Accounting software for multiple companies: when to move

For a US group of two to ten legal entities, keep separate files when month-end is a short management-fee reconciliation. Three QuickBooks Online Plus subscriptions list at USD 140 each (USD 420 a month) as of October 2026, with no annual contract. Three Xero Established organizations list at USD 97 each (USD 291 a month), before a multi-organization discount whose percent Xero does not publish. Five Business Central Essentials users list at USD 80 each (USD 400 a month, paid yearly), in a product whose one included production environment can hold up to 300 companies. Move when you need a consolidation company and intercompany documents posted once.

That split is the buying decision behind multiple business accounting software. Classes and locations tag activity inside one QuickBooks company. A second legal entity needs its own books. The hours that hurt are the ones after the last invoice: matching what Company A recorded to what Company B recorded, then pulling both into a spreadsheet the bank or the board will read.

What three company files cost before payroll and apps

Fit Small Business puts the choice in one line: "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." Price the separate-books path at list rates first. Promotions change the first quarter. They do not change the run rate you will still be paying next year.

QuickBooks Online list prices on the US pricing page, as of October 2026, are per company subscription per month. There is no annual contract. The same page shows a 50 percent checkout promo for three months.

• Simple Start (List per month: USD 38 · Promo checkout for 3 months: USD 19 · User note on the pricing page: Per company subscription)
• Essentials (List per month: USD 85 · Promo checkout for 3 months: USD 42.50 · User note on the pricing page: 3 users)
• Plus (List per month: USD 140 · Promo checkout for 3 months: USD 70 · User note on the pricing page: 5 users)
• Advanced (List per month: USD 340 · Promo checkout for 3 months: USD 170 · User note on the pricing page: 25 users)

Source: QuickBooks Online pricing, Intuit, October 2026.

Assume three US companies, each on Plus, each treated as a new subscription that qualifies for the published promo. The first three months cost USD 70 times 3, or USD 210 a month. After that the list is USD 140 times 3, or USD 420 a month. A full year on that pattern is USD 630 for the promo quarter plus USD 3,780 for the next nine months, USD 4,410. Straight list for twelve months is USD 5,040. If one company outgrows Plus, that company lists at USD 340 a month and the other Plus files stay at USD 140, so the three-file stack is USD 620 a month. Three Advanced files list at USD 1,020 a month when every company is on Advanced.

Xero's US FAQ says you can add as many organizations as you like, and you choose a pricing plan for each one. The person who signs up becomes the subscriber for that organization. Billing is monthly. The regular US prices as of October 2026:

• Early (Regular per month: USD 27 · First organization, new US customer, first 3 months: USD 5.40 · What the plan is for in this decision: 20 invoices and 5 bills, then drafts)
• Growing (Regular per month: USD 59 · First organization, new US customer, first 3 months: USD 11.80 · What the plan is for in this decision: A fuller operating company)
• Established (Regular per month: USD 97 · First organization, new US customer, first 3 months: USD 19.40 · What the plan is for in this decision: The US plan that includes multiple currencies)

Sources: Xero US pricing plans and Xero US common questions, Xero, October 2026.

Three Established organizations at the regular price are USD 291 a month, or USD 3,492 a year, before any multi-organization discount. Xero discounts subscriptions for more than one organization when they share the same subscriber email. The FAQ confirms the discount and does not print the percent, so leave it off the budget until a quote shows the rate. The 80 percent introductory cut applies to a new customer's first organization for three months. It does not, on the published page, cut every organization in the group. Early is the wrong home for an operating company: extra invoices and bills save as drafts until you upgrade or the next month starts.

These QuickBooks and Xero figures are US list prices. A Canadian subscription needs the Canadian price pages before anyone converts this table into CAD. Business Central does publish Canadian list prices, covered below, and Microsoft says those figures are informational because checkout can differ.

When classes and locations stop standing in for a legal entity

QuickBooks Online usage limits are per company. Intuit tells subscribers who have more than one company to check usage in each company, so a clean company does not clear a company that is over its cap.

