Author Topic: Accounting: Trying to learn Xero  (Read 1791 times)

ForeverBlue73

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Accounting: Trying to learn Xero
« on: August 07, 2019, 07:03:31 PM »
What do you landlords use for accounting software? I just signed up for Xero (per MMM's recommendation) but I am having a hard time getting started. Should I be more patient and stick with it? Or is there something else that is easier and more geared to the real estate rental business?

Kronsey

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Re: Accounting: Trying to learn Xero
« Reply #1 on: August 07, 2019, 10:13:21 PM »
What are you wanting the software to do/provide?

How many properties do you have?

If a small number of units, I think Google Sheets or Excel do just fine especially if the only purpose of keeping track is for tax reporting.

Chris Pascale

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Re: Accounting: Trying to learn Xero
« Reply #2 on: October 03, 2019, 10:31:26 PM »
Bumping this. Would like to know more.

Jon Bon

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Re: Accounting: Trying to learn Xero
« Reply #3 on: October 04, 2019, 06:00:10 AM »
I used quickbooks. Its a great package and has a ton of features. The price was reasonable. However comma it has a big drawback.

It lacks the ability to break out your expenses by house. SO sure you can see how you are doing in aggregate but you can't get a P&L on a specific house.

Now it is possible to break out all the houses but the software upgrade was about $1000 a year which is more than I was willing to spend. I am sure that package would let me run the accounting of a fortune 500 company, but it is not something that I actually need. I just need the 1 feature, and I was not willing to pay for it.

I guess I can check out xero......

SeattleCPA

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Re: Accounting: Trying to learn Xero
« Reply #4 on: October 04, 2019, 07:55:54 AM »
I used quickbooks. Its a great package and has a ton of features. The price was reasonable. However comma it has a big drawback.

It lacks the ability to break out your expenses by house. SO sure you can see how you are doing in aggregate but you can't get a P&L on a specific house.

Now it is possible to break out all the houses but the software upgrade was about $1000 a year which is more than I was willing to spend. I am sure that package would let me run the accounting of a fortune 500 company, but it is not something that I actually need. I just need the 1 feature, and I was not willing to pay for it.

I guess I can check out xero......

With QuickBooks, you use classes to break apart rents and expenses by property. E.g., you use a class named "Broadway" for your property on Broadway, a class named "Strawberry Lane" for your property on Strawberry Lane, etc. Do this and you get granularity you need.

P.S. I think Quicken Rental Property Manager is probably the easier program to use if you're a non-accountant trying to do rentals. There is a limit to number of properties we've seen clients encounter. But it's pretty high... Maybe 50? 70? Something like that...

Jon Bon

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Re: Accounting: Trying to learn Xero
« Reply #5 on: October 04, 2019, 09:38:08 AM »
I used quickbooks. Its a great package and has a ton of features. The price was reasonable. However comma it has a big drawback.

It lacks the ability to break out your expenses by house. SO sure you can see how you are doing in aggregate but you can't get a P&L on a specific house.

Now it is possible to break out all the houses but the software upgrade was about $1000 a year which is more than I was willing to spend. I am sure that package would let me run the accounting of a fortune 500 company, but it is not something that I actually need. I just need the 1 feature, and I was not willing to pay for it.

I guess I can check out xero......

With QuickBooks, you use classes to break apart rents and expenses by property. E.g., you use a class named "Broadway" for your property on Broadway, a class named "Strawberry Lane" for your property on Strawberry Lane, etc. Do this and you get granularity you need.

P.S. I think Quicken Rental Property Manager is probably the easier program to use if you're a non-accountant trying to do rentals. There is a limit to number of properties we've seen clients encounter. But it's pretty high... Maybe 50? 70? Something like that...

Yes that was exactly my issue, I needed "class" but to get classes I had to pay like $80 a month or something which seams a bit steep IMO.

Ill check out quicken rental property manager.


Le Poisson

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Re: Accounting: Trying to learn Xero
« Reply #6 on: October 15, 2019, 08:30:28 AM »
P.S. I think Quicken Rental Property Manager is probably the easier program to use if you're a non-accountant trying to do rentals. There is a limit to number of properties we've seen clients encounter. But it's pretty high... Maybe 50? 70? Something like that...

Does anyone know if there is a Canadian version of this? Looking at the screen caps on their website it's pretty close to what I'd like to see, but I can't tell if they work with CDN tax software.

BuffaloStache

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Re: Accounting: Trying to learn Xero
« Reply #7 on: October 15, 2019, 01:51:32 PM »

If a small number of units, I think Google Sheets or Excel do just fine especially if the only purpose of keeping track is for tax reporting.

Bumping to learn more too.
Does anyone have a good Excel/GSheets template that anyone can use? I track general expenses but would like to step it up a notch.

 

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