First, a note on "Parent" and "Subsidiary"

In most multi-entity businesses, there's a legal parent company that owns one or more subsidiaries. JustConsolidate uses the same terms — "Parent" and "Subsidiary" — but from a financial consolidation perspective, which isn't quite the same thing.

Here's the distinction: JustConsolidate expects you to create a new, dedicated QBO company that serves as your consolidation parent. Your existing QBO companies — including what you might think of as the legal parent — all become subsidiaries from JustConsolidate's perspective.


Example:

Say Company A is the legal parent of two wholly-owned subsidiaries, Company B and Company C, and each entity has its own QBO file. To use JustConsolidate, you'd first create a new QBO company (let's call it ParentCo) to act as your financial consolidation parent. In JustConsolidate, ParentCo is the Parent, and Companies A, B, and C are all Subsidiaries. ParentCo will hold your consolidated financials.

If it helps, think of it this way: Companies A, B, and C are your subsidiary ledgers, and ParentCo is your consolidation ledger.






QBO subscription requirements

  • Subsidiary companies — Any QBO subscription level works. JustConsolidate only reads data from these companies.
  • Parent company — Must be QBO Plus or Advanced. JustConsolidate uses the Category (Location) field to tag each subsidiary on consolidation journal entries, and that field is only available on Plus and above.



How to connect your companies

Connecting your QBO companies is handled entirely through Intuit's OAuth process — there's no manual data entry on your part. A few clicks and you're ready to move on to chart-of-accounts mapping.

  1. Click Add Company and follow the Intuit OAuth prompts to authorize each QBO company.
  2. Once all your companies are listed, click Set as Parent in the Entity Level column of the company that will serve as your consolidation parent. All other companies default to subsidiary level.



Company settings explained

After connecting, each company appears in the display table with several configurable and informational fields:


Entity Level — Indicates whether a company is the Parent or a Subsidiary. You set this using the "Set as Parent" link. If you need to reset which entity is the Parent, remove the company that is currently listed as the Parent then add it back.


Consolidation Alias (optional) — An alternate display name used for a subsidiary when consolidation entries are posted to the parent company. This lets you keep the full legal name intact in QBO while using a cleaner or segment-friendly name in your consolidated reporting.


Consolidation % — Defaults to 100% (the equity method). For proportional consolidation, enter your ownership percentage (up to two decimal places). All consolidation workflows — including the opening balance sheet — will apply this percentage to the trial balance before posting.


QuickBooks Name — Pulled automatically when you connect a company and cached thereafter, since this metadata rarely changes. If the company name, currency, or first period of transaction changes in QBO, click the green refresh icon to re-sync. Refreshing metadata does not affect your COA mappings or financials.


Realm ID — The unique identifier QuickBooks assigns to each company (think of it as a fingerprint). When JustConsolidate posts consolidation journal entries, the Realm ID is included in the JE name field — useful later when searching for specific entries.


OBAL Period — For subsidiaries, this is the first period of transaction detected when the company was connected (or last refreshed). For the parent, this field stays blank unless you've designated an opening balance sheet period. See the Opening Balance Sheet workflow.


Connection Status — Normally shows Connected. If the OAuth connection breaks or times out, the status will switch to Disconnected and a Re-authorize link will appear. Click it to restore the connection before running any workflows.