Should I use QuickBooks for rentals? (2023)

Content

• Can QuickBooks be used for real estate rentals?
• How to Set Up QuickBooks for Lease
• QuickBooks Rental Restrictions
• Using Landlord Studio with QuickBooks for Lease Accounting
• Owner's Studio Reports
• Final considerations

It's no secret that accounting isn't always the most exciting part of running a business. Homeowners know better than anyone that it can be quite tricky, especially if you don't have a good system in place. The good thing is that there is software to help with this.facilitate bookkeeping.

If you were looking for professionalsaccounting programYou've probably encountered QuickBooks before. In this article, we'll discuss QuickBooks suitability for landlords and how you can set it up and use it for your rental accounting.

In addition, we will describe your strengths and weaknesses in comparisonindustry specificRental accounting software likeowner's studioIt is specially designed for homeowners.

You can see a side-by-side feature comparisonHere.

Can you use QuickBooks to rent properties?

You can use QuickBooks for Real Estate in many ways, including tracking income and expenses related to your rental property portfolios.

However, QuickBooks is primarily designed for small and medium-sized businesses. The same problems they haveinappropriate worksheets for rental portfoliosmake QuickBooks a challenge to use in rental properties. The main thing is whenMonitor your rental income and expenses, you should keep your finances separate for each property, preferably unit by unit. In fact, you should treat almost every property as a separate business.

in terms of usespreadsheet calculationsthis means having a separate worksheet for each attribute, which can quickly get out of hand. Likewise, the QuickBooks interface is not designed for people who manage multiple separate accounts.

In other words, unless you are experienced or have a lot of experience with QuickBooks, you are better off using it.property management software. Designed specifically for homeowners, it allows you to manage properties separately and is designed to make tracking income and expenses as easy as possible.

Good property management software also offers property management specific features such as customizationreports,rental apps,tenant selectionjOnline rent collection.

Setting Up QuickBooks for Your Rental Property

If you decide to use Quickbooks for rent accounting, follow these steps to set up your account and start making rent payments.

Attitude:

1. Add your business bank account.
2. Create your tenants asCustomers.
3. Set its properties toKlassen.
4. configure yourcontent planusing the categories in Appendix E.
5. Select your income types (rent, reminder fees, pet fees).Products.
6. Set up recurring accounts forrent payment.

Enter the rent received:

1. Click on the client menu and selectreceive paymentsto start entering your rent receipts.
2. Select cash receipt accountAccount dropdown list.
3. Choose the right tenantClientList.
4. Enter the amount of the rent payment. If you enter the rent for a single tenant,Click OK to save the receipt. If you are renting from more than one tenant, select "Group with other undeposited funds” to go to the next receipt entry.

Some are worth exploring.Tutorials on YouTubethat can guide you through the setup process.

The limitations of using QuickBooks for a rental property

Despite being the leading accounting software for small businesses, there are some limitations to using QuickBooks for real estate, particularly for rent management. On the other hand, property management software likeowner's studioIt has industry-specific features specifically designed to simplify rental property management.

The first caveat with using QuickBooks for a rental is that it's difficult to get everything set up correctly. There is always a learning curve when introducing new software, but this can be particularly difficult when the software is not designed exactly for its purpose. Since QuickBooks is not designed for homeowners, you need to understand the program better before saving time.

The second major limitation is that QuickBooks doesn't have any industry-specific features. For example, while it makes paying bills easy, it lacks a tenant portal that allows its tenants to view or set up past and future payments.online automated rent payments. Also, it lacks the ability to send email templates to tenants or automate tenant reminders. QuickBooks also lacks features liketenant selection.

Because QuickBooks is not for owners, the documentation and support articles do not offer industry-specific advice, and there are limited training materials to help you use the platform.expand your portfolio.

For these reasons, more and more landlords are turning to property management software.owner's studio. This software allows you to manage your finances by property or entity. Furthermore, they have in commonIncome and expense categoriesin default settings. Other features include distinguishing between rent and other forms of income, setting reminders, and organizing all relevant documents and receipts in one place.

