Accounting Software ... Where to start?

Question

Greetings.  We started buying rental properties about a year ago.  We're up to 16 single family houses and are targeting a growth plan of onboarding 3-4 per month with about three units in some state of rehab at any given time. Long story short is we're finally at the point that managing the accounting and finances by Excel is painful. What software do you recommend for a company of our size and trajectory (targeting 100 units within two years)? My instinct was to revert to Quickbooks as in the past with other business needs.  But, I've read a lot of negative comments about it for the real estate world.  Thanks much for your time and consideration.

Matthew Cervoni · Answer

At my firm we exclusively use Quickbooks Online and we have developed templates that make Quickbooks very real estate friendly. At 100 units my recommendation would be to find a real estate bookkeeper if you want to maximize tax savings and get professional financial insight for your portfolio.

However, if you are going the DIY route and have the time to keep your accounting current, I still recommend using Quickbooks and following "Income Digs" on YouTube. Nick has a lot of great videos that can teach you how to have high quality DIY real estate books.

https://www.youtube.com/c/Inco...

Nathan Gesner · Answer

Check out Stessa. It's free and may be enough for you.

Everett Stephens · Answer

Gracias Julio y tenga buen día!

Julio Gonzalez · Answer

@Everett Stephens Yardi Breeze is a great accounting software for real estate. It also has a portal for your tenants to communicate back and forth with you, request maintenance, pay online, etc. Definitely a steeper learning curve than QBs, but has a lot of great functionality for real estate. I believe there's a minimum price of $100/month for residential properties.

Everett Stephens · Answer

Great advice! Thank you. My in-house property manager was just asking if there's a simpler way we can start managing calendar inputs so they tie to projects and provide a global view. I'm fairly certain you just cleared my path, Gita.  Thanks again.

Gita Faust · Answer

If you are targeting 100 units in a year or two. Please use property management software. Do not get me wrong, I love QuickBooks and I have clients managing their properties and accounting all in one with 1000+ units. They use QuickBooks Enterprise.

Saying that get started with pm software now, learn the ins and outs of the software and when you grow, it will be easy on you and your pocket.

Remember it is not about the price, it is about the time and money you and your team will spend in automation and pulling reports from different software.

James Wilcox · Answer

Send your investor friends my way. Lexingtonian through and through. I also second Stessa because you can’t beat the price. Real estate accounting software by real estate investors for real estate investors. Might be difficult for a portfolio size in the triple digits though.

Everett Stephens · Answer

Many thanks Julien! Your assessment reads just like many of the stories I've read -- especially for the online version of QB.  I appreciate your response! Ev

Accounting Software ... Where to start?

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