Who has moved from QBO to Rentastic (or other RE based software)

Question

Ive been using QBO for 8 years and it has been O.K. at best. I have a decent size RE portfolio, and use professional property management. I don't need a property management based software. I know how to use the basic features of QBO, as I do my own expense tracking, but my Bookkeeper is needed for the more complex entries (Loans, capital balances, reconciliation, data entry from PM monthly statements.)

I spend almost 8k per year in QBO and Bookkeeping costs (Not including my accountant or tax prep.) I would like to go to a more simple software like Rentastic, but here are my concerns.

- Loss of historical data (for both IRS audits and for personal portfolio tracking.)

- Unfamiliarity of software with my Bookkeeping and Accounting team.

-Will it be robust enough to track additional business expenses that are NOT tied to a single property (IE; Business insurance, Home office, ETC?)

If anyone has made the move, please let me know how the transition was, and if you are happy.

Cheers!

Jamie Banks · Answer

I get the buildout of expenses can be a lot. Baselane could be a great option for you. A lot of what you're paying for is free / reduced with Baselane. For your historical data, I would suggest keeping it in Quickbooks and starting fresh (a new month, year, etc.) in Baselane or a similar software. This way you can access old records without having to recreate them on a separate platform. I use Baselane to track my business income and expenses as well. I self manage my properties and run a real estate based service business, I'm able to do bookkeeping for both using Baselane.I think you / your CPAs should try out a few softwares to see which one works best for you

Jake Baker · Answer

@Justin R. How many properties do you have? Just trying to gauge whether your bookkeeper is overcharging, especially if you are splitting duties. I would be careful with real estate-specific software. I like @Basit Siddiqi advice about trying both software to make sure that you like it. These software are often excellent platforms for tracking income and expenses for investors; being user-friendly. For many, their downfall (and really what makes it so easy) is that it is a single-entry system. This means there are no checks and balances to ensure all transactions are entered correctly. A double-entry system (like QuickBooks) allows you to reconcile your bank statements,

Justin R. · Answer

@Bonnie Low this is great info and exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!

Chad Hale · Answer

I used QB when first starting my property management business. I moved to Rent Manager (RM) several years ago and couldn't be happier about leaving QB. I do all accounting for properties and company in Rent Manager. RM is plenty robust to handle the items you mentioned. At the time QB was not the best for property management. You could use it but had to do a lot of work a rounds. I used CSV's to import data that I needed into RM. So happy to not being using QB.Most accountants probably won't know PM software, but there are some that do.

Basit Siddiqi · Answer

I think there is a way to make the desktop version work for you but not 100% sure.One question - Do you need access to Quickbooks? Do you do anything in it?If you don't do anything within the software, maybe only your bookkeeper needs the software and he/she can print out the reports for you.If you want access, then you and the bookkeeper would need the desktop version and possibly a shared folder like google drive to share the quickbooks file.Intuit used to sell the quickbooks desktop(one time purchase). I think they discontued that as of 2024. You may be able to see if a retailer still sells the 2024 version.If you can't get the one time purchase, you would need to see if the cost is beneficial.For real estate - Quickbooks desktop > Quickbooks online because you can set up multiple entities within quickbooks desktop and not pay an additional cost per entity that Quickbooks online would charge you.Best of luck!

Alecia Loveless · Answer

@Justin R. I have 1/3 of your units and am paying about 1/3 for my QBO and my bookkeeper. I made the leap to having a bookkeeper June 2024 and couldn’t be happier. Has made my accounting and record keeping so much easier. I don’t necessarily think what you’re paying is outrageous.

Bonnie Low · Answer

Hi, Justin. Yes, I have general expenses that are not attributable to a single property, like legal and accounting and home offices like you mentioned. However, my business structure is maybe a little different than yours. My Holding Company holds all my LLCs. I have an LLC for each state I do business in and each property is held inside the LLC for the appropriate state. So those general expenses get categorized to the holding company as the parent organization. To be honest, my CPA may apportion them to each LLC but I don't think he does. Now that you asked, I need to double check that. As for sharing information, I use the reports available inside Baselane to send my CPA whatever he needs. If he needed something beyond the standard business forms and Schedule E, I could give him limited access to my Baselane portal, just like my bookkeeper had limited access. You have the ability to grant permissions based on the user's security level, which you determine. My CPA had no problem using it. While QBO is probably more common, I've learned that they have had to become accustomed to a lot of different programs because their clients use so many different platforms. Again, this is just my personal experience.

Saad D. · Answer

Thanks @Jamie Banks. You can upload historical data via CSV on Baselane to start. This really helps with the migration from Excel or other software into Baselane. You made a very good suggestion to have backup file saved.

Bonnie Low · Answer

You're welcome!

Justin R. · Answer

@Chad Hale Because my accountant has access to QBO, and my bookeeper breaks down all the PM monthly reports into QBO each month, there is no need for me to send monthly/annual reports to my accountant. I do send him the 1099M of course but that is it.Thanks for confirming it does double entry accounting. Im assuming that is what would catch any errors in owner distributions, deposits, profit/loss?