All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Frank and I must have been typing at the same time. :)

When you BEGAN USING QUICKBOOKS for the first time, you would take your last Bank Statement PRIOR to the date you BEGAN using QuickBooks and enter in the ENDING BALANCE  from that Bank Statement, (not the balance from YOUR  check book or any other source) but the LAST BANK STATEMENT- PRIOR to the day you BEGAN TO USE QUICKBOOKS. (Ending Balance)

Then you would enter in all the transaction off of that bank statement into QuickBooks which means all deposit, withdrawals and checks.  EVERYTHING, and when done, and only then, will you be able to reconcile your checking account in QuickBooks and have it balance. 

After that  you will balance your checking account in QuickBooks from your Bank Statements each month doing it the same way, but this time you won't have to enter in all the deposits and withdrawals, etc., because from this point forward your entries will be entered as you go through your normal business day. Meaning, all transactions you have done from this day forward will be already entered (Hopefully) into QuickBooks. 

If not, you will have find out why.  You MUST CORRECT any errors before continuing.  You must match the transactions on the Bank Statement with the transaction you entered into QuickBooks to see what was entered or not entered.

Since you have already entered all your data into QuickBooks for 2018  and do not balance, try taking your LAST BANK STATEMENT From December 2017 and enter in the Ending Balance from that Statement and enter in all those transactions that show up on that Bank Statement, using those dates from the bank statement. 

If you still don't balance, then you will have to take all your Bank Statements from December 2017 (If you began using QuickBooks January 1, 2018), to December 2018 and balance them all. 

This is why I never recommend anyone trying to use QuickBooks and try to enter in a years work in hopes that they balance. 

Nancy Neville

We tend to be over-thinkers.  I'm a great one for doing that...over thinking things. 

So, I'm glad I was able to help you with the "rest of the story". 

Nancy Neville

Let's say your tenant paid their rent 1 year in advance.

The Tenants rent is $500.00 a month. 

One year's rent in advance would be $6,000.00 for the year.  (I know....I know...this is quite a wish)

You invoice this tenant for his or her current months rent of $500.00.

He or She pays you after winning the lottery $6,000 to pay his or her rent in advance for a year.

You receive the tenants payment as you normally would. But this time you are going to enter into the Payment Field the total amount of money she or he is paying you which will be $6,000.00.  (In your case 3 months rent).

Once you type in $6,000.00 and the tenants rent is only $500.00,  QuickBooks tells you, "Hey, hold on,  way too much money. (I'm paraphrasing it)   What do you want to do with it.  "Leave the credit to be used later?"   YES   or Refund the money back to the tenant (NO) as the tenant is paying you a year in advance.  So of course, you will say Yes. 

Now when you Invoice your tenant next month for rent that is due (Invoice them)for rent that is due), QuickBooks will let you know that this tenant  has a huge credit.  Do you want to apply that credit to this current Invoice?  And you say Yes.  And you keep doing this until the credit is all used up.   You invoice them, apply the credit to the invoice and do this until the credit is all used up. 

Very simple.  Plus in the customer center your tenant will show a credit  in his or her file, until the credit has been used up. 

Nancy Neville

This answer is not directed directly to MIke but his question is what most people seem to want these days, and I understand the reason, but in our Industry, all these fancy smancy technology (and I love fancy smancy techology-I'm a nerd actually) I don't find it productive in our Industry. 

Being a Landlord keeps us busy.  It is a 24/7 job. We get calls on every Holiday known to man. For some reason every furnace goes out on Christmas and New Years.  And of course the air conditioners always poop out in the summers 

Because we invest tens of thousands of dollars into our business, and because we are responsible for other people lives, and neighbors,and neighborhoods  (Market Value)  what happens to them if our properties are not up to code or we are neglectful in some way?  We end up paying a hefty price and we are held responsible for many things by the City and the Courts and the public eye.  so we truly need to be up-to-date on our State and City Landlord/Tenant Laws and more.  Which means we are pretty busy people.  

We not only have the above to deal with, but we normally will do repairs ourselves, or hire a handyman, we also need to do the accounting, keep tenants in line, paying their rent on time, keeping them happy so they will stay, and having to do the dastardly evictions, which if done wrong could end up in us losing our properties, and sometimes even our lives. 

So now I come to Mikes question about Credit Card Transactions being imported from his bank to QuickBooks.  And because we are busy people, it sure would be nice to have some fancy smancy technology that would do all this for us, to help take off the load. Easier it may be, but do we really want that in our Industry?

