How to Consolidate Accounting Across Multiple Properties & Mgrs

Question

Hello!

It's that time of year where we get all our books in order and curse ourselves for the end of year work we have created!

I have multiple multi-tenant commercial properties with multiple different property managers, who send multiple reports every month. As you might guess, the account names across the reports are all entirely different. For example, one might call an account Trash, where another calls it Utilities - Trash Removal. You get the idea.

At the end of the year, I want to look at my P&L across ALL my properties. So I have created a key/legend that translates ALLLLL of the property managers' account names into one finite set of consistent account names. It's a real pain in the a$$!

I'm using Wave for my accounting software right now which used to work great, but now that I have it connected to 30+ bank accounts, there's some glitch that disconnects the accounts every month, and it takes an hour+ to reconnect them. Another pain in the a$$! (And no one at Wave returns messages btw - I've offered them my first born but to no avail).

There seem to be two types of accounting software tools out there:

1. Just accounting, e.g. Freshbooks, Quickbooks, etc.

2. Accounting and Property Management, e.g. Buildium, Rent Manager, etc.

If I use #1, I keep going with my painful end of year process.

With #2, I either get a bunch of PM functionality I don't need, or I utilize the PM functionality by re-entering a ton of data every month that was already provided to me by my PMs. Seems like a waste of time and money!

What is a girl to do?

Thanks!Kim

Rachel Mazzanti · Answer

Have you considered outsourcing your accounting to someone who is well rounded in real estate accounting as a financial analysis and an accountant/bookkeeper/cfo/controller?

This way, they can handle the tedious task of reconciling and organizing your reports, while also having the expertise to provide you with an accurate P&L across all your properties. Furthermore, outsourcing your accounting can also free up your time to focus on other important tasks, such as finding and managing new properties. Additionally, outsourcing accounting also allows you to have access to a professional who can provide you with better insight and guidance on how to improve your financial position and make better business decisions. This could be a cost-effective solution to your end of year problem and can save you a lot of stress and headache.

Basit Siddiqi · Answer

What I do is I aggregate 12 months worth of PM Statement in Excel and then create one adjusting journal entry summarizing all the PM Statements.I personally use Quickbooks Desktop where you will need the 'class' function to properly allocate income and expenses across multiple properties.Best of luck.

Kim Hopkins · Answer

I already outsource, but thanks!

Kim Hopkins · Answer

Hi there! Appreciate the suggestion to not use Buildium for accounting-only and to not duplicate PM entries.

With regards to the accounting system, we can't use desktop Quickbooks bc we use a third party remote bookkeeper and our CPA team  needs access.

Tony Guarino · Answer

Hey Kim,

I want to piggy back off @Jeff Stein. I use QuickBooks for my personal finances and RE investments. It's fairly simple to utilize the class feature and I think that will solve your problem. You assign each revenue or expense to a class, then can pull reports based on each class, or run a total business P&L. P.S. I am always looking for freelance work!

Drew Sygit · Answer

@Kim Hopkins you should be able to automate this.

1) Have your PMCs send you CSV files

2) Create macros to "translate" each field and merge them into your single P&L

Suggest you go on Fiverr or Upwork to hire an Excel expert to create your macro:)

Jeff Stein · Answer

To start out with, I would not recommend going with your #2 option unless you are also planning on doing the management of the properties yourself. Although the platforms like Buildium have accounting functionalities, they are really not as useful if you are only wanting to keep track of your books.

The cheapest way would be to create an excel sheet and enter each buildings P&L. Quickbooks has a product called desktop Premier. You can enter in each buildings monthly P&L as a separate "class" (think of it like a different division of your overall business that owns all the properties) which should take about 15 mins per building per month since you can do it on one sheet as a general ledger entry. Hopefully this helps answer your question. Could you elaborate why you are linking your bank accounts? I'm happy to elaborate further if you have any questions.

How to Consolidate Accounting Across Multiple Properties & Mgrs

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