Streamlining Quickbooks Online for Bookkeeping & Lowering Accounting Fees

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Streamlining Quickbooks Online for Bookkeeping & Lowering Accounting Fees

Shane Swart
Member since 2023 · 5 posts · 2 votes

I know book keeping topics repeat frequently on here so I apologize in advance!

We have been using the same accountant to do our taxes for the last six years or so and recently started having them do our bookkeeping for our properties in Quickbooks last year. We had reached a point in our portfolio size where spreadsheet tracking and then filing taxes became too heavy of a lift for everyone and the cost of doing our tax return was getting hefty as well.

That said, has anyone had any success figuring out how to link property loans from bank online portal successfully into your Quickbooks? We have 9 different loans at 4 different banks and they all have great online portals that could easily be linked Quickbooks doesn't want to do it... anyone know something we don't?

Also, one of our property managers uses Appfolio  for a portion of our properties and Quickbooks claims they can link but we have not had any luck there. Has anyone had success linking Appfolio to Quickbooks?


Right now, we still have to download & send all of our loan statements and property management statements and send to our account and it is honestly almost the same amount of work I was doing maintaining spreadsheets. Having the reports and organization of Quickbooks is great, but we are spending A LOT of money on accounting and we need to streamline the process.

Thanks in advance!

Shane

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Basit SiddiqiBusiness Member
Accountant · New York, NY · Member since 2015 · 8k+ posts · 3k+ votes
1y

The issue is that a mortgage payment has several components to it(Principal paydown, mortgage interest, payments into escrow). 

Furthermore, you have to account for when payments are made out of the escrow balance such as when real estate taxes or insurance are paid.

The best solution that I found is finding the details as the end of the year such as interest paid, end of year principal balance, escrow balance, taxes paid, insurance paid.

If you have all that, you can do a year end journal entry to reconcile everything.

Best of luck!

[email protected]917-280-8544
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  • Aaron ZimmermanBusiness Member
    Accountant · Chicago, IL · Member since 2018 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    1y

    It really Depends on the bank you have. If you have Chase, it should Be pretty seamless to connect. If you have a smaller bank, might not be feasible, just depends on the connections. I'm not a bookkeeper so they would probably be the best person to ask 

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  • Cameron Jones
    Accountant · New York (Remote) · Member since 2025 · 20 posts · 17 votes
    1y

    Hey @Shane Swart, as a bookkeeper, I've been asked this question many times and I get the frustration. 

    Loans can't connect to the bank feed like checking or credit cards because banks/creditors don't send that kind of data. Most lenders don't provide detailed transactions for loans — just summaries. QuickBooks can't sync what the bank doesn't provide. So instead, we track your loan manually and split payments correctly to keep your books accurate. Since loan transactional activity is very low (1 disbursement and 1 payment per month), manual recording with a split (to interest expense, to principal balance, to PITI escrow) keeps things clean and concise.

    Hundreds of 3rd party apps can be integrated with QuickBooks Online via Apps, however, not all integrations are good (and most of them are bad). This is because QBO has certain workflows (particularly with invoicing) and the 3rd party apps don't always respect this flow. QBO and these 3rd party apps continuously being updated doesn't help either. 

    Appfolio and QBO actually doesn't have a native integration with one another via the App portal. Options for bringing over information to QBO is either:

    1. The Month-End report export method you're doing now and translate this information to QBO (Cash Flow Report, GL Export, Rent Roll/Tenant, Owner Distribution, Vendor Expense) 

    2. Using connector app, such as Dancing Numbers (https://www.dancingnumbers.com/appfolio-quickbooks-integrati...), to "connect" the two and help with the import process. You would have to pay for Dancing Numbers to do this and you would have to correctly map everything so it brings what you need over. The link I provided gives a rundown of how it works. You will need to continue to check on things to ensure everything stays mapped correctly.

    Are you the one translating the data into QBO or just downloading the reports and providing them to the accountant?

    1Reply
    • Shane Swart
      OP
      Member since 2023 · 5 posts · 2 votes
      1y
      Quote from @Cameron Jones:

      Hey @Shane Swart, as a bookkeeper, I've been asked this question many times and I get the frustration. 

      Loans can't connect to the bank feed like checking or credit cards because banks/creditors don't send that kind of data. Most lenders don't provide detailed transactions for loans — just summaries. QuickBooks can't sync what the bank doesn't provide. So instead, we track your loan manually and split payments correctly to keep your books accurate. Since loan transactional activity is very low (1 disbursement and 1 payment per month), manual recording with a split (to interest expense, to principal balance, to PITI escrow) keeps things clean and concise.

      Hundreds of 3rd party apps can be integrated with QuickBooks Online via Apps, however, not all integrations are good (and most of them are bad). This is because QBO has certain workflows (particularly with invoicing) and the 3rd party apps don't always respect this flow. QBO and these 3rd party apps continuously being updated doesn't help either. 

