The best multicompany accounting software for your business depends on whether you need to keep separate books for multiple organizations or consolidate those organizations into a single set of financial statements.
When keeping the books for multiple organizations, it’s nice to have the ability to add multiple companies to your software without paying for each one. Meanwhile, consolidated financial statements generally require more sophisticated and expensive software. Thus, you need to find the solution that best fits your multicompany accounting needs at the best possible price point.
Here are our five picks for the best accounting software for multiple companies:
- QuickBooks Enterprise: Best overall pick for its sophisticated accounting features
- Wave: Best free online accounting software for up to 15 companies
- QuickBooks Accountant Desktop: Best for independent full-service bookkeepers
- Sage 50 Accounting: Best accounting software for consolidating multiple companies
- SoftLedger: Best for consolidating entities with cryptocurrency transactions
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- Comparison of the Best Multicompany Accounting Software
- QuickBooks Enterprise: Best Overall Multicompany Accounting Software
- Wave: Best Free Online Accounting Software for up to 15 Companies
- QuickBooks Accountant Desktop: Best for Independent Full-service Bookkeepers
- Sage 50 Accounting: Best Accounting for Consolidated Entities
- SoftLedger: Best for Consolidating Entities With Cryptocurrency Transactions
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Bottom Line
Comparison of the Best Multicompany Accounting Software
| Price | Number of Users | Number of Organizations | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Starts at $194 per month | 1 to 40 | Unlimited |
| Visit QuickBooks Desktop | |||
 | Free or $16 per month | 1 or unlimited | 15 |
| Visit Wave | |||
 | $799 or $1,299 per year | 1 | Unlimited |
| Visit QuickBooks Accountant Desktop | |||
 | $607 to $4,546 per year | 1 to 40 | Unlimited |
| Visit Sage 50 Accounting | |||
 | Contact sales | 3 | 5 |
| Visit SoftLedger | |||
| Consolidation Features | Inventory Accounting | Project Tracking | Payroll | Multicurrency Consolidation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Visit QuickBooks Desktop | |||||
| ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ |
| Visit Wave | |||||
| ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ |
| Visit QuickBooks Accountant Desktop | |||||
| ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Visit Sage 50 Accounting | |||||
| ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ |
| Visit SoftLedger | |||||
QuickBooks Enterprise: Best Overall Multicompany Accounting Software
| Pricing | Starting at $194 per month for one user (for the locally-installed program) |
|---|---|
| Free Trial | N/A |
| A/R and A/P | ✓ |
| Accountant Access | None but can send company file |
| Auto Import of Bank Transactions | ✓ |
| Project Tracking | ✓ |
| Cryptocurrency Accounting | ✕ |
| User Reviews | 4.5 out of 5; read user comments in our QuickBooks Enterprise review |
- Inventory management: QuickBooks Desktop’s robust inventory management features let you track the availability of inventory and the average and total number of items. You can also create purchase orders for vendors and set up alerts when you’re running low on inventory.
- Income and expense tracking: Track your income and expenses easily with QuickBooks Desktop. You can connect your bank and credit card to categorize your transactions. Income and expense items can be seen in one place depending on the type of transaction, such as transactions with customers, vendors, and employee centers.
- Time and project tracking: Tracking time is essential for computing operating and billable expenses. With QuickBooks Desktop, you can clock employee time spent working on tasks and track billable hours, which can be added to invoices by client or employee.
- Live customer support: QuickBooks Desktop offers phone, live chat, and chatbot support. Wave is limited to self-help resources unless you purchase an add-on or upgrade to the paid version for email and live chat support.
- Businesses wanting desktop software: QuickBooks Enterprise doesn’t require an internet connection to run, making it ideal for business owners who have problems with internet connectivity and speed.
- Companies providing a copy of their books to a tax accountant: QuickBooks Enterprise makes it easy to export an accountant’s copy of your QuickBooks file, so your accountant can easily prepare your tax return. This exports prior-year data so that you can continue to work on current-year data.
