Whenever you consider accounting software program, you most likely consider QuickBooks first. It’s utilized by companies throughout industries. It integrates with quite a lot of SaaS platforms and has some customization capabilities.
However for property managers with very particular accounting and reporting wants, is QuickBooks for property administration actually the perfect accounting software program on the market?
We’re not so certain.
For those who don’t wish to decide to intensive workarounds, we suggest purpose-built software program akin to Buildium over generic choices akin to QuickBooks.
On this article, we’ll stroll you thru 10 explanation why Buildium makes extra sense as an accounting software program for property administration companies.
To begin, with property administration accounting software program akin to Buildium, you’ll be able to separate the small print of every proprietor, property, and tenant and generate easy-to-understand stories on every facet of your small business.
What Is Property Administration Accounting?
Earlier than we get within the weeds, there are a number of foundational subjects you ought to be accustomed to, akin to structuring your financial institution accounts and understanding the accounting cycle.
For those who’re beginning out, or simply want a refresher, take a peek at our definitive information to property administration accounting to stand up to hurry.
In a nutshell, property administration accounting encompasses all of the funds round managing each your individual enterprise and your homeowners’ rental properties. That features:
- Gathering lease and holding deposits in belief
- Reporting and paying taxes, together with submitting 1099s
- Shopping for and sustaining insurance coverage
- Billing homeowners for providers and repairs
- Paying group members and distributors
- Managing overhead, together with workplace area and tools and licensing charges
Property administration bookkeeping practices are distinctive as a result of it accounts for each your individual funds and that of your homeowners. Property managers deal with funds for homeowners and even maintain cash within the type of deposits for residents in escrow accounts. As a result of cash is transferring in so many instructions directly, generic accounting software program might not have the ability to account for every distinctive state of affairs.
Property Administration Accounting at Each Enterprise Sort
Property Administration Accounting for Single-Household Items
Property managers with single-family portfolios might discover that a lot of the transactions they monitor, akin to amassing lease funds, making repairs, and investing in advertising, could be categorized neatly by every property they handle.
However as is true for portfolios of any measurement or property kind, you’ll doubtless be coping with a number of property homeowners, particularly in the event you plan to develop your small business. Meaning you’ll must preserve every consumer’s funds clearly separated. Your accounting software program ought to offer you a straightforward manner to do this.
Property Administration Accounting for Multifamily Items
For those who handle multifamily properties, you want an environment friendly solution to monitor the funds of a number of models in a single constructing and customary areas, together with all of the repairs and upkeep work that comes with them. Administration instruments that may deal with these particular challenges and scale up with your small business are important if you wish to preserve operating issues effectively.
Neighborhood affiliation, or HOAs and COAs, administration accounting could be a wholly completely different beast. Associations have their very own set of transactions (member dues, HOA charges, and many others.) to maintain monitor of together with particular legal guidelines and guidelines that may fluctuate from board to board.
It’s no surprise that 85% of affiliation managers use purpose-built software program akin to Buildium to maintain their operations on monitor.
How Accounting Software program for Property Administration Can Assist
Particularly in the event you’re simply beginning out, chances are you’ll be tempted to do your bookkeeping through excel spreadsheets, and that will get you by—up to a degree.
For many property managers, spreadsheets merely don’t scale. Money coming out and in of a number of properties needs to be up to date recurrently, and ensuring the information is right is usually a painstaking course of, particularly when you’ve got a number of property managers accessing and updating the identical data.
You want an correct chart of accounts to doc and reconcile earnings (lease, charges, and repair add-ons) vs bills (paying out to distributors, salaries, and overhead and taxes).
Accounting instruments akin to QuickBooks could make managing your small business accounting simpler by automating the redundant duties that eat up most of your time, whereas protecting your books correct.
However are you making the best name by utilizing QuickBooks for property management-specific accounting duties? A property administration accounting software program answer akin to Buildium that features a chart of accounts custom-made to the wants of property managers could also be a greater reply to your companies distinctive wants.
