A client asks whether QuickBooks can handle multiple units of measure, consolidated reporting, or AIA-style billing. We answer from memory, then discover the product changed. With Intuit releasing features this quickly, what was true six months ago may not be true today.
That’s the backdrop for Episode 160 of The Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast. Host Alicia Katz Pollock and guest Hector Garcia review Intuit Enterprise Suite (IES) developments through August 2026. They note that while IES expands what QuickBooks can handle, some features are moving into QuickBooks Online Advanced and Plus.
As Hector explains, “If I know how to use QuickBooks, I know how to use Intuit Enterprise Suite. I just have to learn the additional functions.”
IES extends the QuickBooks Online foundation
IES uses the familiar QuickBooks Online interface, API, app ecosystem, and Desktop migration process. It adds more fields and functions, but users don’t have to learn an entirely new accounting system. Intuit is also updating the underlying platform across QuickBooks Online, IES, and Intuit Accountant Suite, which Hector says should improve performance.
Intuit doesn’t publish pricing because it builds a custom package around each company’s needs. But Hector offered these estimates:
- A single entity may cost about $750 to $800 per month
- Three entities with payroll may average about $1,800 per month
- Pricing can change based on users, entities, dimensions, payroll, and add-ons
- IES includes five users, with the option to expand to up to 500. QuickBooks Online Advanced stops at 25.
Dimensions show the wider operating range. They work like multiple classes that you can name and use at either the transaction or line-item level. IES can support up to 20 dimensions. As of August 2026, you can apply dimensions to every transaction that normally supports classes, including timesheets and payroll.
Users can also build reports with one dimension on the rows and another on the columns. Balance sheets by dimension were in beta, while an AI backfill tool could suggest dimensions for older transactions based on patterns involving customers, vendors, and items. That historical backfill may make dimensions far more useful during implementation.
Multi-entity accounting creates a major advisory opportunity
IES connects related companies for consolidated reporting. Users can run consolidated profit and loss statements, balance sheets, sales reports, and roughly 20 other reports. They can also drill from a consolidated report into the original transaction in the underlying company file.
The system supports non-posting eliminations, which remove intercompany activity from consolidated statements without changing each entity’s books. Intuit added automatic eliminations in August for linked intercompany invoices and bills. An invoice created in one company can generate a related bill in another company and hold it for approval.
That automation depends on careful setup. Customers, items, and accounts must be mapped correctly between companies. Hector warned that this can take “hours and hours and hours,” but he also called it one of the biggest consulting opportunities in the Intuit ecosystem.
Companies can keep separate charts of accounts and map them to a standard reporting structure. Alternatively, they can adopt and lock a shared chart across all entities. Once that foundation is in place, IES can support much more specialized work.
Construction leads, with manufacturing and nonprofits following
Hector believes IES reaches, and in some areas exceeds, QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise’s construction capabilities. The expanding toolset includes:
- Estimate-versus-actual and work-in-progress reporting
- Percentage-of-completion revenue recognition
- Revised contract values and separate positive or negative change orders
- Project-specific user permissions
- Target profit margins and project KPI dashboards
- AI-assisted imports of project budgets from spreadsheets or PDFs
- AIA-style billing based on an estimate and schedule of values
Manufacturing and inventory are next. Multiple units of measure is live in IES. So, for example, a yarn company could buy yarn by the case, track it by the roll, and sell it by the yard or inch. A few Advanced customers also had access, although Intuit hadn’t announced a broader release yet. Bills of material are in beta, while multi-location inventory, lot and serial tracking, and barcode scanning are under development.
Nonprofit tools may follow in 2027. Intuit is exploring grant management and restricted-asset tracking, although pricing will be an important concern for smaller organizations.
IES features are already moving downstream
Even if your clients never adopt IES, its development matters. Intuit has already moved several ideas into lower QuickBooks Online tiers, although availability may vary:
- Cost groups organize products and services into reporting buckets such as labor, materials, and equipment
- Project phases divide job costs into stages such as foundation, walls, and punch-out
- Proposals turn estimates into polished documents with text, branding, and electronic acceptance
- Calculated report fields add spreadsheet-style math inside QuickBooks reports
- Sales order improvements connect one sales order to purchase orders from several vendors
- Item receipts separate the date inventory arrives from the date the vendor bill posts
Item receipts require special care. Once enabled, the client must consistently follow the purchase order-to-item receipt-to-bill workflow. Skipping a step can leave a balance in the inventory clearing account.
That’s why Alicia recommends revisiting rejected features every three to six months. A workflow that failed last year, or even last quarter, may work differently now.
Build a habit of checking again
Smart accounting professionals will track IES releases to see what may reach QuickBooks Online next, reevaluate product limitations every three to six months, treat mapping, permissions, and workflow design as advisory services, and test optional workflows before introducing them to clients.
Listen to the full conversation between Alicia Katz Pollock and Hector Garcia in Episode 160 of The Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast.
Alicia Katz Pollock’s Royalwise OWLS (On-Demand Web-based Learning Solutions) is the industry’s premier portal for top-notch QuickBooks Online training with CPE for accounting firms, bookkeepers, and small business owners. Visit Royalwise OWLS, where learning QBO is a HOOT!
