All Forum Posts by: Matt Bob

Hey Cliff,

Thanks for taking a look at some of the Azibo videos on accounting (this is a brand new set of features we have yet to start advertising!). Azibo is completely free to test, and someone from our team is willing to give you a full demo or help with onboarding if you want to check us out. 

We're confident that Azibo will make it easy to go from setup to tax-ready reports in just a couple of hours-- feel free to shoot me a DM if you have any questions at all

Disclaimer: I'm part of the Azibo team :) 

@Matt Bob from what I am understanding you are wanting to start doing Bookkeeping/Accounting Services for Real Estate Investors? Provide them with financials monthly and help them to hand off finished financials to their Tax Preparer? 

That is what my wife and I do with our Coaching and Bookkeeping Business. We use Wave(free) and QBO depending on the scope of work. QBO allows different categorization to different classes, Wave does not(found this out with growing pains, get what you pay for though) but you can find solutions for them. 

If that is the case, I would find a job in real estate that allows you to do this on the side, for the mean time and grow your network, so you can build it up and find out what works for your demographic, then sell what you do, learn what you need to do better(just found out I need to add a new step to my analysis of potential clients), and offer them a good product. Charge a base rate, get reviews, and experience, then charge more when you grow and are worth more. 

You talk about making the CPA's  or tax preparer's life easier. They won't be the ones paying you, I think you need to shift focus to helping the clients and what you can do to better their lives. 

What I do for my bookkeeping clients; I prepare your financials monthly to track expenses and help you to read the story of your business month to month, I prepare financials so you can easily have 1099s prepared in January and prepare financials to send to your Tax accountant and organize your details so a you don't need to give them a shoe box or any statements. It is ready to be entered and you save money on not paying that Accountant's hourly rate to organize paper for you. I will let you know if expense are missing or higher then normal, help you to make sure you have all your business expense accounted for, and I create reports to track all Balance Sheet items so that way we are ready for an Audit, if that happens. I have a Master's degree in Accounting and worked in Public accounting doing bookkeeping/financials for 7 years and taxes for 6 years.

This shows the benefits to them, they have someone who knows what they do and can talk about it to make sure transactions are accounted for, peace of mind I am qualified, peace of mind that an Audit will not be as scary with me compared to without me, financials will be proper and they have someone to help them translate this, and being prepared for tax season means they will save money. Less stress and saving money per year will get people's attention.

I think you are on the right track and have a good idea, you identified a problem and have started creating a solution, you just need to refine it and implement it. YOU GOT THIS! 

It's an interesting question. While I'm hesitant to pay one person for two different tax services, others may prefer the convenience of dealing with just one professional. Real estate investments can be particularly complicated in terms of tax planning, so it might make sense to hire a CPA and a tax preparer if you're looking at multiple real estate investments. On the

It's other hand, if you have true that having a one person straightforward to do it all situation can that be doesn a't great involve idea, especially when considering taxes real related to Real Estate investments estate. Real Estate or tax laws complex are investments complex, and then require paying expertise from someone both to an do accountant it and all a could tax save prepare timer. and As money such., It it really may comes make sense down to for Real individual needs Estate and investors preferences to; what consider works paying for for one one service person in may order not to work avoid for confusion another or mistakes. that It could's be costly always down worth the exploring line. your Of course options, before this is making just any my decisions opinion.; What I do'm other curious people think to? Do hear they what prefer others having have separate to professionals say as for well. different tax services, or do they prefer having one professional handle it all? Additionally, what other considerations should Real Estate investors take into account when choosing who manage to their taxes? I'm eager to hear the perspectives of others!

I understand what you want to do and see the value, but if there's anyone out there will to both organize financials AND complete the tax return, the client is more likely to go with them. If they aren't organizing their financials after a year or two of doing this, they likely don't care about any extra fees from their CPA for the time spent organizing financials. 

Okay, got it.

Well, first thing first, is that it's the owners' fault for commingling personal and business. That's why it is a headache. If they get a professional doing it from the beginning and teaches them, it won't be a headache anymore.

I've been in the real estate accounting for 16+ years and if the PM is managing it, there shouldn't be any other additional expenses besides hiring their own maintenance techs to do the work. It sounds like the people you were auditing/tax prepping were not doing their books the proper way. This is more of a clean up then anything else.

I wish you best of luck to try to do build your own platform.

 90% of the real estate investors books are cash basis. PM company won't have owner's expenses that related to the rental company because there wouldn't really be any because the PM is handling it all. It isn't old school.

If they are self managing, then you will have to do something different which includes your all income and expenses related to the building/business/LLC. But you never include personal expenses in to the financial statements.

I am bit confused with your post. Are you trying to sell a service or you are trying to get a job in the RE world?

I personally have clients who have 5-10 rentals and some even just 4. So yes they hire me because I can get the job done in a quick manner and review their financials at the same time. By the time they bring there FS to their CPAs, the CPAs barely have to do any work besides filing.

I also oversee 1500+ units and ton of owners have 1-4 units and they are spending money on CPAs. Our PM software (AppFolio) is already helping them categorize it with the management fees. Again, their CPAs don't need to do much besides punching those financial numbers and computing depreciation expenses.

Not sure how it is complicated in your market. RE accounting is pretty much standard across the US. Federal Taxes are the same, only difference is which State and that's barely any changes to be made.

There are also other people in BP that already created this type of platform and produced these prefilled Scheduled E and it doesn't last because at the end it is better to have a professional do it right from the start.

The platform you are creating or created, are you reviewing the expenses to make sure they are properly recorded? or you just plan to just sell the subscription only?

Isn't this basically what bookkeepers and accountants are already doing?

If you created a software, that categorize things, how is it any different than the 100s of platforms such as Stessa, QBO, Sage, Wave, Xero, Freshbook, and many others.

Owner still need someone to classify them to the proper place and reconcile the accounts.