What is the biggest disadvantage of using QuickBooks for rentals?

Question

Quickbooks seems to be a very popular tool for tracking income and expenses, however, before I commit to Quickbooks... in your opinion, what is the biggest disadvantage of using QuickBooks for rental properties?

Logan Ransley · Answer

I'm comparing using QuickBooks with the likes of using the expense tracking tools in Cozy, TenantCloud, or Stessa or even Mint. QuickBooks feels like it isn't really designed for rental properties specifically so what makes it better than these other tools?

Soh Tanaka · Answer

I've been using QuickBooks for years, and I have no plan to change as of now. The disadvantage will depend on you, so I'll mention a few here.

• It wasn't necessarily designed for rental property owners, so there will be some learning curve. The good news is resources are plentiful.
• Usually when rental property owners think of "profit," they think of Rent- Mortgage Payment - Expense = Profit. If you enter all the numbers to QuickBooks the right way, then the principal payment and the escrow payment are not considered an expense, so your profit will be Rent - Interest - Expense = Profit.
• QuickBooks probably won't enough to keep track of everything. You probably will end up tracking some of the numbers in Excel (or other software.)
• Most of us do bookkeeping at an office/home, not necessary when we are out, so this is probably a minor issue, but if you buy QuickBooks Desktop version, then you can only enter/view from where the computer is (unless you set up some type of remote access.) If you subscribe to the online version, the cost will be WAY more expensive.

Daniel Hyman · Answer

With some tutorials or coaching you can get around the setup obstacles and get over the learning curve.

There is that monthly fee though. I look at is as simply the cost of doing business.

Soh Tanaka · Answer

@Yuriy Skripnichenko Unless I'm missing something, as long as you categorize principal paydown as long term liability, which it is, I don't think you can create a report that shows income, expense and long term liability.

Steve Morris · Answer

Well, my wife uses it since she's worked with Q/B forever. For accounting and tracking stuff by tenants, if you have it setup (I think QB has a landlord version now), it works great excepting 2 things:

1) You need to get it set up right up front since changing basic stuff is a hassle AND

2) Most importantly, is document control for tenant paperwork (like leases and notices). As a landlord, your main defense any more is well-document and valid paperwork and following service/notice guidelines.

Yuriy Skripnichenko · Answer

@Soh Tanaka

I’d chip in. You can create QB reports easily so it would reflect your income the way you want.

Cheers,

Yuriy

What is the biggest disadvantage of using QuickBooks for rentals?

What is the biggest disadvantage of using QuickBooks for rentals?

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