How to Consolidate Accounting Across Multiple Properties & Mgrs

[Kim Hopkins]

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]

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.