First Timer - Looking for Bookkeeping advice

[Anne Morgan]

Hello!

My husband and I plan to start managing a rental property. We are currently under contract on a new primary home. We are keeping our current home as a single family rental. This made the most sense for us with a growing family and our local housing market.

I have a few questions about the accounting/bookkeeping side. I have read some books and looked at other resources, but reaching out here to see if there are other considerations or perspectives I have missed. 

1. Recommendations on need to start an LLC for a single rental property? Versus starting a separate bank account in our personal names to use for the rental property?

3. Programs/apps to track and manage receipts, invoices, income, deposits, expenses, etc. Ideally, one that doesn't cost a lot so we can maximize cash flow at this time, but one that we could get used to and scale easily in the future. We want to set ourselves and prepare for acquiring more properties over time. 

 Thanks!

[Account Closed]

Quote from @Anne Morgan:

Hello!

My husband and I plan to start managing a rental property. We are currently under contract on a new primary home. We are keeping our current home as a single family rental. This made the most sense for us with a growing family and our local housing market.

I have a few questions about the accounting/bookkeeping side. I have read some books and looked at other resources, but reaching out here to see if there are other considerations or perspectives I have missed. 

1. Recommendations on need to start an LLC for a single rental property? Versus starting a separate bank account in our personal names to use for the rental property?

3. Programs/apps to track and manage receipts, invoices, income, deposits, expenses, etc. Ideally, one that doesn't cost a lot so we can maximize cash flow at this time, but one that we could get used to and scale easily in the future. We want to set ourselves and prepare for acquiring more properties over time. 

 Thanks!

Hi Anne,
Congrats on the new home!  We use Azibo for tracking income and expenses and there is no fee to connect our bank account and manage transactions.  Hope this helps!