Using Landlord Studio Instead of QuickBooks for Rental Property Management

Improved organization and better, more customized software solutions can mitigate (if not solve) many of the problems that homeowners face. Consequently, homeowners canStreamline the management of your leases.

automation

With Landlord Studio, you can automate time-consuming tasks and communications, such as tenant reminders and automatic tenant payments. In addition, you can track income and expenses at the organization, object, or unit level.

reports for owners

With the myriad of rental property details that landlords must juggle, organized reporting is key to your success.

With Landlord Studio you canGenerate 15+ property specific reports instantly, including Schedule E Reports, Rent List Reports, Occupancy Reports and Books of Rent and much more.

SD Houseboys, a company that buys cash homes in San Diego, believes that having the right digital information is key to the success of its rental business.“We have 13 units, which means we need automated tools and reports to manage our properties. Without them, we would be incredibly disorganized and really not be able to do much.”

lease tracking

You keep an eye on your lease agreements and occupancy rates and store the lease documents. Landlord Studio keeps everything organized and even manages your expenses. You can store all relevant documents and receipts in the same place so you never have to look for them again.

scalable

Landlord Studio is not only easy to use, but also adapts to your growing portfolio. It does this using a simple design and interface, along with industry-specific features that streamline your property management processes.

Focus on customer service

Ultimately, Landlord Studio strives to provide the best customer service. This ensures that you can set up your accounts quickly and use all available features. This minimizes the time you spend on your bookkeeping and ensures your books are accurate and up to date. Landlord Studio is constantly developing new features and implementing product improvements based on customer feedback.

Using Landlord Studio with QuickBooks

owner's studiohelps you create a streamlined workflow and minimizes the time spent managing your rental accounts. When you consider the convenience of industry-specific features like automatic rent reminders, rent management, rent billing, and reminders, it's clearowner's studiois the best solution for the daily management of your rentals.

Landlord Studio is available for desktop, iOS and Android, making it easier than ever to manage rentals on the go.

However, there's a reason why QuickBooks is the #1 personal accounting software. It's a great solution for keeping track of your business income and expenses. For this reason, some landlords (typically those with income streams other than rental properties) choose to use QuickBooks in conjunction with Landlord Studio. The combination of both allows them to have a complete view of their personal finances and their real estate accounts.

To help you use the two together effectively, we've developed some advanced reports that you can export from the Landlord Studio app as .pdf or .csv files. You can save them to your device or send them to your meter directly from the app.

Owner's Studio Reports

actually we have15+ reports in Landlord Studioand we are constantly improving them and adding new ones to the system. Each report is fully customizable and can be filtered by property and unit, income category, expense category and date range.

Also, with our accountant view feature, you can invite your accountant to view and manage your accounts.financial report. Not only does this make tax time easier, but by giving your accountant the tools to review your business finances, they will help you reach your long-term financial goals.

Some of our reports include:

• Profit and Loss (P&L)
• Income and Expense Statement
• Revenue Expense by Category
• Appendix E report
• late rent payments
• Memories
• Mileage
• asset report
• occupancy report
• Overdue and pending expenses
• Payments made (lease and category)
• rent book
• rent a paper
• Tenant Directory
• More More+

Export reports to Excel.

On iOS, you can export your profit and loss report as an Excel file.

To do this:

• See you"reports" book page
• Tap "report type”
• Roll down
• Tap "Export to Excel”

Import your Excel report into QuickBooks

For detailed instructions on how to import Excel files into QuickBooks, refer to the help page here:Support for QuickBooks

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Final considerations

Good accounting is the backbone of any business. If you choose to use property management software such asowner's studioor generic accounting software such as QuickBooks orXero, it is important to organize your books properly and keep careful records of income and expenses.

This is important because it gives you a betterUnderstand your property's performance and ROI.It also allows you to accurately calculate your out-of-pocket expenses, an almost impossible task if you save until the end of the year. Finally, when you are audited by the IRS or other tax authority, you will have accurate and detailed accounts with all necessary documentation.

Landlord Studio allowsTrack rental income and expenses quickly and easily, create professional reports, reconcile with your bank, and much more. It's a great alternative to Quickbooks for homeowners.

Related posts:

• The Complete Guide to Tax Deductible Expenses for Rental Property
• A description of the categories in Appendix E
• How to control rent spending on the go
• Our best DIY accounting tips