What documentation do you have for collecting rent?

[Brian Fitzpatrick]

What kind of paper trail do you maintain when collecting rent? I collect rent monthly through Venmo but never give the tenants an invoice or a paid statement. Is collecting electronically enough if there were ever any issues? Pros and cons of this? Thanks!

[Anthony R.]

@Andrew B. I use the most basic quickbooks setup. It's $7 for the first 3 months and then $15 every month after. Let me tell you, the invoicing system, templates, instant receipts, all alone is worth it to me. I usually spend a couple hours on the first every month doing the rent dance. Drive to locations, collect rent, deposit rent, pay bills write receipts. So this cuts out everything but bill pay. 

You can accept payments in multiple ways. I'm only planning on offering my tenants echeck for now because it's free for everyone. In special cases I might offer card but it's a 2.9% fee which can be a huge chunk over time. 

The key thing for me here was not just updating my payment system but also making it very easy for me to scale.