Bookkeeping Services - I Need Help

[Dylan Boyd]

Hi guys,

I spent 6 years as a tax accountant before I got to my current position (Director of Finance for a commercial real estate development company). I've been approached by someone who owns a rental property and will be buying more (under contract for his second rental property at this time). He doesn't want anything to do with the bookkeeping aspect of running the properties and has asked if I would do the bookkeeping for him. I am familiar and work with QuickBooks Online and have full faith that I can do the bookkeeping for him. Where I'm struggling is I have no idea what I should charge for these services. He currently has three entities formed for liability reasons (this isn't my expertise, so I don't know the exact reasons for this), the main entity is where the income from each property ends up & some expenses that aren't particular to each property. Each new property he buys, he sets up as a disregarded entity to the main entity, and the last current entity is separate from the main entity and acts as a pass-through for the rent. I'd be charged $25 a month for each entity in QBO. The reason I am entertaining this thought is because this could have the opportunity to provide a small amount of income as a side hustle and perhaps has an opportunity to grow as well. I want to be fair on what I charge and I will be reaching out to a few bookkeepers I know to get their thoughts as well. I wanted to present this here to get some feedback from rental property owners (I know most of you here are motivated enough to do the bookkeeping on your own). 

My quick thoughts on what to charge while starting are this:

- A one time fee of $100 for each entity that is set up in QBO - $300 for the three entities mentioned above

- $100 monthly fee for bookkeeping services for each property (this would cover my $25 for QBO for each property, state & federal income taxes, business expenses,  plus the work I do). He currently is buying SFHs, so I would have to maybe adjust this if he started purchasing properties with multiple doors

Please let me know what you think of this and if there is anything else I should be thinking about that I've left out. I feel this is in my wheelhouse as I already oversee the books for 20+ commercial real estate entities at this time.