QUICKBOOKS FOR RENTAL PROPERTY ACCOUNTING QuickBooks is often at the top of any professional’s mind when they think about accounting software for their business. QuickBooks can be used for managing your rental transactions by setting up properties as customers, tenants as sub-customers, and classes to track transaction types. The tenant sub customer will show all rent invoices, associated payments, and current balance. QuickBooks also provides solutions for property managers, who often have more accounting requirements regarding paying owners and trust accounting. QuickBooks offers the following explanation for rental property accounting on their website: “QuickBooks Desktop allows you to set up a company file that lets you run your property management business and do tasks such as receiving and tracking rent from tenants, paying property owners and management companies, fees and overhead charges for property maintenance.” Despite being the leading accounting solution for small businesses, QuickBooks has its limitations for managing rentals. Software designed specifically for property managers offers an industry-specific accounting system with the powerful reporting features of QuickBooks but it is already set up with categories and ledgers for rental management. Quickbooks is great for general accounting, but it is missing all the tools that will truly make you stand out as the best property manager or landlord. With software designed specifically to your industry, you will get industry-specific tools like a tenant portal for your tenants to log into and make maintenance requests and pay their rent, an owner portal for owners to review their property performance, and built-in tenant screening so you can screen your tenants right within the same application.
Compare the ease of setup for the accounting system:
Quickbooks property management accounting | Leaseze property management accounting | |
---|---|---|
Step 1 | Setup Company, Click Create company, answer many questions in forms | Leaseze setup is automatic and requires no effort |
Step 2 | Setup tenants and vendors, manually enter data, row by row | Leaseze setup is automatic and requires no effort |
Step 3 | Record security deposits with individual entries | Record security deposits with individual entries |
Step 4 | Record rent charges with individual entries | Rent charges entries are automatic |
Step 5 | Record each expense with individual entries | Record each expense with individual entries |
Step 6 | Hire an accountant to operate your Quickbooks | You manage accounting, no accounting knowledge necessary |
Property management software offers many more options for the effectiveness of your business. Leaseze.com, for instance, has full accounting (which provides an overview of all transactions) as well as lease agreement templates, allowing you to collect online rent payments and sign lease agreements within the system. Save paper and ink for your art classes! Many of the problems experienced by landlords can be made easier (if not solved) with the improved organization and better use of available tools. This helps landlords streamline the management of their rentals. They can automate time-consuming everyday tasks and communications, and when it comes to their accounts everything is properly organized with expenses categorized. Plus, all the relevant documentation and receipts can be stored in the same place.
Property management software gives a rental manager or landlord all the tools they need to run a successful business.
Overall, any property management software can simplify documentation procedures and automate most of the process by generating reports, setting up reminders and notices, and creating recurring invoices.
Features | Leaseze property accounting | QuickBooks Online |
---|---|---|
Track Income and Expenses | Yes | Yes |
Capture receipt images | Yes | Yes |
Maximize tax deductions | Yes | Yes |
Easy setup for rental properties | Yes | |
Real estate specific transactions | Yes | |
Reporting at every level - portfolio - property | Yes | |
Automatic Schedule E Output | Yes | |
Accounts pre configured for real estate | Yes | |
Document Storage | Yes | |
Lease tracking | Yes |
You can find more information on rental accounting here
A list of Quickbook Errors