Self Tracking / Bookkeeping System

[Derek Tuohy]

I currently have two long-term rentals and a midterm rental. The midterm rental is being renovated at the moment. I am in search of an efficient system  to track my rental properties regarding income and expenses to make it easy for my accountant at tax time. Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thank you. 

[Costin I.]

@Derek Tuohy - here are my 2¢:

1. Get Quicken, learn to use it (set up categories and subcategories) and start tracking your incoming and outgoing, for both personal expenses and rentals. You'll be able to track everything, run various reports, and track your assets, liabilities, and net worth down to the dollar.  Or Quickbooks, but that is more for serious business, larger than a few rentals.

2. Get Nolo Landlord Deduction Guide book, learn how to use and track every deduction available to you.

3. If you are good with Excel, set up a spreadsheet to track expenses for rental properties, with filtering per property, date, note, account, etc. with columns matching the tax forms. PM me if you want a copy of the one I use.

 4. If you are not handy with spreadsheets, find a bookkeeper/accountant and prepare your checkbook/wallet for some serious deflation.