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How to consolidate multiple QuickBooks Online companies
Updated
QuickBooks Online keeps each company in its own file, and its standard plans have no report that combines them. To see a group as one business you pull each company's statements for the same months, line up the accounts, add them together and take out the money that moved between your own companies. Here's each step, and how to stop doing it by hand.
Why QuickBooks Online can't do it on its own
Every QuickBooks Online company is a separate subscription with its own chart of accounts and reports. You can switch between companies, but no report reads across them. Intuit sells multi-entity reporting as part of Intuit Enterprise Suite, a separate product priced well above standard QuickBooks Online. For most small groups, that leaves a spreadsheet or a consolidation tool.
The five steps
Pull the same months from every company
Run the profit and loss and the balance sheet by month in each company, for the same period and on the same basis (accrual or cash). Export them to Excel.
Line up the accounts
Put every company's accounts on one shared list. "Office Supplies" in one company and "Office supplies & software" in another have to land on the same line, or the totals won't mean much. Check for accounts added since last month.
Add the companies together
Sum each line across the companies, month by month. Keep a column per company so you can trace any total back to where it came from.
Eliminate the intercompany amounts
Find the accounts that record money between your own companies: management fees, rent, loans, investments, distributions and contributions. Remove both sides. If the two sides don't agree, the books have a timing difference or a missing entry; post the difference to a balancing account rather than hiding it. The eliminations guide goes through the common pairs.
Check it
The combined balance sheet should balance. Each elimination pair should net to zero. Cash on the cash flow statement should match the bank accounts. Net income on the combined P&L should equal the sum of the companies' net income, because eliminations on the P&L remove matching revenue and expense.
What the result looks like
A column per company, an eliminations column and the combined total. Here the eliminations take $54,000 out of revenue and the same out of expenses, so the group's net income doesn't change, but its revenue stops counting fees it paid itself.
| Profit and loss · Oct | Holdings | Retail | Property | Elims | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 18,000 | 412,300 | 36,000 | (54,000) | 412,300 |
| Cost of sales | – | 198,400 | – | – | 198,400 |
| Gross profit | 18,000 | 213,900 | 36,000 | (54,000) | 213,900 |
| Operating expenses | 12,500 | 151,200 | 9,800 | (54,000) | 119,500 |
| Net income | 5,500 | 62,700 | 26,200 | – | 94,400 |
Doing it without the spreadsheet
The spreadsheet works, and it breaks in the same places every month: a renamed account, a new one nobody mapped, an elimination that stopped netting to zero. A consolidation tool reads each company from QuickBooks and runs the same steps the same way.
SigmaClose is one. Connect each QuickBooks Online company once; it lines up the accounts, suggests the elimination pairs, runs the checks and gives you the P&L, balance sheet and cash flow by month, with a column per company. It only reads your books. See how it works.
Questions
Can QuickBooks Online consolidate multiple companies?
Not in the standard QuickBooks Online plans. Each company is a separate file with its own reports, and there is no combined report across files. Intuit offers multi-entity reporting in Intuit Enterprise Suite, a separate and higher-priced product. Otherwise you combine the reports yourself in a spreadsheet, or use a consolidation tool that reads each company for you.
What do I need to consolidate QuickBooks Online companies?
Each company's balance sheet and profit and loss for the same months, an account list that lines up across the companies, and a list of the intercompany accounts to eliminate: fees, loans, investments and transfers between your own companies.
Do the companies need the same chart of accounts?
It helps but isn't required. Accounts with the same name and type line up on their own. Ones that differ have to be mapped to a shared account so they land on the same line.
How long does consolidating take each month?
By hand in a spreadsheet, usually a few hours per month for a small group, more when an account changes. With a tool that reads QuickBooks directly, the statements are ready when the books are; the time goes into checking the eliminations.
Do I need to eliminate intercompany transactions?
Yes, if you want the combined statements to show the group as one business. Without eliminations, money that moved between your own companies is counted twice: as revenue in one and an expense in the other, or as a receivable in one and a payable in the other.