Landlord Bookkeeping Spreadsheets?

[Scott Bartlett]

I've done a few searches on BP.com and the advice appears to be invest in QuickBooks or using online bookkeeping services.

Since I've only got one property, I'm still looking to create a spreadsheet or just to look at a few screen shots of an excel spreadsheet so I can create my own.

Anyone have any help?

Thanks!

[Mike H.]

Are you doing your taxes yourself or would a cpa be doing them?
For me, I've got 18 (soon to be 19) properties and am still using excel. I have to do a little extra work at the end of the year to give the numbers to him in a nice format but there's not much to it.

I don't think I'd get quickbooks just yet if you only have the one property.

Basically, all you need to do is track your payments (i.e. expenses), rents, and taxes and insurance.

The columns I put in the spreadsheet for expenses are:
1) House address (Crete - Dale Dr)
2) Date of transaction
3) Brief description
4) Amount
5) Account paid from type (i.e. cash, check, credit card)
6) Check number (if checking)
7) Account number or bank name (last 4 of credit card or bank name)
8) Vendor name (i.e paid to). I try to include a phone number too
9) Category (not necessary but I do it for my own purposes)

So (forgive the formatting I'll use hyphens for field separators):
Create: Dale Dr - 5/4/13 - Repair faucet and replace valve - $250.00 - Check - #1527 - Monopoly Bank - Vic's Plumbing (708-500-5000) - Plumbing repairs.

With one house, you probably don't need the house column but if you add a second rental, it'll come in handy so that you can use one sheet to put all expenses.

Then I would create a separate spreadsheet to write down your:
1) taxes
2) insurance
3) Rents
4) Interest paid

For rents, just put each month of the year in a column and write down the rent amount paid for each month as it comes in during the year and then total it up at the end.

For taxes, when you pay each installment (i'm assuming two), just write down the amount paid and the date and total the amounts at the end of the year.

For insurance and mortgage interest, just the amount.

Then, when I do my taxes, I have a worksheet for each property that shows the CPA the following:
1) All the expense item detail along with a total.
2) Mortgage interest paid for the year.
3) Taxes paid
4) Insurance amount paid
5) Rents collected.

From there, they can easily calculate everything they need. Although, when you add a new rental property, you'll also want to be sure to give them a copy of the settlement statement and let them know what your rehab costs were as some things can be depreciated faster than others.