Tracking Software For Material Participation (Taxes)

[Tom E.]

Hi Forum,

I'm about to close on my first STR and plan on materially participating >100 hours this year as I'll be working on the property and plan to rent it the last 1-2 months of the year. I've read the qualifying criteria multiple times and have already notified my CPA who has done it multiple times for their clients previously.

My question is what have people used with success to best track their time/investments over the year? I have a W2 job and look forward to the losses this year to offset some of my income (Not my 'WHY' for running an STR, but a nice bonus). I've looked at Quickbooks, Stressa, Harvest...etc. Hard to really know what would work best and what people have used. Look forward to hearing input!

T

[Krishnan Iyer]

Hey Tom, I use Stessa to manage all my income and expenses (bookkeeping) for all my properties. I log my work for Material Participation in a simple spreadsheet - Date, Property, Activity, Time, Description, Vehicle Used, Mileage, Person (my wife or myself), Expenses. The Expenses is not important here but for me, it's convenient because it is part of the travel and work we did in the property. This is a very important log but only to be used if asked (i.e. if audited).