Exploring Efficient Ways to Track Rehab Expenses: Seeking Insights

[Brandon Spaulding]

Currently, we have seven renovations going on with three partners. The partners take care of the rehab part. Whenever they purchase or make payments to labor, they input it into a Google Sheet. Our EA then matches those numbers with the payment platforms. Recently, we've been struggling to match those numbers. There are some figures on the Google Sheet but not on the payment platform and vice versa. Now, we're considering other ways to track our rehab expenses. We would love to know how you guys manage this. Thank you.

[Andy Sabisch]

Sometimes simple is better than complex and in tracking expenses, simple is often the best approach.  If the information entered is not matching the  payment platform then what is being entered is the issue.  I would focus on ensuring ANY expense is entered properly so that the expense can be reconciled with the payment.  Google Sheets is a great tool for multiple people to track expenses but as they say "garbage in garbage out" so see where the breakdown is and shore that up.  There are tools out there but we have found that they are more complicated and as a result, introduce more places for errors to creep in.

[Peter Mckernan]

Quote from @Brandon Spaulding:

Currently, we have seven renovations going on with three partners. The partners take care of the rehab part. Whenever they purchase or make payments to labor, they input it into a Google Sheet. Our EA then matches those numbers with the payment platforms. Recently, we've been struggling to match those numbers. There are some figures on the Google Sheet but not on the payment platform and vice versa. Now, we're considering other ways to track our rehab expenses. We would love to know how you guys manage this. Thank you.

 I would get on the same page of the partners, and make sure that it matches up and is aligned with everything on your end. That is where I see the problem is after hearing this issue, think that there is a disconnect on it. Keep the line of open communication on it all and that will be the best option. 

[Jacob Sherman]

ive always just used an excel spreadsheet with coding to categorize the expenses 

[Billy Houston]

I used Stessa for my rehab, the ease of photographing the receipt and adding to the project really made it easy. I could review the stuff for the day or week and adjust the categories then if needed.

I used a single CC for supplies, and a single checking account for all labor. providing the ability to match back expenses without having to check a bunch of different accounts.

You could do this with different cards for each project, and a labor bank account for each project. This removes the problem by isolating projects.

[Cam Schwartz]

Hi Brandon. Jonathan Klemm might be able to help.

He runs Quality Builders, a tech-enabled GC business in Chicago with proprietary technology including tracking and estimating rehab costs.

[Jonathan Klemm]

Appreciate the tag @Cam Schwartz!

So are the partners acting as a GC?

If you have 7 renovations going on at once hopefully your GC is using some type of project management software.  Here In Chicago QB, we use Buildertrend, but actaully switching to Jobtread.

There are specific payment softwares out there that link directly to quickbooks (we use melio).  I'd suggest moving off google sheets and into some more automated with less risk of input error.