      Appfolio and QBO actually doesn't have a native integration with one another via the App portal. Options for bringing over information to QBO is either:

      1. The Month-End report export method you're doing now and translate this information to QBO (Cash Flow Report, GL Export, Rent Roll/Tenant, Owner Distribution, Vendor Expense) 

      2. Using connector app, such as Dancing Numbers (https://www.dancingnumbers.com/appfolio-quickbooks-integrati...), to "connect" the two and help with the import process. You would have to pay for Dancing Numbers to do this and you would have to correctly map everything so it brings what you need over. The link I provided gives a rundown of how it works. You will need to continue to check on things to ensure everything stays mapped correctly.

      Are you the one translating the data into QBO or just downloading the reports and providing them to the accountant?


       Thank you for the response Cameron. We are the downloaders and shufflers of data to the accountant not the QB gurus. Our accountant is great and very competent in QB I'm just trying to get us as efficient as possible... sounds like we may be already, I just hate double handling data that could be streamlined. IF you know anyone high up the food chain at QB you should lobby them for the changes needed to make it more effective for RE investors :)

      0Reply
    • Cameron Jones
      Accountant · New York (Remote) · Member since 2025 · 20 posts · 17 votes
      1y
      Quote from @Shane Swart:
      Quote from @Cameron Jones:

      Hey @Shane Swart, as a bookkeeper, I've been asked this question many times and I get the frustration. 

      Loans can't connect to the bank feed like checking or credit cards because banks/creditors don't send that kind of data. Most lenders don't provide detailed transactions for loans — just summaries. QuickBooks can't sync what the bank doesn't provide. So instead, we track your loan manually and split payments correctly to keep your books accurate. Since loan transactional activity is very low (1 disbursement and 1 payment per month), manual recording with a split (to interest expense, to principal balance, to PITI escrow) keeps things clean and concise.

      Hundreds of 3rd party apps can be integrated with QuickBooks Online via Apps, however, not all integrations are good (and most of them are bad). This is because QBO has certain workflows (particularly with invoicing) and the 3rd party apps don't always respect this flow. QBO and these 3rd party apps continuously being updated doesn't help either. 

      Appfolio and QBO actually doesn't have a native integration with one another via the App portal. Options for bringing over information to QBO is either:

      1. The Month-End report export method you're doing now and translate this information to QBO (Cash Flow Report, GL Export, Rent Roll/Tenant, Owner Distribution, Vendor Expense) 

      2. Using connector app, such as Dancing Numbers (https://www.dancingnumbers.com/appfolio-quickbooks-integrati...), to "connect" the two and help with the import process. You would have to pay for Dancing Numbers to do this and you would have to correctly map everything so it brings what you need over. The link I provided gives a rundown of how it works. You will need to continue to check on things to ensure everything stays mapped correctly.

      Are you the one translating the data into QBO or just downloading the reports and providing them to the accountant?


       Thank you for the response Cameron. We are the downloaders and shufflers of data to the accountant not the QB gurus. Our accountant is great and very competent in QB I'm just trying to get us as efficient as possible... sounds like we may be already, I just hate double handling data that could be streamlined. IF you know anyone high up the food chain at QB you should lobby them for the changes needed to make it more effective for RE investors :)

      I definitely have, and many others in my circle, escalated our requests and concerns to intuit. Like many of my colleagues, we focus on REI because there's a really need for people like us that get it. RE is a different animal than "regular small businesses."

      QB, like many other accounting platforms, want to focus on helping the small businesses population at large, which is why these other RE based softwares like Appfolio, Buildium, etc, try their hand at accounting. But unfortunately their accounting systems are always lacking.

      As AI and tech continue to improve, I'm sure these integrating tools will as well. There's always going to be that human quality control check, and some manual work with REI accounting because of all the nuances that AI just can't get right (and if wrong, it's pretty detrimental). Until then, it's just important to work with those that have already been in the trenches, and have the systems in place to get the job done.

      happy to touch base if you want to chat further about any other concerns you might have
      0Reply
    • Cameron Jones
      Accountant · New York (Remote) · Member since 2025 · 20 posts · 17 votes
      1y
      Quote from @Shane Swart:
      Quote from @Cameron Jones:

      Hey @Shane Swart, as a bookkeeper, I've been asked this question many times and I get the frustration. 

      Loans can't connect to the bank feed like checking or credit cards because banks/creditors don't send that kind of data. Most lenders don't provide detailed transactions for loans — just summaries. QuickBooks can't sync what the bank doesn't provide. So instead, we track your loan manually and split payments correctly to keep your books accurate. Since loan transactional activity is very low (1 disbursement and 1 payment per month), manual recording with a split (to interest expense, to principal balance, to PITI escrow) keeps things clean and concise.

      Hundreds of 3rd party apps can be integrated with QuickBooks Online via Apps, however, not all integrations are good (and most of them are bad). This is because QBO has certain workflows (particularly with invoicing) and the 3rd party apps don't always respect this flow. QBO and these 3rd party apps continuously being updated doesn't help either. 

