Accounting for owners of multiple companies, licensed once and installed on your own server.
Southwind Books is multi-company accounting software for owners and bookkeepers who manage more than one business. Each company records its daily close-out separately, while the owner maintains consolidated access to every company from one system.
What it does
Consolidated view of all companies
The owner sees every company and its locations, with income, expenses and net for each and for all of them combined.
Daily cash close-outs
Each location closes out the day: register report, cash and card sales, the deposit bag and any difference between them.
Automatic nightly posting
Each night, the day's submissions are combined into the owner's books automatically.
A login for each company
Each company signs in with its own login and can only see and enter that company's records.
Double-entry books
Every transaction is recorded as balanced debits and credits. The system enforces this, so an entry that does not balance cannot be saved.
Entries are not deleted. A correction is recorded as a new entry that reverses the original, and the full history is kept.
Security
Southwind Books runs on your server and is not exposed directly to the public internet. Remote access is provided through your private network or VPN. Each person has their own login and permissions, and the owner can switch off any login immediately.
Specifications
| Installs on | Your Windows server |
|---|---|
| Access | Through your VPN |
| Companies | Unlimited |
| Users | Unlimited, each with their own login |
| Backups | Managed deployment: nightly encrypted backups with an off-site copy. Customer-managed installations: backups are set up on the customer's server. |
| Audit trail | Sign-ins, entries, changes and exports |
| License | One time, no expiration |
Southwind Books vs. QuickBooks
QuickBooks is a subscription, and QuickBooks Online generally requires a separate subscription for each company file. Southwind Books is a one-time license that covers all your companies.
| QuickBooks Online | QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise | Southwind Books | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How you pay | Monthly subscription | Yearly subscription | One-time license |
| Price | $38–$340 per month, per company | Priced by Intuit by plan and number of users | $2,500, one time |
| More than one company | Each company is a separate subscription | Included | Unlimited, all included |
| Users | 1 to 25, depending on plan | Priced by number of users | Unlimited |
| Where your data is kept | Intuit's servers | Your computer, or a paid hosting service | Your computer, your own server or a Viper Systems managed server, with encrypted offsite backups |
| Changes to fit your business | Limited to add-on apps | Limited | Custom changes available; custom development is quoted separately unless included |
| License term | Subscription | Subscription | Perpetual. The license does not expire. |
| Support | Intuit phone and chat | Intuit phone and chat | Direct support from the developer |
Pricing source: Intuit, checked October 2026. Example: 3 users, 5 companies, over 3 years. The QuickBooks Online figure uses Intuit's published list price as of October 2026, before promotional discounts, and can change. QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise is not shown because Intuit prices it by plan and number of users. Payroll and payments are extra.