tracking expenses for each property vs portfolio?

[Michael Wentzel]

Hello everyone,

If you have a portfolio of single-family properties, do you always have to track the income and expenses by property?

I'm pulling together my numbers for my partnership tax return and it is a pain. We have 25 units spread over 19 properties... which means we have 19 property tax payments, 19 loan payments (per month), 19 insurance premiums, etc. Much of it is my own fault because I don't have a good accounting system in place. (I am now getting Quickbooks online setup, so we should be good to go in the future.)

But I also had a dream that once I had a partnership I wouldn't have to break-down all the income and expenses by property for the tax return each year. My tax accountant is telling me that we still need the break-down of the income and expense by property to file the partnership return. Is there no way around this?

Mike

[Brie Schmidt]

@Michael Wentzel - yes, each property income and expenses is tracked and reported by property.  I have 30+ properties and tag and allocate mine twice a month so it is easier at the end of the year (yesterday I did taxes on 24 of them in 6 hours)  

How are you able to determine what property is performing and what isn't without tracking it by property?