Quickbooks Online vs. Stessa for RE Investing

[Ryan Moyer]

With Stessa recently locking most of their features behind a paywall it is almost as expensive as QBO.  So I decided to check out QBO but am struggling to make it work with real estate.

I've been using tags for each property, so each transaction (and payout from Airbnb) gets tagged with the property it pertains to.  However, it seems tags are pretty limited in reporting.  You can use them in custom paper reports you create, but all the graphical interfaces that are easy to look at don't seem to have any way to separate things by tag, nor does the business overview or other things quickly accessible.  Whereas with Stessa I get a nice graphical representation of each property right on the homepage that makes it quick and easy to see how the businesses are doing.

Is there anything I'm missing with tags on this front?

What is the difference between classes and tags?  Is there any reason to pay for the higher plan to get access to classes?  It seems like they mostly accomplish the same exact thing as tags, and that they're kind of useless since QBO added tags.  Do they have more reporting options or anything?

Does QBO provide anything useful for STR RE investment that Stessa does not, now that they are similarly priced?

[Leslie Anne Morris]

Check out REI. I pay about $40 per month for all my properties. They do a free trial and $50 referral fee to new members and referring members. You have to enter member name in the help us section to get the fee I think.

I use REI Hub to keep the books for my rentals. Their accounting software is designed specifically for investment property owners so it has been easy to set up and use with my portfolio. If you've ever been frustrated by bookkeeping, you can visit https://www.reihub.net to learn more and sign up for a free trial.