Running several businesses on QuickBooks means running several QuickBooks.
That is not a complaint, it's how the product is built: one company per file, one paid subscription per company, and a menu to switch between them. If you're searching for an alternative, the useful first step is being precise about what QuickBooks does for a multi-business owner, what it doesn't, and what the workarounds cost, so the alternative is judged against the real thing.
What QuickBooks Online gives you today
| What it does | Source | |
|---|---|---|
| One sign-in, several companies | Add each company to the same account and switch between them without signing out. Each company is its own subscription and its own set of books. | Intuit, "Create or add another company file", verified |
| Classes and locations inside one company | Some owners keep several small businesses inside one company file using classes and locations to tell them apart. Plus caps that at 40 combined; Advanced lifts the cap. It works until the businesses need separate tax filings, separate balance sheets, or separate bank accounts, and then it doesn't. | Intuit, "Learn about usage limits", verified |
| Spreadsheet Sync on Advanced | Group companies and run combined reports into a spreadsheet. It combines; it does not eliminate between-company activity. | Intuit, "Add company data to Spreadsheet Sync", verified |
| Intuit Enterprise Suite | Intuit's actual multi-entity product, with native intercompany eliminations. Custom-quoted; independent estimates put multi-entity at $12,000 to $15,000 a year before implementation. | ERP Research, "Intuit Enterprise Suite Pricing 2026", verified |
The candid summary: QuickBooks Online handles several businesses by being several QuickBooks Onlines. That is fine if the businesses never touch. Most portfolios touch constantly, one entity paying a bill for another, a management fee, a shared card, and every one of those is a journal entry in two files and a line to remember at year end.
What the workaround costs
| Per month | 2 companies | 3 companies | 5 companies |
|---|---|---|---|
QuickBooks Online Simple Start, one subscription per companyQuickBooks Online pricing page, verified | $76.00 | $114.00 | $190.00 |
QuickBooks Online Essentials, one subscription per companyQuickBooks Online pricing page, verified | $170.00 | $255.00 | $425.00 |
QuickBooks Online Plus, one subscription per companyQuickBooks Online pricing page, verified | $280.00 | $420.00 | $700.00 |
QuickBooks Online Advanced, one subscription per companyQuickBooks Online pricing page, verified | $680.00 | $1,020.00 | $1,700.00 |
| Nummio Foundation, one business, one bill | — | — | — |
| Nummio Portfolio, up to 3 businesses, one bill | $89.00 | $89.00 | — |
| Nummio Holdings, up to 8 businesses, one bill | $189.00 | $189.00 | $189.00 |
Those are list prices before introductory discounts and before anyone's time. The calculator runs your own entity count and tier, and shows Xero, Zoho, and Wave alongside, because cheaper-per-ledger tools exist and you should see them.
The alternative, and what it concedes
Nummio is built around the portfolio: every ledger row carries the entity it belongs to, one login holds all of them, each business keeps its own review queue and month-end close, and the combined income statement and balance sheet eliminate the between-company activity automatically because both sides of every intercompany entry are posted together or not at all. Plans are priced by active entities, Portfolio up to three and Holdings up to eight, with unlimited users and a free accountant seat.
What it doesn't have, stated so you can stop reading if any of these is load-bearing: payroll, inventory, job costing, sales tax automation, and the app ecosystem. The full comparison, including every row QuickBooks wins, is here.
Watch three QuickBooks files become one set of books.
The portfolio migration demo runs the real importer and the real eliminations, in your browser.