Accounting for owners of multiple companies, licensed once and installed on your own server.
Southwind Books is bookkeeping software with back-end access for the business owner to every company. Each company logs its close-outs, and they are entered into the books automatically every night.
What it does
Every company in one place
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.
Entered every night
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 database enforces this, so an entry that does not balance cannot be saved.
Entries are never deleted. A correction is recorded as a new entry that reverses the original, so the full history stays intact.
Security
Southwind Books runs on your server and only accepts connections from inside your network. 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 | Nightly, encrypted, with an off-site copy |
| Audit trail | Every sign-in, entry, change and export |
| License | One time, no expiration |
Southwind Books vs. QuickBooks
QuickBooks charges every year, and QuickBooks Online charges for every company. 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 | From $1,873 per year, 1 user | $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 | Built and changed for you |
| If you stop paying | Read-only. You can view records but not add new ones | The software stops working | It keeps working. The license never expires. |
| Support | Intuit phone and chat | Intuit phone and chat | Direct support from the developer |
Example: 3 users, 5 companies, over 3 years. QuickBooks prices are Intuit's published list prices as of October 2026 and can change. Payroll and payments are extra on all of them.