Help with Account Software for Flipping Houses??

Question

Hi Everyone- I do quite a few flips each year and am looking for a software/app to help me with profit/loss for each flip. Currently I use Google Drive to set up a folder specific to my current flip and all the receipts by taking a photo of them and upload those expenses to that folder so I know exactly how much I’m spending which is fine. But I have to literally add up every single receipt manually which takes time to do so and at the end of year makes it difficult for people I need to 1099.

I don’t need any help with Arv’s or analyzing if the house is a good deal to buy.

This would be a huge help!!

I don’t need any help with Arv’s or analyzing if the house is a good deal to buy.

This would be a huge help!!

Aaron McGinnis · Answer

Things I wish someone had told me early on -

1 - as soon as you have money to count, get an accountant to do, at minimum, monthly reconciliations and year end taxes

2 - use quickbooks. It is a virtually universal skillset and will grow beyond what you will likely ever need it to do

3 - put quickbooks on a remote server

4 - use a bank that allows for employee log in to view transactions

5 - hire a VA to do day to day data entry. We have a guy in India who does a fine job and is so inexpensive I would literally be stupid to do it myself.

Set these systems in place early. I failed to do this as a young business owner and fixing the many problems that inevitably arose cost me tens of thousands to pay someone else to fix. Learn from my mistakes!

Edit to add: if you already have several concurrent projects, have your accountant also give you a monthly job sheet and move to a basis of completion or accrual method of accounting directly... do not screw around with a cash basis as it will bite you early on!

Will Barnard · Answer

I think using Quickbooks is the way to go and hiring a book keeper to do your data entry once a week or once a month plus reconcile the accounts each time is the best way to do this. Place a folder for each job site and add all receipts to that folder. Then the book keeper can enter them into each property (via class in quickbooks). Makes your year end taxes so much easier and quicker for your CPA. If you are doing that many each year as I do, it pays to have this done, my book keeper comes in once a week and my accountant once a quarter.

Aaron McGinnis · Answer

Use a reputable firm for the VA, obviously. (We use mytasker) but otherwise... horrible things can happen in life and at some point you must accept that you have to trust people. Take reasonable precautions obviously.

Right now we pay about $11/hr for help doing things like data entry. An accountant will charge about 6 or 7 times that for data entry. Hiring a local person would be 2 times that minimum. When we off shored this job we reduced our cost for this work by 90 percent as we no longer needed someone full time in the office.

Key to staying in business... dont pay more for things than you have to. In the new global economy this means aggressively off shoring for repetitive tasks. Another thing we off shore is drafting work where we reduced our hourly rate for drafting from $150 to $15.

Greg Dickerson · Answer

QuickBooks pro contractors edition is the way to go. You can hire a local bookkeeper part time to help you set it up and keep up the books. It’s make payroll and 1099 a breeze.

Steven Hamilton II · Answer

A good firm makes all the difference. I was just noting the buyer beware disclaimer as one of our team members has spent the last 20 plus hours correcting some serious issues in a set of books thanks to a VA.

Well done on vetting and finding something that works for you.

Daniel Cabrera · Answer

Hey Everyone thank you for all your responses! My though process at this point hiring a VA doesn’t seem to be the best option because ultimately I would have to spend the time telling him or her what property these materials are for. It’s very important for me to know exactly how much we’ve spent per property so I can keep track and know how to make decisions moving forward.

The best thing I think I’ve found so far is Expensify it allows you to take photos of each of my receipts and tag them to a report(which will be the house I’m working on) the only thing it doesn’t give you an option for returns, I just messaged them hopefully there’s a way to add returns as this would be a big bummer if you couldn’t.

If anyone knows of anything similar I would love to know. Thank you for all your input everyone!!

Steven Hamilton II · Answer

Have  a VA do record keeping for you? I would never want to outsource that information outside the country. I've seen some very horrible things as a result of that strategy. Just be careful to protect your Personally Identifying Information. We spend so much time fixing the work of others it is insane.

Daniel Cabrera · Answer

Usually I have 3 or 4 projects going at a time. Do you know if there is one that will allow me to add receipts per specific property?

Lisa Christopher · Answer

@Daniel Cabrera If you search for a receipt apps. There are several of them out there that will add up the receipts

Help with Account Software for Flipping Houses??

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