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ContinueChoosing the right real estate accounting software is key to maximizing profits and avoiding losses in your rental business. Here's what you need to know.
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Whether you're a seasoned real estate investor or a property management professional, it’s important to choose the right software to help you manage the everyday aspects of your portfolio, from finding tenants and managing comms, to tracking income and expenses and filing taxes.
In this article, we explore some of the best real estate accounting software available for real estate investors and landlords. And we compare, the pros and cons of leveraging general accounting platforms like Quickbooks for rental properties to industry-specific software such as Landlord Studio.
The real estate accounting software you choose needs to meet your specific requirements and should pair a range of property management and accounting features with affordable pricing and good customer experience - so that it reduces your workload rather than increasing it.
One important question you need to ask yourself before you begin your search is, do you want an accounting-only platform? Or do you want property management software with quality accounting functionality?
There are pros and cons to both approaches. For example, accounting platforms like QuickBooks for rentals offer comprehensive accounting tools and reporting that caters to even the most complex accounting needs. However, it lacks important property management features (like automated rent collection and tenant screening) and can be a serious challenge to set up and use on a daily basis unless you’re already an expert.
When selecting real estate accounting software:
Property management software differs from accounting software in several key ways:
Landlord Studio is the top rated real estate accounting software on the market. It has been meticulously crafted by landlords for landlords.
Streamline your real estate accounting with automated income tracking, a GPS mileage tracker, and a receipt scanner built-in. Plus, leverage bank feeds which allows you to import up to two years of transactions and quickly reconcile them. Reduce manual data entry and errors and maximizie your end of year deductions.
And, with the ability to instantly generate customizable reports you can gain deep insights into you finances throughout the year and at tax time simply run your Schedule E report and send it to your accountant.
Landlord Studio is a best-in-class real estate accounting software for landlords with powerful property management functionality built-in. Collect rent online, create rental listings, screen tenants and store essential documents, all in one place. Save as much as $500 per year per property in additional tax deductions, and save days of admin time along the way. Available on all devices so you can manage your properties from anywhere.
Key Features:
Landlord Studio's GO plan is completely free. PRO plans start from $12/month. View Landlord Studio's pricing →
While industry-specific real estate accounting software holds several advantages over general accounting software, including cost-efficiency, feature sets, and ease-of use, for investors already familiar with an accounting platform and with complex accounting needs, it may be worth exploring general accounting software.
QuickBooks is the leading accounting software on the market, used by the majority of accountants in the US and many small businesses. However, while it can be tailored for use by real estate investors and property managers it’s versatility is it's downside. In order to cater for the broadest audience, the software is very complex to set up for real estate accounting, and difficult to use on a daily basis.
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Quicken, like QuickBooks, offers robust financial tools which can, in a pinch, be adapted for use by real estate investors. The platform excels when it comes to maintaining precise financial records for tax preparation. However, like QuickBooks, it can be a challenge to set up, especially for larger, more complex portfolios, and as your portfolio scales it can quickly become unwieldy.
Xero is an accounting platform that prides itself in ease-of-use. Offering robust financial tracking, reporting and invoicing tools. Once you’ve properly set up your chart of accounts for real estate investments it performs better than some of the other accounting-specific tools listed. Nevertheless it can become challenging to track individual properties with more than a few units in the system.
Sage offers a solid foundation as a real estate accounting software, providing essential tools and features for financial management in the industry. Its strength lies in its versatility for various business types which can sometimes result in it falling short of the specialized capabilities found in industry-specific real estate accounting software.
Sage offers a range of products and services with a complex pricing structure. You will need to contact Sage to determine which product is best suited to your needs and get a quote for pricing.
TenantCloud offers a range of core features that will help you with every aspect of your property management, from finding tenants to tracking leases, handling payments and managing maintenance.
However, whilst TenantCloud does offer accounting functionality, their feature set is tailored more towards the property management side of things than the real estate accounting. As such, but may not be suitable for people looking for a more robust real accounting software. Additionally, users have reported thatthe app is hard to use making this primarily a desktop software.
Propertyware is primarily designed for real estate investors that manage residential rental properties. The platform is designed to meet the core property management and accounting requirements of these property managers overseeing extensive portfolios.
It's worth mentioning that as it’s tailored to larger portfolios it is less cost-effective for property managers or independent landlords overseeing fewer than 250 units and is rated only 3.8 stars when it comes to usability.
Propertyware has three pricing tiers.
Buildium represents a robust cloud-based solution that is designed for the management of large portfolios. As such it's more suitable for property management companies rather than small portfolio landlords. It includes all the cutting-edge features that you would typically associate with a property management software, including a decent accounting suite.
This platform has an intuitive mobile portal and is distinguished by its award-winning customer support. Additionally, it offers invaluable analytics tools that yield critical insights, enhancing your grasp of your rental business's performance. It also provides tools tailored for the management of community associations and homeowners associations (HOAs).
Buildium offers three pricing tiers which scale with you as you add more units. There are also several optional add-ons your can purchase for each plan.
AppFolio is a top choice among real estate investors and property manager who are managing large rental portfolios. It includes standard features commonly found in property management software, like managing maintenance requests, automating payments, and enabling online leases.
Pricing starts at $280 per month for their core plan and scale ups as you add more units. You will need to contact their support to get a custom quote for your portfolio.
While software like QuickBooks, Xero, Buildium, or Appfolio certainly offer valuable features and have their own merits, Landlord Studio excels in several key areas that set it apart as the best real estate accounting software.
Firstly, Landlord Studio has been meticulously designed to match the unique needs of real estate professionals. Its intuitive interface makes it easy to get started and with its powerful mobile app use on a day-to-day basis becomes seamless and stress-free.
Secondly, you can instantly generate any of over 15+ customizable reports designed specifically for landlords and investors, including Schedule E and P&L reports.
Thirdly, Landlord Studio pairs award winning accounting with streamlined property management features, so you can centralize every aspect of your property management, from finding and screening tenants to document storage to rent collection - all in a single, easy-to-use, system.
And it does all of this for free.
Get professional real estate accounting software and take the stress out of tax season with Landlord Studio today.
Landlord Studio is an easy to use property management and accounting software designed for landlords.
Find and screen tenants, collect rent online, track income and expenses, run reports, and more - all for free.
Prepare for the October 15th tax extension and familiarize yourself with bookkeeping top tips and the 2024 real estate tax changes.
Hosted by: Logan Ransley, Landlord Studio Co-Founder and Thomas Castelli, The Real Estate CPA
Where: On Demand Webinar
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