I have been tracking my small RE holding with an Excel spreadsheet and making it look like a checkbook with categories that I can sort. This has worked so far but I can see that it won't work well with multiple properties. I am familiar with quickbooks via my day job so I am thinking of using it for RE.

I watched a few you-tube videos and there seem to be multiple ways of doing it. One way was to make the property a customer, if multi unit then there are multiple jobs attached to the customer (ie the building), and finally the renter is a job under the unit. Seemed a little complex but I think the advantage was to see how a particular bldg was doing from a profit/loss standpoint. So it be something like 123 Main St: Unit A, B C, D under that, and then renters under that Joe Blow, Mary Smith, etc.

Not sure if that explanation is clear but anyway, how do you keep track of everything for your accountant? Any thoughts from you experienced souls?

Thanks Razor,

That is what I am trying to do - set it up correctly from the get go. Looking for what works for landlords and accountants. I want it to be as easy as possible for my accountant.

been using quicken for rentals and quick books for employees and billing since early 90's. Wow how it has progressed.

Last time I post this it was removed but I'll give it one more shot.

David,

I use Quicken98 since 1998 (Quicken since 1996) because it is SIMPLE. KISS.

I've tried every version since but they add work and clutter, reducing my FREEDOM!!! I click on the memorized name, type in the dollar amount, hit L for labor and the house number, press print, drop the check in a window envelope, done, never touch it again.

Everything my tax preparer needs with a few clicks for a year end report.

Quickbooks is more complicated and cluttered than I need for a rental biz. Tried it. We don't send out bills for rent (autodraft baby!).

If you really like QB buy Mike Butler's Tenant Tracking software which instantly sets up your QB for rentals. Available on this site. Mike just ran a seminar on how to use it.

BRAD

I use Quickbooks Online. For me, the building is the customer, the tenant is the job. And I use classes, so each building is a class so that I can assign income and expenses to a particular building.

There's a few other things I do. First, I invoice the tenants each month for their rent, pet rent, security systems, whatever I'm billing them for. That invoice is emailed to the tenant about the 27th of the month automatically by Quickbooks. The invoice has a box on it that says "Pay Now". The tenant selects the pay now box and he is able to enter his bank account and routing number into the popup. When he completes the process it sends the money from his account to mine via ACH. I get the money in my account in 2 days usually. Cost is 50 cents, no minimum.

That's not all. Quickbooks enters your transaction into your books automatically. Further, you can link your bank account and credit card to quickbooks, so all your transactions will download to the system, you hit a button to enter it into your books.

David, spend the time to get your chart of accounts right and your book keeping can be quick,easy and the most useful tool that you own. With a bad chart of accounts, the opposite is the case.

I have been using qb since 1996, IMHO, you should too. Lots of free, readily available help.

I've been using QB's since the day I started. Last year I switched from desktop to QBO. It's a great program and much better than desktop pro.

One of my favorite things is that when a payment hasn't been received by x date QBO automatically sends out a second invoice. You can even set it up to send P&Q notices automatically.

If you want a really good guide on setting up QB for rentals take a look at either landlordaccounting.com developed by an investor when he started in this business or Gita Faust who is an acct. that specializes in LL accounting and has some excellent books. OBO is much easier than desktop and anywhere access is a real plus. I also like being able to open multiple tabs at one time.

The few things that take a minute to figure out which are covered by either of the above mentioned choices:

NSF checks and security deposits.

If you invoice and get paid electronically remember to setup two different checking accts. so the funds drop into the correct account; biz ck or trust. Makes reconciling the trust acct so much easier and eliminates chance of co-mingling funds.

Whatever you do DO NOT use Intuit Merchant Svs for electronic payments. They are incompetent and think it's ok to hold your funds for 5+ days before they send it to your bank.

To your question:

property is customer, tenant is job. Definitely use classes for tracking P and L by property and tenant.

I'm only here to say hello to Brad, whom I otherwise would not see until the Annual Quicken98 convention where he calls the meeting to order for all of a minute.

"How's 98 working for you?"

"Fine"

"Anything new needed"

"Nope, How bout you?"

"Nothing. Works great. Then this meeting is adjourned. Let the annual luncheon begin".

This is what entries look like for me

Rent:AV/AA Tom Hanks Or SecDep:AV/AA Tom Hanks

(What I just wrote, was the income category, sub category of Asheville. The Class is followed by the /.

AA is the house name with Mr. Hanks being the teni

I'm in different towns so I need to distinguish between Asheville and Durham. AV DU allowing for better reports

Expenses look like this

Supply/AA Tom Hanks (memo paint roller covers)

Materials/AA Tom Hanks (memo Silly gray that looks white)

Lawn Service/AA Tom Hanks

When the teni move out I edit their name to the move out year

AA z16 Tom Hanks

The quickfill no longer brings up Tom Hanks as an option before pulling up Tim Knew because I've added z16. There is no need to scroll through names which no longer are used. Also, it should be noted that the info above is typed with lightning speed as the program completes your thoughts.

My books are ready for review pretty much at anytime. There is no year end preparation. The books are simple yet very detailed and the steps are so redundant that you learn and fly through the data entry. You never need to deal with upgrades.

Also, it should be noted that we use XP machines that are off-line. They never go on-line...never. I only have three XP machines for Quicken. I back up into each of them every so often. (All three are in different locations and they stay lightning fast)

NC Investor: I notice you gave some cautionary advice regards 'Intuit Merchant Services" for electronic payments. ie "whatever you do do not use it'.

In my post above prior to yours, I said exactly the opposite. You and I have had a much different experience. Quickbooks has had some different services for electronic payment.

A few years ago I was using a service they called I P N (Intutit Payment Service) with the desktop version of Quickbooks. I was satisfied with it, had no issues, it allowed me to receive electronic payments. I received them in 2-3 days.

Then, they decided to cancel I P N, and if you wanted to continue electronic payments, and if you had a Mac, which I did, then you had to move to their Quickbooks Online product. Otherwise, I would have had to change from a Mac to a PC, which I didn't want to do. So several years ago I changed to Quickbooks Online.

When I did that, my online payment service changed to QuickBooks Payments. Now, they rolled a couple of different products into QuickBooks Payments. They also have a Online Center that is part of the Online service that is called Merchant Services. It's where you can check all the details of your payments.

I don't use it often, because it's not necessary. But I bring it up because Intuit has a couple of different products. I thought they had rolled them all into QuickBooks Payments, but perhaps not, or perhaps you're using or were using a different product.

I bring it up because I have never had a 5 day payment. My payments are 2-3 days. Quickbooks pays me before the money is in their account. If I get a bad check, they take it back out of my account. No problem, that would have happened if you were taking paper checks, except that it probably would have taken 2 weeks. QuickBooks figures it out quicker.