Accounting and rent payment management

[Brad Wood]

I have bought my first property, a duplex with a rental unit in the basement. Any guidance on the best way to manage rent income and receipts for the tenant? I know one property is fairly simple but I would like to track and keep the funds separate and hope we'll have future growth so want to get off to a good start. Does anyone use quickbooks or what is a cheap and easy software to both track payments and expenses but also, if possible, to issue receipts to the tenant.

Thanks in advance. 

[Azeez K.]

Hi @Brad Wood

Congrats on your duplex. I use Quickbooks Pro to manage all my books. Pro-tip you can hire a bookkeeper/accountant and get on their wholesale plan that way the pricing is a lot cheaper for Quickbooks. Also when setting up Quickbooks just make sure your tenants can pay using ACH or Debit cards that way there is no transaction fees or else you will pay a lot in transaction fees. 

Also take a look at stessa for portfolio management. However, for accounting it's very very basic and you can't collect rent. If you are thinking from a long term perspective have a professional set up your Quickbooks right the first time. 

Hope this helps