All Forum Posts by: Todd Lennig

I have a bookkeeping client that uses Innago and it is really nice.  Pretty sure it is free for him to use.

Most of my bookkeeping clients use quickbooks.  Wave is another option as @Bruce Woodruff pointed out.  Its not as good but pretty decent for a free software.  Feel free to reach out if you have questions.  Happy to help.

@Abdul Lateef. depends what you are looking for.  if you only want your transaction categorized, you can go on up-works and have it taken care of for 20 bucks a month.  If you are hiring for experience and guidance it will cost more.  Bookkeeping is no different than hiring a plumber or roofer.  You get what you pay for and sometimes you are paying more for experience and guidance than the actual time it takes to do the job.  

I don't price out hourly.  I price out based on a number of factors and my experience, knowledge and working with multiple other investors come into play.  Am I the cheapest? Nope.  Am I the most expensive?  Nope.  Do I bring value to the table beyond the work that I am doing for you?  Heck yeah. 

Hope that helps.

@Benjamin Lenz as a bookkeeper i ask for read only access.  Which is exactly what it sounds, I can see but can't touch your money.  You are correct, I ask for that access, so I can see statements and check images.  Sure you can do what Allan recommended, but in my experience business owners don't have the time to do this.  And it slows my work down by about a week.  Also, make sure you are reading the fine print of where you store your data.  I would never ever, ever give full access to your accounts.  The key is the read only access, which most banks have for free.  Let me know if you have any questions.  Happy to answer them.

@Kyle Ross. 

@Mike Smith and @Aaron Zimmerman are right on.  Learning the basics of accounting is essential.  No matter how awesome your bookkeeper is you need to understand what you are looking at.  Finding that bookkeeper is part of your team, just like your contractors, bankers, etc.  When looking for bookkeepers I encourage my potential clients to look for someone that you will feel comfortable asking questions to,  who enjoys teaching along with doing the work.  Specializing/niching in real estate is always a positive.  

Quickbooks can handle real estate investing.  The subscription level that you should be looking at is the QBO Plus.  Currently it is $80 a month.  The reason for this level of subscription is that you want the class feature.  This gives you the ability to assign expenses and income to specific properties. So that you can then run a whole company P&L or a P&L for a specific property.

There are other free options for accounting software but obviously not as good.  Hence the free part of it.  

Always happy to answer anyones specific questions.  

@Garrett Blanchard. I would be happy to chat with you and answer your questions about getting your balance sheet set up. 

@Kevin Polite mine seem to be working right now.  But I did have this for a bookkeeping client a while back.  It turned out that the type of card that was put in wasnt correct and that fixed the problem, I think.

Hope that helps.

@Nik Gernhard. Yes the simple start or essentials will work perfect for you when you have 1 property.  Once you start adding properties you will want to move up to the plus level for the class feature.  That is used to track expenses and income per property.  You can track everything in excel as @John Underwood does.  It depends on how hands on you are.  If you have any questions feel free to reach out.

@Kevin Sharkey. You have a great start to the list of software.  Another one which is a free software is wave accounting.  Like all free software it has its limitations but has paid add-ons.  I don't think it is as good as quickbooks even when you start to add paid features but its an option.  If you would like to discuss the pros and cons of some of these please reach out and we can set up a time to talk. Hopefully that helps a little.

@Allicyn Aubut i think you would need to open a new account for that EIN because it is a seperate business.  Thats what I did for both my wife's businesses.  Interested in hearing what support has to say.  I have a great rep at the company if you want an actual person please let me know an will pass on contact info.