Plus allows 5 billable users, 2 accountant-firm users, a combined 40 classes and locations, and a chart of accounts of 250. Advanced allows 25 billable users, 3 accountant-firm users, and unlimited classes, locations, and accounts. That is the published ceiling as of October 2026 on Intuit's usage-limits article.

Classes and locations answer a different question than a second company. They slice one set of books so a report can show a department, a warehouse, or a line of business. They do not give that slice its own tax ID, its own statutory accounts, or its own intercompany balance with a sister company. You have passed the point where tags are enough when any of these are true:

1. A lender, a buyer, or a tax filing asks for statements of one legal entity, and the only way to produce them is to export and delete everyone else's activity.
2. The combined class and location count on Plus is heading toward 40, and the extra dimensions exist to fake entities you already incorporated.
3. Two companies sell to each other, and someone re-keys the invoice so both files agree.
4. The chart on Plus is near 250 because each entity's accounts were copied into one file.

Advanced removes the class, location, and account caps and raises the billable-user cap to 25. Intuit's pricing FAQ positions Advanced as the cloud product for up to 25 users, and Intuit Enterprise Suite as the product for multi-entity organizations that need project costing and a unified view of financials, payroll, and operations. Raising the cap keeps you in one company file. It does not create the sister company's books.

On Xero the boundary is the organization. "Can I add multiple companies to Xero?" is a subscriber question, and the answer is yes, with a plan chosen for each organization. Multiple currencies sit on Established. A group that bills in USD and CAD needs Established on each organization that holds those currencies, at USD 97 a month each at the regular price, unless the unpublished multi-organization discount changes the invoice.

How Business Central handles consolidation and intercompany

Business Central is priced per user, paid yearly. As of October 2026, US list prices are Essentials USD 80 per user per month, Premium USD 110, and Team Members USD 8. Canadian list prices are CAD 108.50, CAD 149.20, and CAD 10.90, plus tax. Microsoft says the figures are informational and the checkout price can differ. Sources: US Business Central pricing and Canadian Business Central pricing.

Essentials and Premium each include one production environment and three sandbox environments. Extra production environments are bought through a CSP partner. Each extra production environment adds three sandboxes and 4 GB of tenant-wide database capacity, per Microsoft's environment administration page. One environment can hold at most 300 companies. Tenants already over that limit are told to split companies across environments, per operational limits. A group of two to ten legal entities is far under that cap, so the environment limit is not why you would buy a second production database. A second database is a design choice (a hard separation, a different localization, a company you do not want in the same tenant), and it has a price your reseller has to quote. Nothing in the license table says that adding a company inside the included environment adds a per-company fee. Nothing in it says every user is automatically entitled to every company either. Have the license assignment shown on your own users.

Consolidation lands in its own company. Business Central consolidates general-ledger entries from two or more companies into that consolidated company. It can handle different charts of accounts, fiscal years, and currencies, a percentage of a company, and companies in other Business Central environments or in other accounting systems. That last point matters if one subsidiary stays on QuickBooks for a year: the consolidated company can still pull it, once the mapping exists.

Eliminations stay manual. Microsoft's consolidation article says you find repeated transactions, enter general journal lines, run the G/L Consolidation Eliminations report, then post. A monthly management fee between two companies is a short version of that work. A web of inventory transfers, shared payroll, and loans is a longer one. The software gives you a place to post the elimination. It does not decide which balances should disappear.

Intercompany posting is the part that removes the re-key. You post a document once and Business Central creates the matching document in the partner company. The link can cross different countries, currencies, charts of accounts, dimensions, and item numbers, and it works across databases. Two limits belong in the design before anyone promises a hands-off close. Purchase invoices are not sent through intercompany: a submitted sales invoice becomes a purchase invoice at the receiver. The intercompany general journal converts amounts to local currency at the current rate and does not carry currencies itself. If Company A in USD bills Company B in CAD, the sales invoice path is the one that keeps the document pair. A journal-only recharge will land in local currency at the rate in force, and someone still has to agree that rate.

The multi-entity ERP architecture guide walks the environment, company, and consolidation choices in more detail. Price Essentials first, at USD 80 per user per month, paid yearly. Premium is USD 110. Have a reseller show which roles require Premium before you multiply that rate by headcount. Our Business Central implementation work for a group starts from that license mix and from which companies belong in the first consolidated close.

