Book keeping software advice!

Investor · UT · Member since 2023 · 15 posts · 18 votes

Hi! So, I have 4 properties. What do you guys use for book keeping, to categorize transactions and generate Profit and Loss reports for your CPA?

I am using stessa, but I am wondering if there is something better out there I should look at, easier to use.

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Rob K.

Encinitas, CA · Member since 2011 · 191 posts · 252 votes

I'm using Quicken 2014. I think I paid $30 bucks for it and never updated quicken to a paid subscription as I don't need any of those annual fee features.

Started using Quicken around the year 2000. Once I figured out how to set categories for my income and spending, tags so I could run reports specific to an asset (e.g. seperate tag for each rental property), and set up asset and Liability accounts so I could do a balance sheet, I was able to run detailed income and expense statements and balance sheets and rental property specific reports which have always satisfied my accountants.

Tried Quickbooks, but it required me to enter to much data that was not pertinent to what I was doing. Also don't like paying for unnecessary annual subscriptions when old quicken software works fine for me.

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Ryan Fox
Investor · NV and CA · Member since 2016 · 373 posts · 227 votes
2y
@Juan Lizarazo- Quickbooks. I was using Stessa before but it didn't allow you to account for other income and expenses, like salary, groceries, ect. You can add your own categories in QB so you can account for all that stuff. This is probably not the way you're "supposed" to used QB but I didn't want to get two softwares - one for business and one for personal.
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Ben DayBusiness Member
Accountant · Oklahoma City · Member since 2017 · 80 posts · 64 votes
2y
@Juan Lizarazo plenty of options around. If your goal is to grow your portfolio and outsource all tasks, you can't go wrong with Quickbooks Online. It is the easiest software to get help with as you scale, and the easiest to delegate to a professional.

Real Estate specific "accounting" software options like Stessa are neat, but hiring rockstar help for those is rough.

Also, most of those niche options miss the mark on some bookkeeping fundamentals. It might not make a difference to you, but your tax pro and bookkeeper will hate it.
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Kristen AmbroseBusiness Member
Accountant · FL · Member since 2024 · 78 posts · 34 votes
2y
To reiterate what's been said above, I use the QuickBooks Online Plus subscription for all of my investor clients. We use the Business field for entities and the Class field for properties. Very customizable and can create all the reports your CPA requests.
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Bonnie LowPro Member
Lender · Asheville, NC · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
2y
Quote from @Juan Lizarazo:

Hi! So, I have 4 properties. What do you guys use for book keeping, to categorize transactions and generate Profit and Loss reports for your CPA?

I am using stessa, but I am wondering if there is something better out there I should look at, easier to use.
I used to use Quickbooks and found it overwhelming - from the setup to using it daily. In fact, we ended up paying a bookkeeper $450/month plus the $90 subscription to QB online to manage our relatively small portfolio. After I did some digging and realized how much it was costing us, I switched to Baselane and I am very glad I did. Baselane is very user friendly and was created by real estate investors FOR real estate investors and it shows. It has everything I need to manage the books and nothing I don't. Because it's a banking and bookkeeping platform I can set up individual bank accounts quickly and easily in Baselane and keep track of revenue and expenses for each property and easily run basic and customizable reports. My CPA was pretty impressed and the funny thing is that so was my bookkeeper when I showed her!

I used to use Quickbooks and found it overwhelming - from the setup to using it daily. In fact, we ended up paying a bookkeeper $450/month plus the $90 subscription to QB online to manage our relatively small portfolio. After I did some digging and realized how much it was costing us, I switched to Baselane and I am very glad I did. Baselane is very user friendly and was created by real estate investors FOR real estate investors and it shows. It has everything I need to manage the books and nothing I don't. Because it's a banking and bookkeeping platform I can set up individual bank accounts quickly and easily in Baselane and keep track of revenue and expenses for each property.

