Accounting and Bookkeeping Recommendations

[Robert Gorman]

Just bought my first investment property.  Anybody have recommendations for a cheap accounting/bookkeeping software?  I don't think I need anything too sophisticated since I only have one property.

[Samuel Eddinger]

Quicken has worked well for me for years.  The big thing is to add tags for the property and make sure to build out GL (General Ledgers) for everything on the Schedule E on a tax report.  That way you have all your expenses consolidated.  Quicken can automatically pull in information from your credit card and bank statements.

I'd also recommend getting another credit card and only purchase things that are deductible to the property.  That will make doing the work of identifying every tax deductible purchase much easier (especially if you don't reconcile regularly).

Other people use Quickbooks or Xero.  I don't think you need anything that sophisticated at this time.

Some people still just generate a big spreadsheet in excel and use that.  I'd highly recommend you not do that especially if you plan to buy more.