A rental property accounting system like Stessa automatically tracks income and expenses and helps real estate investors to maximize revenue with personalized recommendations. The company should include categories for equity, revenue, expenses, and assets for rental properties. Sub-accounts like rental income and late fees for the revenue category can also be created for a better understanding of the amount breakdown. Zoho Books received a perfect mark for its accounting features and also scored high for customer service and ease of use.

• FreshBooks makes it easy to stay up to date with its simple to use app.
• Its paid plans add features, such as the ability to invite more users, pay bills, assign custom roles, manage timesheets and set up automation rules.
• It is better to be meticulous about your accounting than to end up with heavy penalties.
• Located in downtown Clifton, the property is a two-story building with space suitable for office and retail use on the first floor and two residential apartment units on the second floor.

To avoid getting in trouble, we would recommend hiring an expert professional who will be able to handle it all for you. Using incorrect or dishonest accounting practices can land you in hot water. However, the ones that are done deliberately to mislead can lead to legal prosecution.

Why We Chose Zoho Books

While financial reports are made to the IRS during tax season, the IRS may request more detailed financial records if your company is selected for audit. Once you have an accounting system in place, it’s easy to maintain and keep track of all your documents and expenses. Each time a transaction occurs, you need to ensure the income and expense are put under the correct category and account. This ensures all your finances are in the right place, and you can account for every dollar that comes in and out of the business. You might have sub-accounts for some categories, including rental income and late fees for your revenue category. You can always customize the accounts depending on the investor and the property type.

• Other features you may want to consider include whether the software has a mobile app, how good its customer service is and how well it does with accounts receivable (A/R) and financial reporting.
• All the standards set by the organization are accessible on the FASB website.
• Accounting and bookkeeping are two related but distinct practices in the field of business management.
• Although accounting and bookkeeping are both important aspects of managing the finances of a real estate business, there are some key differences between the two.

Alana Rudder is a staff writer at Forbes Advisor, specializing in testing and reviewing, HR, payroll and recruiting solutions for small businesses. She currently serves as a business consultant, operations manager, and content strategist at Doubting Thomas Research Foundations’ Afghan Liberty Project, a small non-profit organization. For real estate accounting example, the Zoho CRM can be integrated with Zoho Books to allow real estate professionals to add their contacts and develop a profile for each of them. Users can then keep track of client or tenant purchase patterns, payment details, credit history and more. Then, they can automatically send tenants or clients invoices from the platform.