Advice: I HATE BOOKWORK! who can I hire?

Question

I am realizing my strength lies on the opposite side of the spectrum from bookkeeping. I currently use Buildium for my management of 7 units and plan to keep growing. I work a full time job and just don't want to deal with trying to keep things up to date. Has anyone hired a personal bookkeeper or CPA that would be willing to work in Buildium? I am becoming desperate! My partnership tax return filings are becoming a nightmare because I have no idea what I am doing. My current accountant is old school and hasn't been able to learn Buildium.

So I am in search of a bookkeeper/cpa who works with buildium who can take over my day to day bookwork. If anyone has experience with a cpa or bookkeeper that I could talk to, I would love if you would reach out!

Brandon Hall · Answer

@Kyle Grimm first, figure out what not doing the bookkeeping is worth to you as long as you are getting timely and accurate reports on a monthly. Is that $50/mo, $150/mo, $500/mo? That will determine quality of work and also your involvement.Second, get off of Buildium and onto QBO or Xero and utilize a property management solution that integrates with QBO or Xero. Buildium is excellent at property management, but it stinks at accounting and doesn't integrate well with the powerful accounting platforms.

Taylor Brugna · Answer

@Dave Chapa Maybe I'm not familiar with all of the accounting capabilities of buildium as I mostly deal with it as a management software, but I'm doubting that it has the ability to keep track of everything. What happens when you need to keep track of multiple mortgages/amortization schedules, overhead and misc expenses not paid through buildium,equity, cash accounts, etc.? There's a reason why QB and Xero are needed.

Steve Vaughan · Answer

I've interviewed book keepers and accountants over the years and found it will take me more work to gather the info, then get the info to them than it does me just getting the info to myself. With online auto and bill pay, the days of sitting down and cranking out checks and licking stamps are pretty much over as well. That was the pain point I was mostly trying to terminate back when.Many folks have bookkeepers and accountants. I'm not saying to not use one if you find one. They can be valuable and lighten your load, hopefully. I could just see myself spending way more time with back and forth about which property my $9 gallon of mis-tint pain should go under. Whatever.My old school rental prop mgr software handles dozens of units and 3 business just fine. I do it as I go, about 30 mins per month. Each property and exp category has a simple envelope for receipts. Repetitive things like rents and fixed expenses auto populate to the proper category under the correct property/business. At tax time, it all transfers into tax software. Good luck to ya @Taylor Brugna!

Dave Chapa · Answer

@Taylor Brugna Buildium has the option to set up an account for tracking overhead, misc expenses not paid through buildium, equity and ect. For an independent rental owner like my self it works fine. However, when I grow my property management side of the business I'm sure we'll use a program like QB.

Dave Chapa · Answer

Kyle,Buildium is a great management software once you learn how to use the program. It can be setup for remote access by whomever you decide to use for your data entry. Anyone that has basic accounting can learn to use the accounting portion of the software. You will need to direct them to how to code each entry. They can also call the tech support anytime they have a question. I'm set up with my wife running the day to day paperwork, includes end of year 1099s, and my CPA taking care of the tax returns. It's very easy and does not require QB. I run all my properties off my budget vs actual. It's a powerful tool once you learn how to set it up. So, find someone you can trust with basic accounting and pay them to keep up with the books.

Taylor Brugna · Answer

Kyle Grimm agree with Brandon Hall I take my monthly buildium statements and enter them into quickbooks. Buildium is awesome for property management, but it will never tell the whole story from a financial perspective.

Kyle Grimm · Answer

@Brandon Hall Do you have any experience with Buildium? I have spent a lot of time trying to get things entered in correctly. It seems like it has enough power for what I need and would give a cpa enough info to make tax time fairly painless. I would hate to have to switch platforms at this point.

Account Closed · Answer

I use Waveapp dot com as my bookkeeping system. You can advertise on their forums for pros to help. Since it is online, pros can get a separate read only login. You can do that same with quickbooks online (I think). Use the phone and an app like Join.me to share screens, etc. Go read the IRS code regarding schedule E. I have all my categories named the exact same thing as the IRS Schedule E so it is easier to determine what is appropriate.

Kyle Grimm · Answer

@Mark Poulton That's great advice Mark. I would love to learn more about it along side a professional. So if I could find someone who is willing to walk along side of me and teach me that would be idea. Eventually I would like to transition out of the day to day bookkeeping.

Account Closed · Answer

I hate the bookkeeping aspect too. More than you can imagine. But this is a huge part of your business and you need to know how it works and how things are classified. You also need to know the IRS code pertaining to the Schedule E. How you do you know that the repair you just did was actually classified as a repair on your taxes if you can't look at the P&L and know what is going on. My suggestion is that you spend the time working with the bookkeeper to understand the tax side and the implications.