Payroll, bookkeeping, etc can mostly be done remotely.Here is a great list of questions to ask a potential accountant:http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/51/topics/70447-questions-to-ask-a-cpaAlso check out the www.NAEA.org page in your search.

If you are using quickbooks or any bookkeeping software, input it as a journal entry.

As much as possible, I'd like to handle the bookkeeping on this as correctly as possible.My initial research tells me that I'll need:- A dedicated checking account for this property.- A savings account to hold the deposit for the house.- A savings account to hold the deposit for the grandma unit.I currently use Capital One 360 for my consulting business and like how easy it is to create sub-accounts at no cost.

You also need an accountant to help both understand the bookkeeping and tax requirements for your business.

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

This made the most sense for us with a growing family and our local housing market.I have a few questions about the accounting/bookkeeping side.

Another suggestion is to do bookkeeping monthly, leverage automatic transaction importing, automatic tagging as much as you can. 

I suppose....but someone that understands the bookkeeping for RE.

They're great at what they do, but book keeping, invoicing, maintaining a schedule, communication, and other vital business skills are lacking.

This platform is called account management and basically eliminates my bookkeeper.