      Appfolio and QBO actually doesn't have a native integration with one another via the App portal. Options for bringing over information to QBO is either:

      1. The Month-End report export method you're doing now and translate this information to QBO (Cash Flow Report, GL Export, Rent Roll/Tenant, Owner Distribution, Vendor Expense) 

      2. Using connector app, such as Dancing Numbers (https://www.dancingnumbers.com/appfolio-quickbooks-integrati...), to "connect" the two and help with the import process. You would have to pay for Dancing Numbers to do this and you would have to correctly map everything so it brings what you need over. The link I provided gives a rundown of how it works. You will need to continue to check on things to ensure everything stays mapped correctly.

      Are you the one translating the data into QBO or just downloading the reports and providing them to the accountant?


       Thank you for the response Cameron. We are the downloaders and shufflers of data to the accountant not the QB gurus. Our accountant is great and very competent in QB I'm just trying to get us as efficient as possible... sounds like we may be already, I just hate double handling data that could be streamlined. IF you know anyone high up the food chain at QB you should lobby them for the changes needed to make it more effective for RE investors :)

      I definitely have, and many others in my circle, escalated our requests and concerns to intuit. Like many of my colleagues, we focus on REI because there's a really need for people like us that get it. RE is a different animal than "regular small businesses."

      QB, like many other accounting platforms, want to focus on helping the small businesses population at large, which is why these other RE based softwares like Appfolio, Buildium, etc, try their hand at accounting. But unfortunately their accounting systems are always lacking.

      As AI and tech continue to improve, I'm sure these integrating tools will as well. There's always going to be that human quality control check, and some manual work with REI accounting because of all the nuances that AI just can't get right (and if wrong, it's pretty detrimental). Until then, it's just important to work with those that have already been in the trenches, and have the systems in place to get the job done.

      happy to touch base if you want to chat further about any other concerns you might have
      1Reply
  • Kristen AmbroseBusiness Member
    Accountant · FL · Member since 2024 · 78 posts · 34 votes
    1y

    Totally hear you. We work exclusively with real estate investors and see this all the time.

    Most loan portals and tools like Appfolio do not sync cleanly with QuickBooks. Even when they say they do, the data is messy or incomplete. What works best for our clients is setting up clear monthly systems. Reconcile loans manually using statement uploads and use rules in QBO to save time. It is not perfect but it is way more streamlined than spreadsheets once it is dialed in.

    Happy to share what we have seen work if helpful.

    [email protected]
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  • Basit SiddiqiBusiness Member
    Accountant · New York, NY · Member since 2015 · 8k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    1y

    The issue is that a mortgage payment has several components to it(Principal paydown, mortgage interest, payments into escrow). 

    Furthermore, you have to account for when payments are made out of the escrow balance such as when real estate taxes or insurance are paid.

    The best solution that I found is finding the details as the end of the year such as interest paid, end of year principal balance, escrow balance, taxes paid, insurance paid.

    If you have all that, you can do a year end journal entry to reconcile everything.

    Best of luck!

    [email protected]917-280-8544
    Basit Siddiqi CPA4.979 Reviews
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  • Markus Shobe
    Accountant · Indianapolis, IN · Member since 2019 · 247 posts · 134 votes
    1y

    Mortgage has several components (interest, principal, escrow) and escrow would be broken out when it's paid to property taxes and insurance. So even if you could you would still need to break it down, which would still require the statements. 

    1Reply
  • Max Emory
    Accountant · 100% Remote · Member since 2019 · 495 posts · 216 votes
    1y

    Hey @Shane Swart, our firm typically doesn't integrate mortgage accounts or any PM software (including Appfolio) to QBO because it usually causes issues that cause double work. 

    We work out workflows with each of our clients to eliminate their need to manually send us statements for anything on a recurring basis. It just takes a little ingenuity on your accountant's part.

    I agree 100% with you. If proper workflows and access aren't set up, it is a ton of work on you guys as the client.

    Happy to discuss further to help out.

    - Founder & CEO, Time Capital Bookkeeping

    0Reply
  • Jason MalabuteBusiness Member
    Accountant · Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2016 · 2k+ posts · 902 votes
    1y

    A mortgage payment isn’t just one number—it’s made up of multiple components like principal paydown, mortgage interest, and escrow deposits. You also have to account for when payments are made out of the escrow account, such as property taxes and insurance. The easiest way to reconcile everything is to gather year-end details, including total interest paid, year-end principal balance, escrow balance, and amounts paid for taxes and insurance. Then you can make one journal entry to tie it all together.

    That said, how seamless this process is can depend on your bank. Larger banks, like Chase, often have easy connection options to pull the necessary details, while smaller banks may not. In those cases, it might require more manual work.

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  • Jason MalabuteBusiness Member
    Accountant · Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2016 · 2k+ posts · 902 votes
    11mo
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