All Forum Posts by: Christian Szpilfogel

I agree with @Ben Day. I have a hierarchical corporate structure and my property management company uses "QBO plus" for the reason Ben states. My other real estate holding companies have Plus because I got a volume deal but it could easily be the essentials level as it really just gets holds a balance sheet and income statement based on a bunch of journal entries.

I agree with @Mark H. Porter. For my first 10 doors, I used Basic Quicken and kept things simple. Now that I am larger scale and corporate, I use QBO (Quick Books Online). Most accountants are used to QB and QBO and can do your taxes directly from there. QBO is easier because you can delegate access to your accountant and your bookkeeper. Plus QBO is clearly where they are investing their R&D going forward (like most companies) so I would head down that path.

On my MURs I don't use an alarm system as it gets complicated. I do allow tenants to add alarm monitoring to their units though.

My main doors use professional grade locks with elctronic strikes and access panels typically AIPhone or Mircom. This adds main door security in addition to the individual unit doors.

For cameras, I have been using WatchNet on some of my properties and had them installed via my security company. The security company happens to be a WatchNet channel partner. Lately I have been installing Ubiquiti cameras as I am already using their LAN infrastructure for internet service. They are solid (better than consumer) but not as industrial strength as Watchnet. However Ubiquiti's management apps are more modern and easier to use for yourself and your staff.

For development projects, I have been using wireless cameras (Arlo) in addition to an LTE modem. This means you can hide the base anywhere that is secure and there are no wires to cut (cameras or access). Plus my guys can move the cameras quickly depending on construction phase. The Arlos have a magnetic back so they can be moved to say an electrical box or drywall corner frame. I have caught 3 thieves with this already this year alone! Police nabbed them during the two distinct break ins. Saved me a fortune as they were going for the already installed copper. For a permanent install, though, I wouldn't use them as they are battery operated.

So far I would have to say Quickbooks Online (QBO) as it has a good ecosystem to capture all sorts of expenses. I use ReceiptBank for capturing most expenses to feed into QBO. I also use HubDoc for fetching and organizing bills from various utilities, banks and various vendors. Once ReceiptBank gets better with its Fetch function, I would like to consolidate to that and perhaps eliminate HubDoc.

I only wish there was a property management solution that interfaced with QBO. Unfortunately they all think they should be accounting packages but other than how they manage properties and tenants, they are all missing out on ecosystem.

Depending on how big your business is... I use Quick Books Online (QBO) in combination with ReceiptBank. Both are cloud based solutions. If you have just one property then there may be lighter weight solutions.

As Basit suggests, your accountant should be able to have one of their technicians set up your chart of accounts and any needed tax accounts, etc. That is what I did when I first started. This ensures it is a structure they understand and can use at year end and your book keeper will have no issue picking up on it. 

I highly recommend going straight to Quickbooks Online rather than desktop. For real-estate investment, QBO has everything you need and like most software companies, 90% of their R&D is going towards cloud solutions.

I do suggest hiring a book keeper to help keep things in order and easily hand off to your accountant. It will save you time and likely make your accounting at tax time cheaper.

As for structure...

I would use a separate class for each property so you can do simple table reports by property.

I would structure your customers as:
- Property = Customer
- Unit = sub-customer of Property
- Tenant = sub-customer of Unit

This will allow you to see revenue at each level and determine income as well as missed rents at various levels.

Also, depending where you are operating, you may need to create custom tax accounts for any sales tax collected or paid (typical on commercial units) as I find QBO doesn't handle sales tax very well (at least in Canada).

Hope that helps a bit!