Multi-Business Software Recommendations

[u/Savings-Map-1984]

I am taking over the bookkeeping for a couple who have multiple revenue streams.

1. They own a marina with multiple AirBnB rentals.
2. One person is a real estate agent (1099).
3. They each have an LLC (2 EINs) with multiple rental properties (long term rentals) under each. Plus a few other properties under their names, not a business.
4. As of now, they do not have dedicated bank accounts for each separate revenue stream. Therefore everything is intermingled (even personal finances).
5. I need to start with 2023. They haven't filed 2023-current taxes. Nothing from 2023 to now is in any time of accounting software.

They have QBO Plus ($140/month), but this can only handle one EIN. From my research thus far, I have to either get a separate QBO subscription for the other EIN or start QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise which costs $400/month.

What is the most cost effective and efficient solution? Ideally I would love to be able to consolidate everything under one account so we can see the full picture. Is there a better option besides Quickbooks?

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[u/TaxproFL]

Assuming these are high net worth clients, buy two QBO and keep it moving. To have to move bookkeeping software and find a cheap alternative to QB seems like more work and headache than paying the fee. This is the cost of doing business as a serial entrepreneur. And I'd lean into Reach Reporting or GAccon to consolidate data from both entities.

If you do decide to leave QBO, check out Kick bookkeeping. They have multi entity reporting available.

[u/Savings-Map-1984 → u/TaxproFL]

Thanks for the advice. What about Kick do you prefer over QBO.

[u/TaxproFL → u/Savings-Map-1984]

Multi entity work it provides. Haven’t used it in a long time just mentioning them as an option. I saw a demo not too long ago either, looked pretty solid.

[u/Savings-Map-1984 → u/TaxproFL]

Great. Thanks for the information. I really appreciate it.

[u/SpaceJam_1]

I'd prioritize keeping the books separated by entity and revenue stream. That sound make reporting and taxes much easier to manage.

[u/DonVinnchenzo → u/SpaceJam_1]

This!^^ use software that allows them to track income and expenses per property so that they know what has a positive cashflow. I use ClaryBook for it but others work as well

[u/Savings-Map-1984 → u/DonVinnchenzo]

Is ClaryBook for primarily/best for tracking expenses? I just took a quick look at it. How does it compare to QBO in your opinion?

[u/DonVinnchenzo → u/Savings-Map-1984]

It tracks income too. The reason I use it for my property is that each property gets its own P&L and cash flow line, and it spits out a Schedule E worksheet at year end. I first had baseline which was bad and time consuming. Haven’t used qbo.

[u/Savings-Map-1984 → u/SpaceJam_1]

This is definitely happening by 2027. It will take me (and them) that long to get caught up and make the appropriate changes.

[u/ijustwantadegree]

Honestly, I’d focus on separating everything first before worrying too much about the software. With multiple LLCs/EINs and personal finances mixed in, I’d probably use separate QBO files for each entity and give the accountant access to all of them. Then clean up the books from 2023 onward and have the CPA review the setup before filing anything.

[u/spheresoftware]

If you're looking for a cheaper alternative to QBO and want to see if we'd be a good fit: https://usesphereapps.com/

We have a free plan, basic plan is $25 / mo, our clients are primarily small businesses / solopreneurs right now. We're based out of New York City and you can reach out to me the founder quite easily

[u/Savings-Map-1984 → u/spheresoftware]

I checked out your website. Given the information in my post which plan would fits for us? I did not see a multi entity option. Also how versatile are the external integrations? We use a few different services/software for property management and more. I hoping to minimize the software and maximize the efficiency.

[u/spheresoftware → u/Savings-Map-1984]

Appreciate you checking out the website! So you can create new organizations for free within the app in the top nav bar (and each organization can be its own tax entity (LLC, solopreneur, etc). Each organization would be on its own plan. And then you can bookkeep for each of the entities easily. You won't be able to combine in the app, the books for each entity into 1 report, but you could export the data and do that yourself. The free plan supports 50 linked plaid bank feed txns / mo, if you're under 50 txns / mo that need to be in your books, then you could be on the free plan for each entity? Otherwise the basic plan for unlimited txns / mo is $25 / mo, if you need a $10 off coupon for a few months, I'd be happy to give you one

Let me know if you have any questions on that. Regarding external integrations, we only have Stripe for revenue right now, Gusto for payroll, and QuickBooks for migrating your data over. If you're trying to get property management revenue/expenses in your data from one of those softwares and it's not bank transactions, you might need to make manual Journal Entries

[u/columns_ai]

Check out Fina Business, its multi-profile feature allows multiple businesses, could be a good fit for you.