We have two businesses. Do we need two have two separate QuickBooks accounts or can there be separation between the two on our account?

If our two business have different partners and we want to give access to a partner to one quickbooks a/c but not the other, how can we keep access separate. I opened a new gmail account for the separate business but the new gmail account shows up when I sign into the first gmail account. So if I give a partner the gmail account login, it seems they might have access to my other gmail account.

Thank for joining this thread, Kris20261.

I'm happy to provide some info about having separate QuickBooks Online accounts for two businesses.

QuickBooks views each legal business as its own separate entity, which means they do require their own individual paid subscriptions. The good news is that you don’t need a bunch of different logins to manage them; you can keep everything under one username and simply hop back and forth between the two companies whenever you need. Here's how to get this done:

1. Create a New Company Subscription 

You'll need to purchase a second subscription for the second business. 

1. Go to the QuickBooks pricing page and select a plan for the new company.
2. When prompted to "Add a company to an existing account?", select Sign in.
3. Use your existing user ID and password to link the new company to your current login. 

2. Move Your Data

Once the new account is set up, you need to transfer the relevant information from the original account: 

1. Export/Import Lists: In your original company, go to the Gear icon > Export Data to save your Customers, Vendors, and Chart of Accounts to Excel. Then, log into the new company and use Gear icon > Import Data to upload them.
2. Transactions: Individual transactions (invoices, expenses) generally cannot be moved automatically via basic QBO. You may need to enter them manually starting from a specific "cutoff date" or use a third-party migration tool from the QuickBooks App Store.
3. Advanced Option: If both accounts are QuickBooks Online Advanced, you can use the built-in Backup and Restore feature to copy data directly from one to the other. 

3. Switch Between Businesses

After setup, you can easily toggle between your companies: 

1. Select the Gear icon (Settings) ⚙.
2. Select Switch company.
3. Choose the business you want to work on from the list. 

I'm linking a couple of articles below that I believe you'll find helpful:

• Create or add another company file
• Export your QuickBooks Online data

With this information you'll be able to successfully manage two businesses with QuickBooks Online. Assistance is only a comment or post away here in the Community if you have any other questions. Take care!