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Jake BakerBusiness Member
Flipper/Rehabber · San Diego, CA · Member since 2020 · 1k+ posts · 694 votes
2y
@Juan Lizarazo
I use QuickBooks Online for most of my clients. For most real estate investors, a Plus subscription is needed in order to have separate by class(property). It is the most popular software in the industry and all CPAs know how to navigate it which is nice.
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Rob K.
Encinitas, CA · Member since 2011 · 191 posts · 252 votes
2y
I'm using Quicken 2014. I think I paid $30 bucks for it and never updated quicken to a paid subscription as I don't need any of those annual fee features.
Started using Quicken around the year 2000. Once I figured out how to set categories for my income and spending, tags so I could run reports specific to an asset (e.g. seperate tag for each rental property), and set up asset and Liability accounts so I could do a balance sheet, I was able to run detailed income and expense statements and balance sheets and rental property specific reports which have always satisfied my accountants.
Tried Quickbooks, but it required me to enter to much data that was not pertinent to what I was doing. Also don't like paying for unnecessary annual subscriptions when old quicken software works fine for me.
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Tim J.
Investor · Vermont and New York · Member since 2023 · 308 posts · 309 votes
2y
Quote from @Ben Day:

@Juan Lizarazo plenty of options around. If your goal is to grow your portfolio and outsource all tasks, you can't go wrong with Quickbooks Online. It is the easiest software to get help with as you scale, and the easiest to delegate to a professional.

Real Estate specific "accounting" software options like Stessa are neat, but hiring rockstar help for those is rough.

Also, most of those niche options miss the mark on some bookkeeping fundamentals. It might not make a difference to you, but your tax pro and bookkeeper will hate it.

I am confused. What do groceries have to do with rental properties?
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Bill B.
Investor · Las Vegas, NV · Member since 2013 · 8k+ posts · 10k+ votes
2y
There’s a magnifying glass in the upperr corner. You can search for questions like this that are asked literally monthly if not weekly.

@Rob K. is finally the first person to chime in with my standard answer. Quicken (quickbooks little brother) is overkill for 25 properties and it costs $50. It will auto download all your banking and credit card transactions. It will separate everything by property and category. It’s cheap, easy and way more than you need.
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Ryan Fox
Investor · NV and CA · Member since 2016 · 373 posts · 227 votes
2y
@Tim J.- You're right. Groceries don't have anything to do with rental properties. My point was you can customize Quickbooks (or Quicken if you go that route) to track you personal stuff and rental property / business stuff.
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Umer Imran Khan
Accountant · Member since 2024 · 7 posts · 1 vote
2y
Quote from @Juan Lizarazo:

Hi! So, I have 4 properties. What do you guys use for book keeping, to categorize transactions and generate Profit and Loss reports for your CPA?

I am using stessa, but I am wondering if there is something better out there I should look at, easier to use.
Are the properties long term or short term? Are they single family homes or multiple units?
The answer to your question would depend on these few factors.
Quickbooks is the most popular option for bookkeepers and CPAs.
Stessa isn't that popular currently due to some reconciliation problems - last time I checked.
Some other great options for long term properties that combine both property management with Bookkeeping is Buildium, Appfolio, Resman. It all depends on what outcome you ultimately want from the system.

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Basit SiddiqiBusiness Member
Accountant · New York, NY · Member since 2015 · 8k+ posts · 3k+ votes
2y
Stessa is great if you are an individual who owns real estate.
The reason is that Stessa can create a profit and loss statement but from my understanding, they do not have the capability to create a balance sheet which is required if you are operating as an entity.

In general, I recommend Quickbooks(Desktop) as it is much more cost efficient than the online version. The downside is that you can't view reports online which I don't think is a big issue. I just do my books once a month when I am infront of my computer.
The big pro with Quickbooks(Desktop or Online) is that it is the market leader meaning most accountants will understand how to troubleshoot you if you have any issues.
Best of luck.
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