All Forum Posts by: Cathie Kovacs
Cathie Kovacs has started 7 posts and replied 147 times.
Post: I am trying to decide on a tax software to manage my properties.

- Rental Property Investor
- Stamford, CT
- Posts 153
- Votes 75
Do NOT use Simple Start. It’s cheap for a reason and you cannot upgrade it later if you outgrow it. If you can’t pay for Plus, at least do Essentials.
Originally posted by @Michael Plaks:
Originally posted by @Michael Plaks:
QuickBooks Online is the way to go if you can pay their rather steep $60/mo. You'll need the Plus version, in order to use "classes" which is essential when you have more than one rental property.
I'll take it back. I think you can hack it and use Customer feature instead of Classes, and that is available even at their Simple Start ($20) level. Am I right, @Daniel Hyman?
Post: Which to use QBO or QBD?

- Rental Property Investor
- Stamford, CT
- Posts 153
- Votes 75
I’m a bookkeeper so I use both. The advantage of desktop over online is that you can have multiple entities without having multiple subscriptions. Aside from that, I don’t think you’d notice the difference in functionality (though the interface is much different) since the additional desktop features are not ones that you would likely use.
There is a way to pay for one QBO subscription and then have additional QBO subscriptions at a reduced rate, but you’d need to know that upfront. You can’t add them on at a discount at a later date.
So IMO, if you’re comfortable with QBO already, stay there. It lends itself to collaboration with CPAs, bookkeepers, partners, etc. much better than the desktop version does.
Hope that helps.
Post: QuickBooks expenses input etc

- Rental Property Investor
- Stamford, CT
- Posts 153
- Votes 75
Bank feeds are going to be helpful for going forward but most banks only import the last 90 days. Since you have all of 2018 to do, I’d see what export formats are available for your bank (you’ll need web connect format for Quickbook Desktop and csv for Quickbooks Online). You’ll import these and then off you go...saves a ton of typing.
Post: Reconciling Quickbooks Balance

- Rental Property Investor
- Stamford, CT
- Posts 153
- Votes 75
Quickbooks likely imported 90-120 days directly from your bank (in your case it sounds like 9/5/18 was the date). When it does that, it plugs in a starting balance (the one you mentioned). If I had to guess, you then manually imported the rest of the year which is where your problem began.
Delete the system-entered beginning balance (that 9/5/18 entry) and enter your own dated 12/31/17 and you should be good to go from there.
Regards,
Cathie
Compass Financial Navigation
Post: Quickbooks Online for Rentals with Multiple LLCs

- Rental Property Investor
- Stamford, CT
- Posts 153
- Votes 75
One note about QBO for whomever may be reading this later...On initial setup you can reach out to Intuit (that makes QBs) and talk to them about a multi-company discount. Full fee on the 1st company file and $5 for each additional company file that has common ownership. You cannot do this retroactively.
Having said all that, I’m a Quickbooks ProAdvisor and although separate files is ideal, it’s not, as others have said, very practical. If they’re all disregarded LLCs with the same ownership, Classes will work just fine.
Post: Accounting Software Recommendations

- Rental Property Investor
- Stamford, CT
- Posts 153
- Votes 75
Quickbooks Online has better bank/credit card connections than the desktop version. Which are you using?
You can also upload Csv files if there is no connection
Post: Newbie with question about taxes and accounting software

- Rental Property Investor
- Stamford, CT
- Posts 153
- Votes 75
Yes. 12/31/18 is still in 2018 and must be reported.
If you got married or had a baby on 12/31, you would be considered married, or had that dependent, for the entire tax year.
Post: Quickbooks Pro Setup

- Rental Property Investor
- Stamford, CT
- Posts 153
- Votes 75
To record property purchase or sale, try
https://sethdavid.com/use-quickbooks-online-record-hud-1-final-settlement-statement/
Post: Quickbooks Pro Setup

- Rental Property Investor
- Stamford, CT
- Posts 153
- Votes 75
Your properties should be classes
Expense categories should resemble those on a schedule E (assuming you're a single member LLC) or the Form 1065, at a minimum. Aside from that, add what YOU want to track.
Post: I need a software for accounting rents and expenses

- Rental Property Investor
- Stamford, CT
- Posts 153
- Votes 75
Originally posted by @Sharon H.:
I would suggest QuickBooks. I am an accountant and most of my clients in real estate industry are also using QuickBooks. It is easy to transfer and backup data. Personally I don't like QuickBooks online because you can't open multiple screens at the same time and data loading process usually takes longer than traditional QuickBooks.
Actually you can open multiple tabs in QuickBooks Online either in Chrome or using the desktop app (which is faster too).