One bank, then the next
A combined total is a comfort. It is also how a weak company hides inside a strong one. The order here is the other way. Finish company one until its bank, its bills, and its statements agree. Then finish company two the same way. Only after that do you look at them together. The together view is a reading aid. It is not a bowl you pour both companies into.
Bring the newest month you believe for each company, plus the bank activity after it and the software you already open. A company that already ties is left as it is. A company that does not tie is the work. You will know which one, because the one that ties can be set aside in an afternoon and the other one cannot.
Oak Cliff incorporated in 1887 and was annexed in 1903, and we still treat that ground as its own place the way you do. Two companies can feel that separate even when one person owns both. We keep the books that separate. A shop on one side of the river and a shop on the other keep their own deposit lists, even after the owner eats one lunch. A transfer that only one set of books remembers is the reason we refuse a combined total. We keep each company's close as separate as those two shops, and we do not blend them to make the afternoon look tidy.
The company that pays people
Payroll is set up on the company that actually pays people. The provider, the people, and the filing dates are ready before the first payday you want to run yourself. After that, you run payday. If both companies pay people, each setup names its own company. Two payroll trails inside one company make the return harder to read. Two companies with one trail each stay readable.
A quiet company does not get a payroll account just to make the pair look even. A busy company does not absorb the other company's wages to make the quiet one look lighter. The statements stay honest because the wages stay where the people were paid.
What the total is for
Once both companies tie, you can read them on one page. Cash here, cash there. What each one earned. What you took from each. That page is useful in October, when you are deciding what to pay yourself and which company has the cash. It is useless in March if neither company has been closed, because the numbers on it are wishes.
The return follows the same order. Each company files from its own books. A schedule that adds them up is a reading copy for you. It does not stand in for either return. The useful test is whether you can name the company and the month behind a figure without a second explanation.
If a third company shows up midyear, it does not get folded into the total on day one. It gets its own close, starting with the month it began, and the older companies stay as they were. The total grows when the new books are real. Not before.
You can walk the companies with us on a screen share. The bank feed and the file you already keep are enough to start. Company one still ties before anyone adds company two into a total. Miles do not change that order. A shop that feels like its own town and a shop that feels like the first one still get two closes, because one lunch does not merge two banks.
