How to track the expenses during the rehab and flip

[Gary Singh]

Is there a tool available to track each and every expense we do during the rehab of property? I am having hard time to keep track of multiple rehab's which are going on simultaneously. What is the best way to keep them  apart and update on daily basis ?  

[Luka Milicevic]

Spreadsheets. Simple, reliable, accessible from any device. 

They might be basic, but you don't need anything fancy.

[Polar Prutaseranee]

I've been using Quickbooks. So far so good. 

[Blake F.]

I use Excel templates from houseflippingspreadsheet.com and Quickbooks.

[J Scott]

QuickBooks.  Each project is a separate Class, so you can see entire project details by running reports and sorting by Class.

[Joseph Birbiglia]

I use Quickbooks, and I make every house its own Quickbooks file.

[Chris Carollo]

+1 on Quickbooks. I spend about 30 minutes a month when I've got a rehab going on to enter everything in. 

[J Scott]

Originally posted by @Joseph Birbiglia:

I use Quickbooks, and I make every house its own Quickbooks file.

Just curious why you'd make each house a separate file?  That makes it very difficult to aggregate data across all projects -- meaning you can't easily see an overall P&L, you can't easily see how much you've paid contractors (for 1099 purposes), you can't easily manage cash flow across the business, you can't easily see what your overhead (non-property specific) expenses were, you can't easily aggregate data for tax preparation and a whole lot of other stuff you can't do.

Why not just make each property its own Class, and allow QB to manage your an entire company in a single file (as it was designed to do)?

[Patricia Vildozo]

J Scott coul you please share what tipe if QB do you use ?

[J Scott]

Originally posted by @Patricia Vildozo:

J Scott coul you please share what tipe if QB do you use ?

Quickbooks Premier Edition 2017 right now.

[Rocky V.]

Call me old school but I stick everything in a manila folder and total it out at end of project.  Currently have 5 folders going on at once.  I tend to stick with the principle of KISS.

At the end of every project we total it out in QB.

[Ramon Purifoy]

@J Scott

Is there a particular reason you do not use Quickbooks Online or Xero?

[J Scott]

Originally posted by @Ramon Purifoy:

@J Scott

Is there a particular reason you do not use Quickbooks Online or Xero?

 I run seven different LLCs across several businesses through QB, and the online version doesn't have all the features that I need.  Not to mention that the online version is a good bit more expensive than desktop, accounting for all costs.

[Ramon Purifoy]

Originally posted by @J Scott:

Originally posted by @Ramon Purifoy:

@J Scott

Is there a particular reason you do not use Quickbooks Online or Xero?

 I run seven different LLCs across several businesses through QB, and the online version doesn't have all the features that I need.  Not to mention that the online version is a good bit more expensive than desktop, accounting for all costs.

 Understood. Thanks. 

[Patrice Penda]

I like to keep it simple!
And for that Excel is all I need

[Kuba F.]

Yeah I agree with @J Scott that the online version is not as good as the desktop version, but either way it's definitely the way to go to track expenses.  It is a steep learning curve getting set up, but once up, it's amazing.  It's certainly doable DIY, but there's no shame in getting some professional help at first to wrap your head around the concepts.