Can You Run Multiple Businesses From One QuickBooks?

QuickBooks is financial management software created by Intuit. One of the major benefits of QuickBooks is the software’s ability to organize large amounts of financial data. You can track budgets, file taxes or create reports for clients using QuickBooks. If you provide accounting or bookkeeping services for more than one business, QuickBooks offers resources to help you streamline the financial data of each company.

QuickBooks allows you to create multiple profiles under one account. Each profile is separate and no financial data is shared between the two. If you have multiple companies, you can create multiple profiles to track their individual budgets. When you launch your QuickBooks software, choose the option to “Add a New Company” on the start page to create a new profile. There is no limit to the number of profiles you can create in QuickBooks.

If you are managing accounting services for multiple businesses, QuickBooks allows you to quickly share data online or via email. A PDF printer is built into the software inclusive of an email button to distribute your financial documents to clients. Clients can present reports to investors or use them in goal-setting initiatives. Each time you add data to each company’s account in QuickBooks, its reports are automatically updated.

Managing the taxes of multiple businesses in QuickBooks is simple. While you cannot file business income taxes through QuickBooks, you can update the chart of accounts for each business, which streamlines the process of filling your tax return. A chart of accounts lists all your income and expenses according to their tax classification. With a subscription to QuickBooks Payroll you can file payroll taxes for each business directly through QuickBooks.

If your companies share budgets or tax information, reconsider creating separate profiles. You can organize the data of separate businesses inside a QuickBooks profile. Simply categorize your invoices, expenses and income by creating a separate folder for each. You can add tax lines that apply to each business. For example, you may want your marketing expenses for each company categorized as “[Business Name] Marketing” to aid you in creating future marketing budgets for that division.