Question

Simple template for rental property accounting?

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
November 22, 2018
3 replies
68 views

I found my way here looking for a simple system for using QB for rental property accounting. I have a 2012 ver of QB and I have used it in the past for a construction co. I think I could go through the steps to set up a simple company with each rental as a customer/job and work out all of the expense accounts as needed but I'm a bit rusty in my QB skills and it would be time consuming. I'm guessing someone must have worked this all out before and I'd be happy to pay a reasonable amt for the pre-set template. I don't need to invoice tenants, write payroll or anything complicated... just wanting to use it for bookkeeping and to be able to send my tax accountant a P&L report at the end of the year.

Does what I'm looking for exist?

Thanks!

QuickBooks Desktop

qbteachmt

Level 11

Customer:Job, such as Property address:Tenant, allows you to track prior tenant, current tenant, moving in tenant, using Job start, projected end and end dates, job status, security deposits by Job (tenant), etc.

Don't overlook Items. Rent, Security Deposit, pet deposit, utilities, etc would be charged to the tenant.

You didn't mention if you are managing from the perspective of landlord or property manager for property owned by others. The differences include if this rent is your income or owed to others as your liability, for instance. You would need to understand your needs from the perspective of the accounting and reporting requirements.

QB 2012 is not meant to run on W8 or newer; it reached end of life in May 2015. If you are using Windows 7 or higher, it would be time to move to QB 2019 for compatibility and security reasons; for the ability to email invoices and reports and handle electronic banking activities directly in the QB program. You have none of this in QB 2012. QB Pro costs about $150, typically, and would be a business expense on the tax forms you file. You risk the data file can become corrupt and/or not even updated or accessible, the longer you use incompatible software or unsupported (reached end of life and no longer updated) programs.

We had an All Star, Gita Faust, here who has books for QB and Property Management.

K

KhimG

Level 7

Greetings, @localHero.

Thanks for taking the time to post in the Community space. I’m here to share some information about running property management business in QuickBooks Desktop.

I can see that you’re actually skilled when it comes to setting up each rental as a Customer:Job in your company file. With QuickBooks Desktop, you don’t only set up a company file, you can as well perform tasks such as run your property management business, track and receive rent from tenants, paying property owners and management companies, record fees and overhead charges for property maintenance.

If you’re asking for a pre-set template for rental property accounting, I’d suggest reaching out to your local accountant. Your local accounting professional can provide advice tailored to your situation since laws and regulations relating to property management may vary based on the state, industry or specific facts and circumstances involved.

If you need additional information in creating a property management company in QuickBooks Online, you may refer to this helpful article: https://community.intuit.com/articles/1764942.

Please let me know if you have any questions or if I can be of additional assistance. Wishing you all the best and Happy Thanksgiving!

L

localHeroAuthor

Thanks for the replies! I'm a landlord/owner and while I'm also a Realtor, I don't manage properties for others. Simple bookkeeping is all I'm looking for. I already have an online system in place for collecting rents and keeping track of what's due when. I just need a system to keep track of my income/expenses on an ongoing basis instead of trying to figure it all out at the end of the year (as I am now) :-/

I'll check out that article and talk to my accountant though I've asked him for something like this before and he didn't have much to offer.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

R

Rasa-LilaM

QuickBooks Team

Good day, localHero.

Thanks for turning to the Community. I’d be glad to help and ensure you can efficiently track these transactions.

To stay on top with your financial records, make sure the data from the current online system is also recorded into QuickBooks. Doing so will help manage your business time.

If the current online program is capable of importing these transactions, then you’ll be able to bring the data directly into QBDT. However, if your accounting system is unable to automatically bring the transactions into QuickBooks, you may want to consider using a third-party application.

The Intuit Marketplace is a one stop shop where you'll find third-party apps that integrate with QuickBooks Desktop. I've added articles that will guide you through the steps on how to record income and expenses:

If there's anything else that I can help you with, drop a comment below. Please know that I'm here to make running your business more simple. Wishing you continued success.