How Odoo treats companies, branches, and inter-company bills

Odoo Standard lists at USD 31.10 per user per month on the yearly view and USD 38.90 on the monthly view, as of October 2026. The yearly figure is a 12-month discount on the initial users ordered. Standard does not list multi-company. Odoo Custom, the plan for multiple companies on one database, lists at USD 61.00 on the yearly view and USD 76.20 on the monthly view. A light user is quoted at USD 8.90 through an advisor. Odoo.sh hosting is extra on Custom. Source: Odoo pricing.

The One App Free plan allows multiple companies. Adding companies to a Standard database, or installing Studio, switches the database to Custom. A yearly contract gets a 30-day upsell order. A monthly contract switches at the next bill. If you start on Standard and then add the second legal entity, the user price moves to Custom. Price Custom from the first quote if you already know the group has two companies.

Odoo treats a company as its own legal identity and its own books. Branches are subdivisions of a parent. Independent subsidiaries should be companies. A parent company cannot later be converted into a branch. That rule is easy to miss in a workshop: a holding company set up as the parent, with operating companies modeled as branches, cannot be reshaped into a branch afterward. Set the holding company and each subsidiary as companies if each one files, borrows, or contracts on its own.

Inter-company transactions can generate the counterpart bill, sales order, or purchase order, as a draft or as a validated document, when one company in the database sells to or buys from another. Products must be shared. Odoo's own reason for multi-company, in the Odoo 18 multi-company documentation, is this case: "A multinational retail chain operating in the United States and Canada must manage transactions in USD and CAD." Draft versus validated is an operational choice. Validated documents skip a review step and will post a partner document your controller has not looked at. Draft documents keep the review and put a queue in the other company. For a monthly management fee, draft is the calmer setting. For a daily inventory transfer with shared products, validated documents are how you stop the re-key, provided someone owns the exceptions.

Odoo's documentation of this feature covers the counterpart document. The Finance scope on Odoo's project estimator is labeled Expenses and Accounting Consolidation. That label is a scope name on the estimator. Have the partner or Odoo show you the elimination entries and the statutory consolidated report on your chart of accounts before you treat consolidation as included work. The setup steps for companies and inter-company rules are in our Odoo multi-company setup guide. Phasing for a group that will trade inside one database is covered on our Odoo implementation page.

Assume the same five full users as the Business Central example, on Custom, yearly view, initial users. Five times USD 61.00 is USD 305 a month for the first twelve months of that discount, USD 3,660 for the year. The monthly-view rate of USD 76.20 would be USD 381 a month, USD 4,572 a year, if you bill monthly. Light users at USD 8.90 change the mix only after an advisor quotes them against real roles. This license is per user on one database. It is a different shape from three QuickBooks subscriptions at USD 420 a month: the Odoo number buys the whole app list on Custom, and the QuickBooks number buys three Plus ledgers.

What a move costs when only published prices are allowed

License run rate is the predictable half. Implementation is the half that changes with the close you described in the fit check.

Odoo publishes Success Pack prices for companies under 50 employees. As of October 2026, new-customer prices, with 15 percent off the first pack, are:

• 4 (New customer: USD 493 · Returning customer: USD 580)
• 25 (New customer: USD 3,060 · Returning customer: USD 3,600)
• 50 (New customer: USD 5,950 · Returning customer: USD 7,000)
• 100 (New customer: USD 10,625 · Returning customer: USD 12,500)
• 200 (New customer: USD 21,250 · Returning customer: USD 25,000)

Hours expire after one year. Companies above 50 employees are directed to a partner. Source: Odoo Success Packs.

Odoo's project estimator says 80 percent of projects in the selected scope are put in production in 200 hours or less. Read that as Odoo's statement about the scopes a buyer ticks on that page. A finance scope labeled Expenses and Accounting Consolidation can land inside 200 hours for a small chart and a few entities, which is the USD 21,250 new-customer band if you buy the whole 200 hours, or less if the scoped pack is 50 or 100 hours. A group with inventory moving between companies, two currencies, and a history of spreadsheets is the case to scope in writing. Ask for the hour band, what in production includes, and which of your entities are in that scope. Unused hours expire after one year, so a 200-hour pack left half unused is money already spent.

