Accounting for Escrow/Rainy Day Accounts

[Andrew Hamlett]

I use Quickbooks Desktop Pro for accounting with my properties. I was wondering how you setup escrow type accounts for things such as putting aside money for repairs, capex, vacancy, property tax, etc. I do not truly escrow funds but like to set aside some for when that occurs, managing that myself. My thought was, to record a percentage every month and track a portion of my income every month for this. I am not physically moving cash from my checking account to another place but want to keep a running total in the ledger for that. Not sure the best way to handle this? A balance sheet escrow account? How should I reflect this on my books as well. Please advise?

Any help or insight, GREATLY appreciated.

Andrew H

[Nicholas Aiola]

@Andrew Hamlett The easiest way would be to open a separate bank account and use that as your reserve account. You wouldn't want to move money into a reserve account in QB only without actually removing the funds from your operating account because that would throw off your bank reconciliations.