- Companies seeking strong reporting features: QuickBooks Enterprise offers more than 100 comprehensive and customizable reports plus special reports included in its industry-specific editions.
- Businesses needing inventory accounting: QuickBooks Enterprise has more in-depth inventory management tools than all other providers in this guide. For example, it allows manufacturing companies to track their products using inventory parts and assemblies. Wave lets you add a product or service but not the quantity purchased or sold, which means that it’s unable to calculate your COGS.
Wave: Best Free Online Accounting Software for up to 15 Companies
| Pricing | Free for one user and 15 companies, or $16 per month, per business, for unlimited users |
|---|---|
| Free Trial | ✕ |
| A/R and A/P | ✓ |
| Accountant Access | ✓ |
| Auto Import of Bank Transactions | Requires the Pro version |
| Project Tracking | ✕ |
| Cryptocurrency Accounting | ✕ |
| User Reviews | 4.40 out of 5; read user comments in our Wave review |
- Free accounting and invoicing: Wave Starter offers basic accounting and invoicing features for free in the Starter plan.
- Sales and income tax tracking: You can add sales taxes on invoices, bills, estimates, and transactions with Wave.
- Receipt scanning: Through your smartphone, you can upload or take a picture of your receipts whenever you create an expense record. This feature supports your records with actual receipts, and the cost is $11 per month in the free plan. You can also upgrade to the paid version for $16 and scan unlimited receipts without any additional costs.
- Businesses looking for free bookkeeping software: The free plan is ideal for a single user and up to 15 companies and its receipt scanning services are only $11 monthly.
- Ecommerce companies: Through Zapier, you can integrate Wave with ecommerce platforms. We selected it as the best ecommerce accounting software for companies using Zapier.
QuickBooks Accountant Desktop: Best for Independent Full-service Bookkeepers
| Pricing | $799 or $1,299 per year |
|---|---|
| Free Trial | N/A |
| A/R and A/P | ✓ |
| Accountant Access | No live access, but receive a company file from your client |
| Auto Import of Bank Transactions | ✓ |
| Project Tracking | ✓ |
| Cryptocurrency Accounting | ✕ |
| User Reviews | N/A |
- Fixed asset manager: QuickBooks Accountant Desktop’s fixed asset manager is a perfect tool for bookkeepers with clients who need fixed asset accounting. It helps track depreciation, monitor fixed asset purchases, manage disposals, and generate reports, such as amortization schedules and detailed reports.
- Faster client collaboration: There’s no need to schedule a meet-up with the client just to transfer files—with Accountant’s Copy, you and your clients can work together easily and quickly. You can receive files from clients seamlessly and make changes without affecting the client’s files. Adjustments are merged with clients’ files without interrupting their work.
- File accessibility: QuickBooks Accountant Desktop allows you to read client files from the current or prior year versions of the software without upgrading the files. This is especially useful because it allows the client to still access their file if needed without needing to have the software from the same year as your client.
- Full-service payroll: You can also offer full-service payroll, which is very inexpensive to offer payroll for up to 50 clients. This provides a great steady income stream to supplement your other services. Accountants who offer payroll services to their clients can do so for the monthly fee of $55 plus $6 per employee, per month. Read our review of QuickBooks Desktop Payroll for more information about the services provided.
- Accountants with clients who use QuickBooks Desktop: Even though QuickBooks no longer offers Premier and Pro to new customers, QuickBooks Desktop Accountant will continue to be sold so that ProAdvisors can continue to support clients using Premier or Pro.
- Accountants providing on-site assistance: You can log in through your client’s QuickBooks Desktop program to gain immediate access to the special tools included in your QuickBooks Accountant Desktop subscription.
- Accountants wanting access to industry-specific reports: You can toggle to industry-specific editions of QuickBooks Premier to provide clients with reports they may not have access to on their version of QuickBooks.
