QBO Class Tracking: Do I really need it?

[Heather Miner]

Hello Everyone! 

We are a husband/wife LLC (single member LLC, disregarded entity) and report our rentals on our personal taxes. We currently have four multi-families in two LLCs (10 tenants). We plan to add more small multi-families, probably in another state.

We are just starting with QuickBooks Online (graduating from Excel and a few shoeboxes). We have a Plus subscription and are using the Locations (Properties) field to track finances by building for tax purposes. We could also use Classes . . . for tracking per tenant . . . or tracking per LLC . . . or ?? One possibility is to use Classes to track per state, once we start purchasing more properties.

However, when I think of the additional time and potential errors when tracking by both Classes and Locations, I ask myself what is the benefit to Classes? I honestly can't think of one actual benefit. Do I really care whether the fridge was purchased for tenant 1 versus tenant 2? If we have a single LLC per building . . . . then there is no need to track LLCs. However, the internet clearly states I should be using Classes to track per tenant.

I certainly understand that more details captured on the front end provides more detailed account reporting. But, I want to balance how much I will actually use the data versus how much time it takes to capture it. Please share your thoughts and feedback. Convince me I'm wrong to ignore Classes! :)