Merge Two Companies

You would need a utility program such as one produced by Karl Irvin

Consult your accountant before proceeding. Merging ALL data, both historical and future, may be neither advisable nor legal.

Times like these require a call to your accountant. The real question is not how, but should I? 99.99999% of the time the answer will be no.

So far, at least two people have told you to 'ask your accountant'. As an accountant, and since this is not the tax season, I'll take a stab at it. Let's say Company A acquired Company B. If the two 'companies' filed separate tax returns (for example, if they are corporations), then if you merge the financial records of B into A, B will still give you an accurate historical tax record, but A will not, as its own data will be mixed together with B for periods of time during which A filed its own its own tax return. If such be the case, you should at least make a backup copy of A and retain it as a separate QuickBooks file, so as to maintain the integrity of A's tax records prior to the combination.

If neither company filed its own tax return, (for example, of both were sole proprietorships, or single member LLC's), than there is less harm in combining them. However, even in this instance I would retain separate QuickBooks files for historical purposes. Keep in mind that once you merge the two companies, A's separate history is gone forever.

Hope this helps.