Sage 50 Accounting: Best Accounting for Consolidated Entities
| Pricing | $607 to $4,546 per year |
|---|---|
| Free Trial | None, but you can test drive the platform using sample data |
| A/R and A/P | ✓ |
| Accountant Access | ✕ |
| Auto Import of Bank Transactions | ✓ |
| Project Tracking | ✓ |
| Cryptocurrency Accounting | ✕ |
| User Reviews | 3.8 out of 5; read user comments in our Sage 50 Accounting review. |
- Multientity and multicurrency consolidations: With Sage 50, you can consolidate subsidiaries, whether in the US or overseas. It can help you consolidate separate financial statements of subsidiaries, eliminate intercompany transactions, and account for foreign currency translation gains and losses in the income statement and balance sheet.
- Advanced inventory management: Sage 50’s advanced inventory management lets you monitor stock, manage assemblies, track cost flow, and establish reorder points.
- Project tracking and job costing: Sage 50 offers project tracking plus job costing to make billing easier. You can set up job records, phases, and cost codes. It also lets you estimate profits from jobs and projects while keeping track of expenses incurred through specialized reports.
- Robust collection of reports: There are more than 150 reports available on Sage 50, including specialized reports for the construction, manufacturing, and distribution industries.
- Businesses looking for an alternative to QuickBooks: We chose Sage 50 Accounting as the best QuickBooks alternative for desktop software that can support multiple companies. It can handle foreign currency transactions and translations, and perform job costing, which are features not present in QuickBooks Online.
- Businesses seeking desktop software: Sage 50 is designed to be installed on a desktop computer, but it has the convenience of the cloud.
SoftLedger: Best for Consolidating Entities With Cryptocurrency Transactions
| Pricing | Request a quote |
|---|---|
| Free Trial | N/A |
| A/R and A/P | ✓ |
| Accountant Access | ✕ |
| Auto Import of Bank Transactions | ✓ |
| Project Tracking | ✓ |
| Cryptocurrency Accounting | ✓ |
| User Reviews | N/A |
- Cryptocurrency features: SoftLedger is the only software on this list that offers cryptocurrency features. Crypto investors can integrate with crypto exchanges, manage their wallets, and see real-time crypto transactions.
- Business adaptability: Since it has an API, you can modify the software to match your accounting needs. You can build specific accounting functions by programming or creating software connections for integration.
- Easy consolidation accounting: With SoftLedger, you can consolidate your financial statements across subsidiaries and segments and eliminate intercompany transactions and accounts automatically.
- Businesses needing accounting for crypto assets: SoftLedger has a unique cryptocurrency accounting feature that enables you to track and manage crypto-related transactions, such as crypto gains and losses, live market rates, and tax and reporting requirements. You can connect your crypto wallet directly to the software like a bank feed.
- Manufacturing and other inventory-intensive businesses: With SoftLedger, you can track your inventory in real-time, increase or decrease the quantity on hand, and transfer stock between locations. You can track inventory by warehouses so that you’ll know where your stock is located.
- Businesses with an in-house development team: SoftLedger’s platform has a fully integrated API that can be customized based on the exact needs of your business. This is particularly ideal for businesses working with in-house developers.
How We Evaluated Multicompany Accounting Software
We evaluated accounting software using our case study framework and awarded points based on the tasks we were able to complete in several categories. We used our expertise to weigh the importance of each task and categories of tasks.
In evaluating pricing, we considered the billing cycle (monthly or annual) and number of users.
This section focuses more on first-time setup and software settings. The software must be quick and easy to set up for new users. Even after initial setup, the software must also let users modify information like company name, address, entity type, fiscal year-end, and other company information.
The banking section of this case study focuses on cash management, bank reconciliation, and bank feed connections. The software must have bank integrations to automatically feed bank or card transactions. The bank reconciliation module must also let users reconcile accounts with or without bank feeds for optimal ease of use. Lastly, the software must generate useful reports related to cash.
The A/P section focuses on vendor management, bill management, bill payments, and other payable-related transactions. A/P features include creating vendors and bills, recording purchase orders and converting them to bills, creating service items, and recording full or partial bill payments.
