Quickbooks or ALTERNATIVE? Zoho, Billy, Xero, Wave?

Question

Hi!   it's tax season.  Every year I dread this time.   I'm terrible at bookkeeping and still struggling.   Every new year resolution is the same....need to do better bookkeeping.

here is my dilemma,   Everyone says, time>money.   sure that's true but If I was not doing some of these "menial" tasks, I may be surfing the web, watching youtube videos, watching netflix?   So time lost doing some menial tasks does NOT always mean opportunity to do HIGHER level work.   It may just mean less wasteful time.

Getting to my point.   I want to start quickbooks to help get organized (for LAST year 2017) and get it ready for my CPA.   how to get started?

I have a online book-keeper lined up who will charge me $30/hr (cheap!) to get started on quickbooks.   I looked up other bookkeepers including my own CPA who charges upwards of $60-75/hr.

But honestly real estate business (even ones like Airbnb with lots of tenants) and especially long-term buy/hold type business do not have that many transactions (only in spurts).

If I could get started on a simple to use  alternative to Quickbooks, then i can do my bookkeeping once a month maybe for 1-2 hours?   Watch less netflix?

Any ideas or help on which alternative is the easiest to use and still work well for CPAs?

Account Closed · Answer

@Joe Kim

A few things to keep in mind about bookkeeping/outsourcing.

- Get to know your bookkeeper before you make a decision on who to go with. Some bookkeepers specialize in industries other than real estate. Also, all bookkeepers are not created equally. Some bookkeepers are self taught and may not know the correct way to book certain transactions.

- I wouldn't only factor in you time over money but also your happiness. If you absolutely hate doing it, it may be worth looking to have someone do it for you.

- Cheaper is not always better. I have seen many investors go for the cheapest offer then end up not having adequate service that they were expecting. Reporting is incredibly important, the benefit of saving a menial amount of money does not out weigh the cost of a head ache at the end of the year.

Hope this helps!

Dave Toelkes · Answer

@Joe Kim

If your real estate business is a residential rental activity, I find Quicken Rental Property Manager does everything I need and is more intuitive than Quickbooks.  I have been using QRPM since 2009, It maintains my rent roll, amortizes loans, tracks income and expenses by property and has all the report features I need.  At tax time, TurboTax can directly import all my Schedule E information from QRPM.

Bryan Petrinec · Answer

I started with Wave and was okay for the price (free).  But there are limitations and I hit them within the first 4 months.  I was looking at others and eventually went to QuickBooks online.  The prevailing driiver to not go with others was the fact that 1) there is a ton of support in the QB community and 2) your CPA or accountant knows QB and can import directly whereas there is less of a chance they will be as knowledgeable on other software.

Unfortunately, QB Online has limitations as well and there are some work-a-rounds, but just costs more $$ and I am frugal.  So now I am using QB Pro Desktop and would recommend this to anyone over the other options.  It is not subscription based, which appeals to my sense of pay to own something vs rent, which is the whole reason we are in real estate to begin with.  Also, I can manage multiple LLC's with different books without any additional cost.  And to boot, it is far more powerful than I need.

QB Pro coupled with QBOX, which is an online sharing program allows you to invite your accountant, CPA, and others to access the same set of books, but when opened, you can lock out others until the changes are saved.  Very handy.  I do all the books myself and then get my CPA (which is worth the money) to review them every couple of months.  It takes them about 2 hrs so it is well worth it.  As I get more confident, I intend to wean myself off and have quarterly reviews.  It may seem intimidating at first but it doesnt take long to get going.  If you are not savvy in this area, pay to have some one set up your chart of accounts or find someone you can collaborate with.  Once you have everything set up, the time it will save is enormous, especially at tax time.

Richard Heine · Answer

My real job is using QB Enterprise with payroll, 12 years now, but for my real estate I have been a quicken user. Basic but Intuit products work. Thank you Dave Toelkes I am jumping over to QBPM cause I am spinning a lot more plates now.  I found that several of my accountant friends are well suited to decipher a QB products to process tax returns. No more shoe boxes.

Logan Allec · Answer

@Joe Kim, did you vet the $30/hr online bookkeeper?  If so could you possibly PM me their name?  I am looking to outsource some of my volume bookkeeping work and am looking for a low-cost solution.

Nick Danaluk · Answer

I use QB and pay an accountant $35/hr. QB has subscription fees for online use and payroll. It is the best application for most small businesses because it is the most user friendly hub for all of  your bank accounts, invoicing and financial reports.

You might be best off to have a sit down with a local bookkeeper to steer you specifically in the right direction.

Erin Spradlin · Answer

Hey Joe- you should also consider Mint. It's also an Intuit program, but free. Once you start to categorize your transactions, it holds those categories and you have to do substantially less work over time. It becomes very easy to see where your money is going and how much is coming in. It's what we use for our small business. Good luck.

Quickbooks or ALTERNATIVE? Zoho, Billy, Xero, Wave?

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