All Forum Posts by: Gabe Meikle

@Ray Hebert Right now, stick with tracking things on spreadsheets, but when you start scaling up perhaps start looking into software specific to real estate income & expense tracking like Kitt, which will help you with all your accounting, reporting and even budgeting renovations.

Most accounting software will allow you to track your financials, but often they are bloated with stuff that isn't relevant.

I partially agree with both @Gita Faust & @Jeff Gates. 

Is the accounting industry ripe for disruption? Yes.

I've discussed this with many accountants and the majority know this. If you've wondered why accountants are now calling themselves "business advisors", it's because the value is not in doing your repetitive bookkeeping, it's in advice around ever-changing variables like the best tax structures and reaching your financial goals.

Companies like https://www.botkeeper.com/ have raised huge rounds of investment, not because they replace accountants completely, but because they automate most of the repetitive work and use a few accountants for the tricky details like what @Cathie Kovacs pointed out.

Gita is right that quickbooks desktop is not going anywhere, but this is because it is a hassle to jump ship from quickbooks desktop once it's set up not because its the best solution for your bookkeeping.

After building Kitt I truely got an insight into just how much could be automated in accounting, especially in real estate. We rely on consistent cashflow from our property investments which can easily be leveraged to save you time and money. If you've ever built rules in Xero or QBO you'll know what I mean. I work along-side real estate accountants and business advisors that understand that automation is shifting the accounting industry and it's not as bad as it sounds. Yes, there may be less mundane repetitive work, but that also means there's more time for creating true value for their client and really understanding their financial goals and how they could achieve them.

Accountants won't disappear but their role is shaping into something quite different.

I agree with @Hank Keller on this one. I'm a big fan of leveraging technology to optimise real estate investment, but if stuff goes wrong, you need to know that the companies you're working with are transparent and easy to communicate with.

Hi Parius, if you're planning to grow your portfolio while using property management, it sounds like you're after real estate finance software. I work on something exactly like this. Feel free to message me if you'd like to know more.

I agree with what @Michael David Pagan said.

@Daniel LaCroix unfortunately after using these platforms myself I realised getting these to work for real estate is a bit of a pain. There are however plenty of great accountants willing to help you get set up on QB's in the bigger pockets forums.

Kitt is worth checking out (I'm biased though), If you would prefer something built for real estate investors to help prepare for tax time. You can even invite your accountant on to check your audit trail for mistakes if need be. Hope this helps.

Depends on your needs @Blake Edwards. Spreadsheets work for a while but have the downside of being rather time consuming and error prone. If you want to go this route I recommend using Airtable expense tracking template. Quickbooks is another reasonable option, you can do everything you'll need, but sometimes it's not very straightforward and since it's not built for real estate, you may need to pay an accountant to help you get set up. If you want a platform built for real estate investors to track their utilities, Kitt is a good option to try (I'm biased). You get the benefits of an audit trail and financial reports without all the extra stuff you don't need in quickbooks. As @Johann Jells mentioned, Quicken is also a nice option, quite simple and straight forward although it loses some of the important features of an accounting system, I have heard good things from investors that use it successfully. Hope this helps.

@Jason Sampson spreadsheets are great but they they don't grow very well. Another option is Kitt. It's simple and completely free to track your property financials. Hope this helps and happy to answer any questions you have. 

@Leah Stewart my company is working on reports that show all of this. We are also working on importing data over from quickbooks and i'm happy to let you know when this is ready and available if you'd like?

@Ben Rishwain, currently many real estate investors seem to pair together a property management software AND a financial software. 

Do you plan to completely self manage your properties, or outsource your property management?

Platforms like tenant cloud are great if you plan to grow and keep doing everything yourself.

If think you would ever outsource property management, it's worth keeping your property management software seperate and using a generic accounting system like Xero or Quickbooks. Kitt is also a good option if you want something to manage finances that's more real estate investor orientated. Hope this helps.

I completely agree with @Dan V.

@Ted S. If you set up a separate bank account for the rental property it makes it much easier to track income & expenses.

Another option is Kitt (I'm biased) but it has the important tools from Quickbooks and is much easier to use for real estate investors.

Another option would be using an Excel or Airtable expense tracking template while you're starting out.

Just remember, if you plan to grow your portfolio you'll eventually need to upgrade to something else.