Business Central implementation fees are not on Microsoft's price list. Any number you have heard for a partner project is that firm's quote. Ask each bidder to price data migration, the consolidation company, intercompany setup, and training as its own line. Our ERP implementation engagements are scoped that way so a two-company management-fee group does not fund a warehouse project it will not use in the first phase.

Intuit Enterprise Suite has no public per-user or per-entity price on its site. You cannot finish a three-way license comparison until Intuit quotes it. Put the quote next to the QuickBooks stack you would otherwise keep (USD 420 a month for three Plus files at list, or USD 1,020 for three Advanced files) and next to the Business Central and Odoo user math above.

When Intuit Enterprise Suite is the closer fit

Intuit's own pricing FAQ draws a line: Advanced for up to 25 users, Intuit Enterprise Suite for multi-entity organizations that need project costing and a unified view of financials, payroll, and operations. The suite's multi-entity page says buyers can keep data and users separate by company with granular permissions, and share aggregated financial views across the group. For a US-only group that wants one Intuit login, separate permissions, and a combined view, that is the product Intuit is pointing at. It is also the product to test against the spreadsheet you use today, because a combined view and a set of elimination entries are different outputs.

Two constraints sit on the public pages. Entities outside the US are not supported at this time. If one company is in Canada or anywhere else, this suite is out, on Intuit's wording, until that statement changes. And there is no list price, so any claim that the suite costs less than an ERP is a quote outcome.

Hold Intuit to a test on your own file: one intercompany invoice, one elimination, and one consolidated view, timed with your team in the room.

Intuit also publishes customer wording on the multi-entity page. One line aimed at groups is "I would highly recommend it to anyone that has multi-entities, just for the fact that it makes it so much easier to consolidate financials." Another is "We're able to get a lot of the functionality we were looking for in an ERP system without the implementation, cost, and without having to change providers." Read both as individual comments Intuit chose to print. The second comment is the stay-with-Intuit argument in the buyer's own words: they wanted the reporting shape of an ERP and they wanted to keep their provider. Ask that same question of your scope. If the missing pieces are project costing, permissions per company, and a US-only combined view, get the Enterprise Suite quote before you fund a migration. If the missing pieces are a consolidation company fed by another accounting system, intercompany documents across currencies, or an entity outside the United States, the suite page does not claim those, and Business Central or Odoo is the comparison that matches the work.

How to choose for a group of two to ten entities

Use the close, then the license, then the project price.

• Two to ten US entities, intercompany is a monthly fee, no second currency (Where the money and the work go: Stay on one QuickBooks or Xero subscription per company. Three Plus files list at USD 420 a month. Three Growing organizations at USD 59 list at USD 177 a month. · What to watch: Check Plus limits in each company.)
• A US entity bills in a second currency (Where the money and the work go: Put that organization on Xero Established. Three Established organizations at USD 97 list at USD 291 a month. · What to watch: Established is the US plan that includes multiple currencies.)
• You are near 40 classes and locations, or near a 250-account chart, inside one QuickBooks file (Where the money and the work go: Advanced at USD 340 for that company, or split the legal entity into its own file. · What to watch: Tags still do not file a tax return.)
• US-only group, you want separate users and a combined Intuit view, and you may need project costing (Where the money and the work go: Intuit Enterprise Suite. Price by quote. · What to watch: Outside-US entities are not supported. There is no public list price.)
• You need a consolidation company, different charts or fiscal years, or a subsidiary that will stay on another ledger for a while (Where the money and the work go: Business Central. Five Essentials users list at USD 400 a month, paid yearly. · What to watch: Eliminations are a manual journal. Purchase invoices are not sent through intercompany.)
• Subsidiaries trade with each other often, products are shared, and you want one database (Where the money and the work go: Odoo Custom. Five users on the yearly view list at USD 305 a month for the initial-user discount year. · What to watch: Standard does not include multi-company. Adding companies to Standard switches you to Custom.)
• The group has more than 50 employees, or the first phase is more than a short finance scope (Where the money and the work go: Odoo directs companies above 50 employees to a partner. Business Central projects are quoted. · What to watch: Price migration and intercompany as separate lines. Success Pack hours expire after one year.)

