Rental property recordkeeping

Congratulations on your soon-to-be real estate empire!

You should ask your accountant what software they can work with, and get their advice on how to manage your income/expense entries and tax and financial reporting entries so that allowable and non-allowable expenses are accurately identified (and to coordinate with your lawyer on potential consolidations / passthroughs if the investment properties are held in different legal entities for liability or other purposes).

One way to do this is keep all cash flows in the same bank account which has no other cash flows besides distribution you take out. After that you download your bank cash flows into a spreadsheet in periodic basis, identity the category of each cash flow, keep the receipt ideally electronically, and pivot any way you like. That is all you need to provide to your accountant.

Each property gets a separate bank account, check book, and credit/debit card. I find that it is the cleanest, easy to remember, reconcile and it can withstand any irs audit.

Thanks guys this is great

Lease and receipts for small amounts in paper file; communications with tenant always through the same email address; rent checks, mortgage checks, maintenance payments and checks to contractor out of one checkbook. (Security deposit in separate account). Hand pile to accountant in the spring.