Conglomerate » From: Yellville, AR Dear TaxMama: If a person has several online businesses under the same business name (conglomerate), what bookkeeping system would you recommend (must have instructions on how to set it up and use it)? Philip Dear Philip, I generally recommend that my clients use QuickBooks. It lets you maintain records for all the businesses combined, in one reporting system. Yet it can give you a profit and loss on each business separately. It comes with an excellent system to walk you through the set-up and use of the program. The Intuit folks do their best to make it as easy for you as possible. But nothing replaces years of experience learning about and working with accounting systems. They can't teach you all that in just a few minutes. While they DO provide built-in charts of accounts, and many other tools to help you along, I'd really suggest that, if you are combining several businesses under one umbrella, you get a professional to help you. To teach you how to use it and set it up properly for your particular businesses would take about 2-3 hours, if you're not already a trained bookkeeper. You may want to find a local QuickBooks expert to set it up for you. (Or, you are welcome to engage my services at the rate of $150.00 per hour - but I REALLY think you can get it done for a third of that price closer to home.) Best wishes, Eva Rosenberg Your TaxMama