This takes into account customer management, revenue recognition, invoice management, and collections. The software must have A/R features that make it easy for users to collect payments from customers, remind customers of upcoming or overdue invoices, and manage customer obligations through analytic dashboards or reports.
Businesses with inventory items should choose accounting software that can track inventory costs, manage cost of goods sold (COGS), and monitor inventory units.
Service or project-based businesses should choose accounting software that can track project costs, revenues, and profits. The software must have tools to track time, record billable hours or expenses, send invoices for progress billings, or monitor project progress and performance.
In this section, we’re looking at sales tax features. The software must have features that allow users to set sales tax rates, apply them to invoices, and enable users to pay sales tax liability.
Reports are important for managers, owners, and decision-makers. The software must have enough reports that can be generated with a few clicks. Moreover, we’d also like to see customization options to enable users to generate reports based on what they want to see.
Ease of use gets the highest weight in this case study because we want to give more credit to easy accounting software. For this section, we considered customer service, support network, and a subjective expert opinion score. Users must have easy access to customer service channels in case of problems, questions, or assistance. Support network refers to a community of software users that can extend professional help to businesses. Having an independent software expert perform the bookkeeping is good for overall ease of use. Lastly, our expert opinion score is our subjective rating based on our experience in trying the software.
The software must also have a mobile app to enable users to perform accounting tasks even when away from their laptops or desktops.
We went to user review websites to read first-hand reviews from actual software users. This user review score helps us give more credit to software products that deliver a consistent service to their customers.
In choosing the best multicompany accounting software for your business, the process can be quite different from selecting a tool for a single company, as there are added factors that you need to consider. Let’s go over each.
- Determine the number of companies you need to manage. Some multicompany software offer unlimited companies, while others don’t. However, this shouldn’t be an automatic deal breaker, especially if you need to manage only a few companies.
- Set your budget. More advanced multicompany software can be priced on the higher side. It’s important to set a budget first so that you can single out an accounting solution that is way above your monthly budget for software subscriptions.
- Check core features. The best multicompany accounting program must provide all the necessary accounting features such as:
- Banking and cash management
- A/R and invoicing
- A/P and billing
- Inventory management and COGS tracking
- Payroll management
- Tax tracking
- Fixed asset tracking
- Check for specific features. If your business operates in a specific industry that requires unique features, go with a tool with industry-specific capabilities. This ensures your accounting processes are tailored to the specialized needs of your industry, streamlining your workflow.
- Ensure scalability. Lastly, you’ll want multicompany software that can grow with your business—switching platforms because your current software can’t meet your expanding needs is a hassle. To avoid this, it’s best to select a scalable solution from the start so that you’re ready when it’s time to scale up.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Multicompany accounting software is a tool that enables accountants to manage multiple operations, locations, and companies in a single program.
Businesses with multiple companies or subsidiaries can benefit from multicompany accounting software as it provides a centralized platform to manage financial data, streamline reporting, and ensure consistency in accounting practices across all entities.
Yes, there are robust multicompany accounting systems that support multiple currencies to accommodate businesses operating in different regions with diverse currencies.
One QuickBooks Desktop license can be used to keep the books for an unlimited number of companies.
Sage 50 Accounting charges $595 per year for Pro Accounting with a maximum of one user and one company. Premium Accounting subscribers will pay anywhere from $970 per year for one user to $2,222 per year for five users and unlimited companies. Quantum Accounting subscriptions run from $1,610 per year for one user and $4,108 per year for 10 users, with custom pricing for up to 40 users and unlimited companies.
Bottom Line
Multicompany accounting software can serve a variety of functions. If your business is run through two or more companies or entities, then QuickBooks Enterprise will allow you to keep separate books for each company. However, if you need to consolidate those companies into one set of financial statements, you’ll need Sage 50 or SoftLedger. Finally, if you’re an independent accountant or bookkeeper looking to provide full-service accounting to unlimited companies, QuickBooks Accountant Desktop will serve you well.
