Bookkeeping (accounting) software for multiple entities

Question

Me and my family has several business entities and also some accountings for shared expenses etc. These domains have a lot of overlapping bank accounts, credit cards etc.

I am looking for software that can maintain both a total and domain view of all transactions and documents. Also, I would like to know if some kind of spreadsheet could do this?

Priorities:

1. Provide professionals a good view of information in a domain.
2. Present sub-views of the information. For example an accountant might have access to what is relevant for one company. Ideally it should also be possible to give her access to "gray zone" transactions - transactions that might belong to the company, be private or belong to another company.
3. Support data input and document management, for example by matching bank accounts, receipts, invoices and other documents.
4. Support as far as possible for official accounting (VAT and tax returns etc.). Businesses are EU, with VAT and multiple currency issues. (I imagine official accounting might be done in another system, but I might for example export it to that system from my software, or give it to an accountant who has the official accounting).

Security : Would like some kind of logging of what is accessed. Possibility to limit access by area or time-period. Possibility to limit access to underlying documents.

I do not need invoicing (I often see that coming up in comparisons). Businesses are small, mostly consulting.

Answer 1

I would try FreeAgent (see available features). Apart of standard plans, they've also version for accountants, so it can handle multiple entities with loads of features.

Otherwise try some alternatives such as:

• Xero,
• QuickBooks app (not online which is a bit limited),
• Sage, both should support multiple entities as well.
• and other.