The bookkeeping and tracking have to be done correctly.

Instead I work with brokers, property managers, lawyer, accountant, bookkeeper, title companies, sub contractors etc. 

While the subject of taxes it’s sort of intertwined with accounting and legal, Just as how bookkeeping is separate from account even though both deal with numbers, in the context of REI the former being more focused on tracking income/expenses while the latter focused on preparing a tax return.

Now I hear he's mad at us because of the cashed out tax consequences & that was after getting tax advice from his brother (the sometimes sober) bookkeeper.

Book keeping question - how would I record full rental income if I don't actually receive money from the property manager?

Also from what I understand book keepers are recommended if that’s not your area of expertise.

Book keeping is done in all seasons in preparation for "tax season."

As the owner of a bookkeeping firm and someone that uses QuickBooks all day, every day, I’m going to respectfully disagree with Josh. 

Thankfully between us we have a lot of bookkeeping and IT experience so there are some costs we are comfortable in not having to incur, however the bigger expenses such as lawyers and accountants seem unavoidable, and from what I hear it is pretty important to get your name out there quickly and effectively through an online presence and advertising so you can pick up deals earlier than others.  

If that's the case, you really only need a dedicated account (or bookkeeping to simulate this) in which disbursements and certain expenses (like taxes, insurance, and capex) are recorded.If you are asking whether the property management's bookkeeping is standard, this is a much bigger question.I can't imagine that a legitimate PM would have an individual trust account for each owner.