory, I suppose, it can be done if you're issuing 1099s outside of QB and you're manually transferring your financial statements to the tax return for each LLC.  However, you run the risk of assigning a transaction to the wrong location and not realizing it. 

If this is a cost issue, use QB Desktop. You can create as many separate company files as you want under one monthly subscription cost, whereas QBO requires a separate subscription for each.  And, QB Desktop is a superior product IMO.