As businesses expand many find themselves juggling multiple entities, such as separate brands, subsidiaries, or locations. Managing finances, reporting, and operations across multiple companies can quickly become a challenge, especially when using systems that don’t easily connect or share data. The right software can make all the difference between fragmented oversight and unified control.
QuickBooks supports multi-company setups, but each entity typically operates in its own silo, requiring separate logins, data files, and manual consolidations. That can work for smaller operations, but it often becomes cumbersome as your organization grows.
aACE, on the other hand, is built to simplify multi-entity management. Its integrated ERP architecture allows you to oversee multiple companies within one system, share data securely where appropriate, and generate consolidated reports with ease — all without losing clarity or control.
In this excerpt from aACE vs. QuickBooks: A Comparative Report, the third-party reviewers at MihaelCacic.com compare how aACE and QuickBooks handle multi-company management from setup and reporting to intercompany transactions and scalability, so you can decide which platform best fits your expanding business structure. Here’s what they found:
At a Glance: aACE is built for managing multiple entities across many locations, while QuickBooks solves this with separate company files and records.
QuickBooks handles multi-entity support through separate company files for each entity, with the Desktop version (only available on the enterprise plan) allowing multiple files per installation while Online requires separate subscriptions.
Inter-company transactions require manual recording in both entities’ files, maintaining detailed records but lacking automation for routine transfers or shared expenses.
Consolidated reporting involves exporting data from each file and manually combining with elimination entries, functional for simple structures but increasingly cumbersome as entity count grows.
The separate file approach ensures legal and tax compliance but reflects QuickBooks’ small business focus where multi-entity operations are less common.
aACE natively supports multiple entities because of the way that it’s built.
It allows tracking sales, inventory, and finances separately by entity while providing real-time consolidated views without synchronization issues.
Inter-company transactions flow automatically with matching entries created when entities transact, keeping books balanced without manual journal entries or month-end reconciliations. Real-time consolidation provides instant visibility across all entities with automatic eliminations, while multi-location inventory enables transfers between entities with proper tax handling based on geography.
This integrated approach particularly benefits organizations with complex structures: manufacturing companies with multiple plants, distributors with regional warehouses, or service companies with branch offices operating efficiently within one system.
Multi-Entity Support Winner: aACE by a significant margin. Its native multi-entity architecture with automatic inter-company transactions and real-time consolidation far exceeds QuickBooks’ separate file approach. QuickBooks works well for a single entity but requires you to switch to the enterprise plan as organizational complexity grows and even still comes short against aACE.
Still on the fence about whether QuickBooks or aACE is right for your business? Download aACE vs QuickBooks: A Comparative Report today to learn more about how the two solutions match up.