BizPro

Hi there! I have done quite a few of these and it seems that it will be a pretty simple set up as you mentioned. We can easily set this up for you in an hour or so. All but one of our clients are real estate investors and vacations rental companies. First a couple of questions and recommendations of the best way to help you and a reasonable cost as well. How do you want to track expenses for each property? This is simple to set up and maintain. Just a mouse click to assign any expenses to a particular property. To track your income, (without sending any invoices to tenants...that's just silly) I'd create a memorized transaction for the invoice (of the rental rate) that is never printed or sent out unless you wanted to for a particular issue. Otherwise it will just live in your QBooks account. When you receive the rent each month, you post the payment to the already created invoice. To assist you in desktop, I could log in remotely and set it all up for you.. As an alternative option, since you are rusty anyway and your QBooks is not supported by Intuit any longer you may consider making a move over to QuickBooks Online? The reconciliations are super easy, completed in minutes and you never have to enter anything manually except possibly a cash receipt for some thing. Those can also be done with a click on a smart phone. All transactions in and out are on the bank feed. You can also allow tenants to click & pay by ACH and their rent is in your bank the following business day! You can access QBO from anywhere, never need to buy new versions (it's always updating) and instead of the retail price of up to $70 per month (most people find 1/2 price deals for 6 or 12 months) , we can add you under BizPro's, ProAdvisor Accountant account and it will be at no charge through 12/31/2020. That can be changed anytime you like simply by calling Intuit and changing over to your own plan. I fought QBooks Online for years but have been a ProAdvisor now for 3 years and finding it's pretty simple, provides everything I need for most clients and it's a huge time saver. At the end of each year, it's very easy to provide your tax professional with whatever you need. Why not let technology do most of the work? I would be happy to do your set up for an $88 Flat Fee. Food for thought. Please get in touch and I'll be glad to assist. (We are in California on Pacific Standard Time...just our phone is a Pennsylvania number) Michelle Hunnewell, BizPro Accounting & Financial Services [removed] [removed]) [email address removed]

T

TN-landlord

Hey there.

I have 26 properties under management.

I export the data from the manager's software into EXCEL.

I wonder if you could help me set up QB Desktop to import the property specific transactions 1:1 or consolidated by QUARTER, from a pivot table. . . .

The current QB File has P&L and BS, but is not yet set up to track the individual properties. . . .

Since rent collection and such is done by the property manager, I just need to be able to get reports on a house by house basis. . . . instead of using QB as only the consolidation of activity.

Your thougghts?

R

Rasa-LilaM

QuickBooks Team

Thanks for joining this thread, TN-landlord.

If the exported file is your tenants’ profile, import them as customers’ or jobs. However, if these are transactions, convert the Excel file to an IIF format.

The ability to change a CSV file to IIF is currently unavailable in QuickBooks. You can consider visiting Intuit Marketplace for the list of applications that can help convert the file.

When you're ready, please import the data into your company file. Once done, let's go ahead and set up the properties.

In QuickBooks, you’ll have to set up the owners as customers and then enter tenants as jobs. Please follow the steps below.

In your company file, tap the Customers menu to select the Customer Center tab.
Click the New Customer & Job drop-down and choose New Customer. You can also pick Add Multiple Customer: Jobs to enter the clients’ data at once.
Input the personal details in the field boxes.
Once done, hit the OK button.

If you haven’t created the jobs, let’s go ahead and enter them. Here’s how:

In your company file, tap the Customers menu to select the Customer Center tab.
From the New Customer & Job drop-down, choose Add Job.
You’ll be routed to another window, from there enter the job name and fill in the fields.
Click OK once you’re finished.

Please follow the same procedure for the remaining jobs you want to add. Next, enter your vendors and subcontractors.

Go to the Vendors menu to choose the Customer Center tab.
From the New Vendor drop-down, select New Vendor or Add Multiple Vendors.
In the Vendor information window, enter the supplier’s information.
Click on OK.

The list will include your own property management company, and any other businesses you need to pay from the rental property company. For example, items such as taxes, mortgage, insurance, repairs, janitor, landscaping, and homeowner associations.

To continue setting up the properties, follow the steps in this article and go directly to the Create your billable services section: Create a property management company.

If you have any clarifications or questions while working in QuickBooks, post a comment below. I’ll jump right back in to assist further. Wishing you the best.

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