Now that we’ve coated why you want purpose-built accounting software program for property managers, let’s take a better have a look at QuickBooks vs Buildium, and evaluate the 2 on 10 key components that would affect your shopping for determination.
Buildium vs QuickBooks for Property Administration
QuickBooks is without doubt one of the commonest accounting instruments on the market and is used broadly throughout most industries. The software program provides a formidable array of accounting options, though many, akin to stock monitoring and ecommerce stories, aren’t essentially related to property managers.
Buildium is an all-in-one answer with administration instruments to assist with all of your property administration operations, not simply accounting, together with (however actually not restricted to):
Nonetheless, when strictly evaluating accounting options, Buildium has loads to supply. Let’s see how every software program stacks up.
QuickBooks vs Buildium: Basic Accounting Options
QuickBooks
With QuickBooks, you’ll be able to arrange separate accounts for belongings, liabilities, earnings, and bills, and mark particular transactions as service gadgets in your accounts. These embrace lease, safety deposits, and property administration charges. As soon as linked to your checking account, the software program can kind by way of your invoices and categorize your transactions mechanically.
QuickBooks additionally enables you to create customized invoicing stories and monitor funds in real-time. And you may generate digital profit-and-loss stories which can be simple to share with property homeowners.
QuickBooks, nevertheless, wasn’t purpose-built for property administration.
So as to add particular properties and residents to your account, for instance, you’ll must mark them as “prospects” and “sub-customers” inside QuickBooks’ system, filling in names, addresses, and different particulars to keep away from confusion.
Buildium
Buildium provides its personal variations of the important options you’ll discover in QuickBooks, plus the instruments you have to handle properties and residents.
Buildium has templates and drop-down menus that make it simple to enter all forms of income and bills for every property or affiliation you handle. You possibly can entry and replace clearly organized monetary particulars for every property, property proprietor, consumer, and vendor.
You’ll even have entry to automated checking account reconciliation and free digital leasing, checking account setup, and EFT funds.
As a result of Buildium enables you to acquire lease and pay distributors and homeowners in a single place, you’ll be able to entry an easy-to-follow document of every transaction. Buildium’s built-in calculators can decide precisely what you owe and automated funds may also help you keep on prime of recurring expenses.
QuickBooks vs Buildium: Reconciliation
QuickBooks
In QuickBooks, you’ll be able to reconcile your bank statements by choosing your account, then rigorously matching every transaction in your accounting data with the corresponding transaction in your financial institution assertion.
You possibly can examine off every transaction that matches in your QuickBooks account and ensure the distinction proven in your books is zero. From right here, you’ll be able to mechanically generate a reconciliation report.
Buildium
Buildium automates the whole reconciliation course of. Buildium downloads transactions out of your financial institution, then matches them with the identical transactions in your account. You possibly can verify matches if there isn’t a one-to-one precise match.
Buildium can even remind you at any time when it’s time to create reconciliation stories and might generate these stories mechanically.
QuickBooks vs Buildium: Chart of Accounts
QuickBooks
QuickBooks can monitor money movement in your accounts, however you’ll must arrange these accounts precisely first.
When beginning an account, you’ll be able to choose your account sorts from a drop-down menu—this could possibly be classes like Fairness, Revenue, Bills, Fastened Asset, Lengthy-Time period Legal responsibility, Accounts Payable—and sort customized names and descriptions for every account.
As talked about earlier, QuickBooks solely organizes your accounts by “prospects” and “sub-customers.” There isn’t a lot room to get extra particular right here, so that you’ll must depend on your written descriptions when including tenants and properties to your account.
There’s additionally an absence of pre-built classes for vendor funds, lease, affiliation charges, and another widespread property administration transactions.
Buildium
Buildium data, updates, and categorizes your monetary transactions precisely and rapidly. The software program comes preloaded with templates which can be already configured for particular property administration accounting wants, so that you’ll spend much less time customizing every account and discipline.