I may be old fashion and I'm sure I am, but, as much as I like fancy technology like paying my bills on line, or buying all my stuff through Amazon, there is no way I want anyone touching my business transactions and bank account but ME !! I am a CONTRACT PERSON!  I am a person who lives by EVIDENCE, PAPER WORK, and in this Industry, not trusting anyone touching my accounting (unless I hire someone). 

Third party entities are closed on Holidays, they have glicks in their programs and sometimes the technology isn't compatible with our software program and so that can hinder us in our business, especially when doing an eviction as time is of the essence. 

It may be easy at first for you to download your expenses from an online account into Quickbooks or some other software program, but you are going to have to balance the Credit Card Statement or Bank Account one way or the other at the end of the month or when you receive it.   And if your QuickBooks data doesn't balance with their Data, then you are spending way too much time trying to find out who made the error.  Why isn't the bank showing the credit you received when you returned the item you purchased?  Etc., Etc., etc.,  Well, because they are behind, they say,  Or, well we don't post until the next day, blah blah blah.  Etc. 

This is strictly my opinion, but I, personally,  want to be aware of every single thing that happens in my company. I want those receipts, I want those invoices, I want to enter them in myself , one by one into Quickbooks because I have too much money invested in this Industry to count on someone else (Other than an employee) to keep my accounts accurate and up-to-date.  

So to Mike.  QuickBooks will do so much more for you and save you so much more time, and money, in the long run, then by counting on somebody else to create something for you that is supposed to make your life easier, but in the end only makes your life harder.  QuickBooks is great!  But I don't like the supposedly "add on"s, either from them or from a compatible program that works with QuickBooks.  Do it yourself and you will save yourself a lot of headaches.  

Nancy Neville

Double posted.  So I erased it.  

Make sure you turn on Time Tracking in your Preference Section

So you are in your Vendor Center:  Make sure that little bill box is checked. 

Click Save and Close 

Go to your Customer center and choose your tenant (Name) do a Ctrl + I  (for Invoice) and this window should appear.

Click on the Expenses Tab

To put a check mark next to the bill you want to send your tenant press the space bar on your keyboard and click on save and close.

And now the bill appears for your tenant.  DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING ON THIS FORM.  jUST print it out and then click on save and close. 

You can slip the $60.00 for this tutorial under my door the next time you come to Michigan.  :)

Of course you know I'm kidding.

Nancy Neville

Dear..........

Thank you for wanting to extend your lease agreement with us when it expires.  However, due to there being a breakdown in our Landlord/Tenant relationship during your tenancy with us,  (you haven't been very happy here)  we find that it is best that we decline your request. 

However, we do wish you the best.

Sincerely,

Yikes Jay !!!! Hmmm..

You can only collect half of a spouses Social Security Check if you have been married to them for at least 10 years and are divorced.  But if you are still married, the surviving spouse collects the highest social security between the two of them. 

Nancy Neville

So let me see if I have this right?  It's okay for us to charge a tenant for rent one month in advance and they have to trust us that they can live in our rental unit for one month and that the landlord will take care of their repairs if needed, but if they want to pay one year in advance, there is something fishy going on.  I would say there is more trust ion their part in regards to YOU, then the other way around since you will have a ton of their money!!!   If you do a credit check as normal you can tell whether they pay their bills well and on time and that's all you need to know.  

Here is an example and it is a true story.  

My friend is an elderly woman.  She is 71 years old and her husband is 85 and has been sick for many years.  He hasn't long to live.  They live just on their social security checks which are nothing at all, and her husbands pension check.  When her husband passes away, she loses his pension and she will only receive his social security check for  $954.00 a month.  (She loses her social security check because her husband made more money than her and you can't receive his check and yours too)  There is no way that she can afford to live in their home or anywhere on this earth for $954.00 a month. (However, she does have a little bit of money in her savings account.  Enough to pay two years in advance somewhere if she had to rent somewhere)

She has applied for a Senior Citizen apartment which bases the rent on a tenant's  income, (senior citizen) however the waiting list is long and it can take up to two years for her to get into one. But until then, she needs a place to live, and since she can't afford to live in her own home, she has to sell it, but because of her low income, nobody wants to take a chance on her)  (I did call a Senior Citizen Manufactured Home Community that understands and will rent a trailer to her based on her paying in advance so thank goodness for someone not being afraid to do so.  They say they do this quite often for the Elderly)

But she was so worried about all this that she was seriously thinking of living in her van and becoming a NOMAD!!!

The bottom line is this.  There are many reasons for people to pay in advance.  Nobody can take that money from you once they pay it.  Even from a divorce.  The courts would make the spouse pay it back however way they can, but they won't make you return the funds?  That's ridiculous.  

Nancy Neville