Set up Quickbooks for real estate investing/rentals

[Marcus H.]

I'm a new real estate investor, interest in purchasing multi-family properties and renting them for the long-term. I have Quickbooks Pro 2016 (desktop version) and I'm looking for advice on setting it up for my business. I've heard of people using classes for each property/tenant, but I've also heard of people using customers or jobs for each property/tenant. I have a couple years of experience using Quickbooks so I'm pretty familiar with the basics. I just need some help setting it up for this particular application. I plan on having an accountant set up the majority of the accounts/details, but I'm curious about your recommendations. Any advice would be appreciated. 

[Account Closed]

Setting up your Properties are first setup as a class.  This enables you to do a Profit and Loss report per properties, per unit, e.g., Income minus expenses equals bottom line per building, unit, property.

Then you will set them up again, but this time in the Customer Center as a Customer.  This is just to let you know where your tenant lives.   Then you will make that tenant a "Job" of that Building. 

If you have a building with, let's say 4 units, you will list each unit a "Job" of that building.  Then you will list the tenant as a "Job" of that unit.

QuickBooks is all about setting up your data in outline form.  Thus you have Accounts, sub accounts.  Classes, sub classes.   Customers (Properties) "jobs" (another word for indenting in QuickBooks)

I don't recommend QuickBooks Online for Landlords.  It doesn't have all the bells and whistles you need, e.g. property information or customization features.  I recommend QuickBooks Pro for you which you already have.

Nancy Neville