In Buildium you even have the choice to edit an present chart of accounts and customise it to fulfill the precise wants of your portfolio.
QuickBooks vs Buildium: Billling
QuickBooks
You possibly can enter payments into QuickBooks by choosing distributors you’ve got saved within the software program, then coming into applicable particulars akin to due date, tackle, invoice quantity, the quantity, and the kind of the service you’re being billed for.
Since there are just a few choices right here that pertain particularly to property administration, you’ll have to search out the closest match with the choices out there. You may also make clear this within the description field.
When you’ve created your invoice, you’ll be able to pay it by way of QuickBooks, both out of your financial institution free of charge or utilizing a credit score or debit card for a payment.
Buildium
Buildium enables you to preserve all of your accounts payable in a single simple-to-use dashboard. The progress of all of your upkeep and repairs is already out there on this dashboard, which makes it simple to trace bills and convert work orders to payments utilizing the identical instruments.
For recurring bills, you’ll be able to arrange automated funds and have Buildium notify others at any time when a fee is due. You’ll have the ability to preserve monitor of every new cost within the Buildium dashboard.
QuickBooks vs Buildium: Taxes
QuickBooks
QuickBooks provides an efiling choice that may generate 1099s for you and ship out as many types as you need. Contractor funds come at a further price, nevertheless, with the really useful plan priced at $22.50 per month.
Buildium
Buildium’s eFiling options assist you get a head begin on tax season and prep your types earlier than submitting is open with the IRS, which lets you confirm your tax numbers and lacking data forward of time. You possibly can create types on-line for each property homeowners and distributors, postmark them, and monitor them in the identical day.
That features 1099 types, which property managers can entry a number of weeks forward of the official submitting time period with the IRS. Buildium pulls tax data straight out of your accounting and creates each 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC types for each property homeowners and distributors. Postmark them that very same day and ship a digital copy, as nicely.
Whenever you’re able to file, every part is able to file proper by way of Buildium.
QuickBooks vs Buildium: Development
QuickBooks
QuickBooks provides you a primary view of your organization’s monetary well being, together with revenue, loss, income, and bills. You possibly can create customized stories primarily based on these particulars to share with homeowners and your group.
Buildium
Throughout the Analytics Hub, Buildium provides you extra element into industry-specific insights, akin to emptiness, turnover, and resident suggestions. You may also evaluate the way you’re performing primarily based on localized {industry} benchmarks and create stories for homeowners that they will entry from wherever.
QuickBooks vs Buildium: Belief Accounting
QuickBooks
You possibly can arrange belief accounts in QuickBooks, however you’ll must do a lot of the work manually.
Belief accounts are listed below “Different Present Liabilities” within the chart of accounts account kind menu. You’ll must fill within the account identify and another particulars.
This could get complicated rapidly, particularly in the event you’re juggling a number of bigger shoppers directly.
Buildium
Buildium enables you to arrange and clearly distinguish belief accounts, because of its purpose-built accounting instruments. Funds you retain in belief could be organized simply primarily based on the property and property proprietor tied to every account. This helps you keep away from any pricey errors and defend your homeowners from the identical.
QuickBooks vs Buildium: Integrations
QuickBooks
QuickBooks’ Superior plan provides you entry to a choice of premium accomplice apps, however many of those are still limited to accounting functions. Meaning you’ll want to look at software program you employ for different elements of your small business to see if, and the way nicely, it integrates with QuickBooks.
Buildium
With Buildium, you’ve got every part you want in a single place. Buildium has each an open API and a Market, with vetted accomplice instruments for each a part of the job, from advertising and itemizing to safety deposit administration and establishing utilities. Market is an ecosystem of confirmed integrations that plug straight into Buildium.
QuickBooks vs Buildium: Hire Cost
QuickBooks
QuickBooks has an internet fee choice, but it surely’s rather more restricted. There’s no portal your tenants can entry and no autopay choice for lease.
