Help Setting Up QuickBooks for Real Estate

[Daniel M.]

Hey BP!

I'm diving into QuickBooks Online for the first time and could use some guidance. To give you a bit of background, I know very little about bookkeeping beyond managing my budget for the last three decades (ugh), so this is all pretty new to me.

Here’s my current setup:

I’ve had a property management company using AppFolio to handle the heavy lifting – rent collection, owner distributions, expenses, and the whole shebang. They give me an Owner Statement each month with all the details like Beginning Balance, Cash In, Cash Out, Owner Disbursements, Ending Cash Balance, Property Reserve, and Net Owner Funds.

It's super helpful, but it doesn't cover all expenses, and I need to get all this info into QuickBooks. I have a checking account and a credit card under my LLC. The loan for my property is in my name, but the deed is in the LLC. While I only have one LLC right now, I plan to expand to multiple LLCs (one for each property).

Here’s where I need your help:

1. How should I set up my account to reflect all the real estate activities like rental income, expenses, and distributions?
2. My Owner Disbursements aren’t the total rent amount because of the expenses the property management company handles. What’s the best way to track this in QuickBooks?
3. Has anyone successfully integrated AppFolio reports with QuickBooks? If yes, how did you do it?
4. What’s the best way to set up QuickBooks to make handling multiple LLCs easier in the future?

Any advice, templates, or resources you can share would be greatly appreciated! Thanks a ton in advance for your help!