A two-entity holding company with one management fee a month can keep that reconciliation on the two files. A distributor with three companies, stock moving between them, and a spreadsheet that has to be finished before the lender package is the case that pays for a posted document path and an elimination checklist.

If you move, phase the first go-live around the pain that costs the close. Typical contents of that phase, scoped to your entities:

1. The legal entities that will transact with each other in the first quarter, set up as companies (in Odoo, not as branches).
2. The chart mapping into a consolidation company if you are on Business Central, including any company that will remain on QuickBooks or Xero for now.
3. One intercompany path that matches how you sell: sales invoice to purchase invoice in Business Central, or a draft or validated counterpart in Odoo. Shared products where Odoo requires them.
4. The elimination journals you post, written down as a checklist with the person who owns them.
5. Opening balances and open intercompany items, migrated and tied out before anyone turns off the old file.

We implement both Business Central and Odoo for companies in this size range. The first conversation is which row of the table you are on, and what the first phase has to produce so the spreadsheet can retire for that slice of the group.

What to put on the quote before you sign

Bring a one-page brief. Bidders who cannot price from it are guessing.

• Legal name, country, and currency of each entity. Mark any entity outside the United States. That single mark removes Intuit Enterprise Suite on the current product page and forces the currency design in Business Central and Odoo.
• How many people post, approve, and only look. Business Central Team Members list at USD 8 (CAD 10.90). Odoo light users list at USD 8.90 via an advisor. Full users are the USD 80 or USD 61 seats in the examples above.
• The intercompany flows that happen every month, named as documents (management fee, inventory transfer, loan, payroll recharge), with a rough count. A handful of fees and a daily product flow are different projects.
• Whether the consolidated view must include a company that will not move in phase one. Business Central's consolidation company can take other accounting systems. Ask for that mapping as a line.
• Who owns the elimination after go-live. In Business Central that work is still find, journal, run the eliminations report, and post.
• For an Odoo quote under 50 employees, which Success Pack hour band they recommend, what happens to unused hours after one year, and whether the Finance scope includes the consolidated report you file, not only the estimator label.
• For a Business Central quote, the production environment count. One is included. A second is a CSP purchase plus 4 GB and three sandboxes, and the fee is theirs to state.

Then compare three numbers on one page: the subscription run rate after promotions end, the implementation lines, and the month-end steps that remain manual. Pick the option that removes a re-key you can name, at a license you can renew, with a first phase your controller can finish.

How Flectic can help

Flectic implements Dynamics 365 for companies on Microsoft 365 that need multi-entity finance, tighter approvals or Power BI reporting. We work alongside your team through the first month-end close on the new system. Review the Dynamics 365 implementation scope with your entity count, then Book a free discovery call with Flectic, a free 30-minute call with a senior consultant.

Sources

• QuickBooks Online Pricing & Free Trial, Intuit, October 2026
• Learn about usage limits, Intuit, October 2026
• Multi-company accounting software | Intuit Enterprise Suite, Intuit, October 2026
• Frequently asked questions | Xero US, Xero, October 2026
• Pricing Plans | Xero US, Xero, October 2026
• Dynamics 365 Business Central pricing (US), Microsoft, October 2026
• Dynamics 365 Business Central pricing (Canada), Microsoft, October 2026
• Consolidate data from multiple companies, Microsoft, October 2026
• Manage intercompany transactions, Microsoft, October 2026
• Operation Limits in Dynamics 365 Business Central, Microsoft, October 2026
• Managing Production and Sandbox Environments, Microsoft, October 2026
• Odoo Pricing, Odoo, October 2026
• Odoo Success Packs, Odoo, October 2026
• Multi-company, Odoo 18.0, Odoo, October 2026
• Companies, Odoo 18.0, Odoo, October 2026
• Best Multicompany Accounting Software, Fit Small Business, May 2026