Rent Checks from tenants

[Robert Sapienza]

So I purchased a multi family off of a landlord who has been in the business for 20+ years and currently owns over 100+ doors (veteran). My question is this... When I bought the property from him he was nice enough to have me over his home (we live in the same town) and BS about real estate investing. As he was showing me his portfolio and how he cash flows in different areas of the state, he showed me a record of all the tenant checks he copied and filed. I didn't think to ask him at the time, but is it necessary to make a copy of each check you receive from each of your tenants? Is there some benefit to this whether it be paper copy or computer scan? I have an excel spread sheet for each property that I own and as the checks come in I record the payment as paid on the spreadsheet and then deposit the money, but do not make any type of copy of the actual check. Would there be any reason at all to copy the check and keep it for your records? Thoughts much appreciated...  

[Brandon Knudtson]

@Robert Sapienza I am fairly new to landlording as well (just purchased in mid-September) but my thoughts on why you should always make a copy of the actual check is to protect yourself if you have ANY type of rent dispute with a tenant down the road. Should you need to go to court, you have actual pictures of things to show a judge instead of just a spreadsheet that you record on. I don't know if that would ever happen, as I am new and haven't personally experienced any crazy rent stories yet, but I feel it is safer to OVER protect myself vs being under-protected for any type of dispute with a tenant.