Buildium
An efficient on-line lease fee characteristic mechanically notifies tenants when lease is due, retains monitor of fee historical past, permits bank card and ACH funds, and in the end updates your monetary data.
Buildium has all these options and helps you monitor funds in a portal that’s easy to make use of, each for you and for tenants.
To not point out, Buidlium’s ePay answer helps you retain delinquent funds down whereas including cash in your pocket by way of ACH transactions.
QuickBooks vs Buildium: Pricing
QuickBooks
The most well-liked QuickBooks plan will run you $42.50 per month with stripped again and extra intensive choices additionally out there.
The cheaper choices have extra limits on the variety of customers you’ll be able to embrace, don’t allow you to monitor profitability, and have throughout fewer options, making it a much less viable choice for a lot of mid-sized to massive property administration corporations, albeit an inexpensive alternative in the event you’re in search of primary bookkeeping capabilities.
QuickBooks’ Superior plan provides you entry to a handful of extra options, akin to worker bills and premium apps, plus expanded technical assist and coaching sources. The Superior plan will run you $100 per 30 days.
Buildium
Buildium has three pricing packages, with its center Development plan beginning at $166 per 30 days, and it contains quite a lot of options past accounting.
With any Buildium plan, you’ll have entry to upkeep administration, activity and violation monitoring, on-line portals, and resident and affiliation communication instruments.
The Development plan provides you entry to limitless e-signatures, property inspections, premium tenant screening, web site creation instruments to market your small business, and insights into all-round enterprise efficiency.
You possibly can join on-line funds, late charges, and upkeep invoices, to your account, having one supply of fact for the standing of each lease and vendor contract.
Taken collectively, these options may give you higher worth and constantly greater ROI than standalone accounting software program.
Whereas generic accounting software program could also be a fast and efficient solution to fill a single want (last-minute prep for tax season, for instance), property administration accounting software program options akin to Buildium can really transfer your small business ahead and make it extra worthwhile multi functional fell swoop.
You could be within the place the place generic accounting software program looks like a superb match on your present wants, and, typically it very nicely could be.
However a phrase of warning: if your small business expands, you’ll inevitably outgrow the capabilities of most traditional accounting software program. As a substitute of coping with the complications of implementing new programs, select an answer with product tiers that scale with the scale of your small business.
Buildium or QuickBooks for Property Administration Accounting
With QuickBooks, chances are you’ll must take additional steps to mirror the ins and outs of your small business—every part from lease funds, property charges, and completely different proprietor and belief accounts.
Buildium comprises accounting options tailor-made particularly for property managers, and integration with a complete suite of different administration instruments to make the job simpler.
As one buyer wrote on Capterra: “Actually, [Buildium] has helped our enterprise out tremendously, the way in which it tracks financials for all associations. And shoppers [and apartment residents] are in a position to pay on-line. Actually glad this program permits the accounting a part of any enterprise together with the administration of all properties in a single program.”
We perceive that no two property administration corporations are alike. There are some necessary capabilities that may profit any enterprise, nevertheless. To that finish, we’ve put collectively this guidelines of options you must search for. Maintain it useful and we’re certain you’ll make the best alternative in accounting software program on your wants.
QuickBooks vs Buildium: Accounting Options Guidelines
Buildium delivers complete property accounting options to maintain your bookkeeping full and correct—and actually linked to the remainder of your property administration operations. Our accounting software program provides all of those options, and stories all of your financials to a single dashboard.
Certain, you should use QuickBooks for property administration, however when a software program answer is attempting to be every part to everybody—in each {industry}—it normally finally ends up falling brief. Buildium has created software program for one individual solely: the property supervisor attempting to manage the chaos, sharpen operations, and develop their enterprise.
Notice: The knowledge on this article comes straight from https://quickbooks.intuit.com/ from February, 2023.