Bookkkeeping ?? Help For 3 Props-8 Units
Is there a simple book I can get at Staples or Office Max or online to log all of my expenses, rents etc for my taxgirl and for my botom line or am I doing it right by just using a green 5 column notebook????
Am new to this and thanks in advance for any help!!
[ Edited by jenkie01 on Date 12/14/2003 ][ Edited by jenkie01 on Date 12/14/2003 ]
I just use an Excel workbook. One sheet for each property, and one summary sheet for the totals across the board. Each individual property sheet supports a Schedule E.
Thanks Dave, but unless I have a canned program, I am not a real spreadsheet kind of guy. I should be but have just never HAD to learn, that's why. I do not have the time right now to start learning how they work, but maybe during the christmas beak-am not lazy but I am a full time nursing student and have 5 kids and work full time and wife is NO help at all when it comes to these reantals, so it's an uphill battle every day.
My recommendation would be to have a seperate checking account for your properties, and use a program like Quicken or another accounting program. Quicken is easy to use. I use it solely for personal purposes, not taxes. It doesn't seem like it would be difficult to use for tax purposes, though. I'm using Peachtree to do the accounting for my moms coffee shop, but that is much more complex.
Chase
Thanks again, I think I even have quicken instaled on my computer, maybe i shold ask the kids how it works, I know everyone uses spreadsheets so it cannot be that hard..........
Yep I'm the kid in my house and I do all of the accounting. Funny how it works that way eh?
Excel works great for this and used by many.
Quote:Is there a simple book I can get at Staples or Office Max or online to log all of my expenses, rents etc for my taxgirl and for my botom line or am I doing it right by just using a green 5 column notebook?jenkie01,
Now that we know that you are not computer oriented, the only question you need to ask isIf I just use the green 5-column notebook, how does the taxgirl want me to track my income and expenses to make her job easier at tax time?
Just ask your tax preparer. I am sure that your green 5-column notebook will work for you. Automated solutions are not always the best response to your question.
I used RentRight for awhile, but it was more property management focused rather than accounting focused. So I searched everywhere and found an excellent "training manual" called "The Creative Real Estate Investors Guide to Bookkeeping" at www.assets101.com. It was a bit costly but teaches you to use Quickbooks. I've never used Quickbooks before I got this manual and I have to tell you that I loved the program so much that I went back and entered ALL the history of all my real estate transactions that I have ever done! Now I call my tax guy and ask him what reports he wants me to bring. I just tell it I want, for example, a balance sheet for the entire year of 2003. I can drill it down and make individual balance sheets for every property, every unit, every tenant, etc, etc. These reports are also excellent when dealing with the banks. There are cash flow statements, net worth statements, etc
Excellent product and well worth the money!
If you have microsoft works or excel they have templates already pre done that you can customize to your specific properties. I have an old book around here that I started with, which is available at any office supply store. I paid $15.00 for it and it handled 5 units for me and can handle 10-12 fairly easily. I can tell you that the computer makes it 100 times easier because it is already set up and it does the calculations for you. Quicken is another good idea although it will be more difficult to separate the performance of each property.
Basically the set up is each month is a column with the final column being for totals. (13 columns)
the first rows are for income... pretty simple.... rents received.
skip a row to separate income from expenses.
each row after income is for expenses ie
1. mortgage pmt
2. taxes
3. insur.
4. maint.
5. advertising
6.supplies
etc... etc...
the last row is for totalling expenses.
Add up your rows and add up your columns. If you've done it properly, they should match.
Good Luck,
Shawn(OH)
Suggest you get a copy of the 1040 Schedule E. Set up your income and expense report for each property so that each income and expense item points to the corresponding item on the Schedule E.
Whether you use a manual accounting method or a computer based spreadsheet tool, the format of the Schedule E is probably a good starting point for you.
Well, what a great respnse from you guys THANKS BIG TIME!!!!! I just called my tax girl to wish her a well Hanukah (sorry about the spelling) and she said she will hook me up with a template for the tax program she is using, but she said if I canot pick it up quickly just to use a seperate column book for each property and she will just transfer the totals. I will let anyone interested kinow what it works out for me. Thanks again!
This may not fit what you are looking for since it involves spreadsheets. It may be worth your while to learn Excel since many useful spreadsheets can be generated to support your real estate activities.
I have a spreadsheet for each property where I categorize income and expenses according to information needed on the Schedule E. I have created a spreadsheet image of schedule E. The check register entries I enter into the property spreadsheet and these are automatically transferred to the Schedule E spreadsheet. I then take the Schedule E spreadsheet to my tax preparer.
I ended up geting a set of papers from the "taxgirl" and just pretty much fill in the blanks and get a total each month for each property. Takes maybe an hour each month. I have been been playing around w/quicken (it was in the computer package) but cannot get everything just right----yet.....but I am will get it figured out.
I just submitted an article that may help you using quicken. Let the kids play with this and hopefully it will help.
I am using Qicken 2002 Home and Business, so the step by step directions are what I am using to manage 33 rental units. I am also using MS Works spreadsheets for this year as a kind of backup system, but I believe this will do the job sufficiently to turn over to my
accountant at year end. I also use this program for my car lot, my Rent to Own company and my warranty Company.
First, open Quicken. Select New Account. Select or type in the Financial institution (Bank) that you will be using. Next, use the statement date as the date you open or create that account. Mine in this example is titled S&E Properties. The ending balance should be zero, or the account balance on the last statement of the account you currently use. Once you set up the account, click on it to open it. Click Finance, then Category and Transfer list. Delete all categories not relevant to your needs. Add the categories and whether they
are expense related or income related and if you plan to use turbo tax or a program like it, the tax relationship of the transaction. Do not relate these to a particular property, we will do that later. Keep it simple. For example, your 1st category would be Rental Income.
Next might be advertising, maintenance, property insurance, interest paid, property taxes,dues and subscriptions, legal and professional, etc... Next go to Classes and you will see a class list. The are your individual properties. My accountant says to list a duplex as 1
property a MH park as 1 property, but you can break them down as individual units too if you wish. The reports that you will create later can tie any unit you wish with another. www.IE.Class 1 might be 123 Main st, 2. 2046 Elm, 3. 2 Alder, 4. 3 Pine, 5. 62 Sycamore, etc...
After setting up your properties or Classes, backspace to the account www.register.Enter a sample transaction, like a deposit. Click to the date, hit enter, hit d for deposit, hit enter,
type deposit then enter, type amount deposited then it will take you to category. Type in rent income, (once you type in R, rent income should come up automatically if you have created your categories correctly) Once rent income is highlighted, hit the right arrow key
to move you to the last letter in rent income. Type forward slash which tells the program that you will next enter the Class. Type in the address which again should show automatically. In the memo section you can enter a description of the transaction.
(Name,whatever) after you ar done hit enter to finalize the transaction. OK, youve done all this. How do you retrieve and organize it all? Click reports, business, profit & loss statement, then click yes to modify your report settings. Click on Accounts, Include the categories you want for an individual property then click classes and only check mark the one for that particular unit or property. Thn click create report. Click memorize and save as that particular address and/or unit. Repeat with each property. Also create one with all the properties for an overview of your entire business. You can also make monthly P&L statements as well. I hope this is helpful material for someone. Anyone wishing to add to or point out any errors or ommisions, is encouraged to reply.
Thank You,
and Good Investing,
Good Luck,
Shawn(OH)
Shawn, Thank you---I will let the kids teach me how...I copied it and gave the copy to the my 12 year old(she showed me how to work the scanner) and she said she will figure it out. Thanks again will let you know if I become able to use the computer for it!!