Category: General

Categories
General

Importance of Landlord Record Keeping for Rental Property

Record Keeping for Landlords
Landlords use RentalIncomeExpense.com to easily track income and expenses.

Owning and managing rental property is a business activity. Landlording can be a full or part time gig. Whether you create a separate business for it or not, landlord record keeping for rental property is important for tax purposes. The two main types of records are the income and expenses and the supporting documentation of the income and expenses.

Income & Expense Records

Landlord record keeping for rental property makes it easier to complete tax forms, such as Form 1040 Schedule E. The tax forms determine if you made a profit or had a loss for that year from your rental property. Schedule E organizes activity by each property, so you’ll want to keep income and expense records for each rental address.

Supporting Documentation for Landlord Record Keeping for Rental Property

Proof of income and expenses is especially important if you are audited. Receipts and cancelled checks prove the income earned and expenses incurred in case the IRS has questions. Supporting documents leave a paper trail and prove that your claims are correct. They also show the tax deductions you receive are legitimate.

Worth It

Landlords with good recordkeeping habits will maximize the tax benefits of owning and managing rental property. Keeping track of income and expenses and maintaining supporting documentation will reduce the stress if audited and provide peace of mind. RentalIncomeExpense.com is a free and complete solution for landlords. Try it today!

Categories
General

Free Landlord Rental Income Expense Tracking

Free Income Expense Tracking
Landlords need an easy to use and understand tool to track income and expenses.

Rental income expense tracking is an essential task for every landlord. Tracking helps landlords determine the health of their business. It also makes tax time easier as the rental property income and expense data is necessary to fulfill IRS requirements. For example, landlords usually need to complete Schedule E of Form 1040 for income tax purposes.

Expensive property management software like Renttec Direct or Buildium is overkill for the small landlord because it generally costs more in time and money than it is worth. On the other hand, a simple Excel spreadsheet is not nearly powerful enough because it cannot easily generate the different reports landlords need.

Easy to use and understand rental income expense tracking for landlords is highly desirable. Qualities of a great tool for landlords also include easy to generate reports like a profit & loss statement and an affordable price tag. Free is almost always the best!

RentalIncomeExpense.com is the best solution for landlords:

  • Simple to setup
  • FREE
  • Designed for landlords
  • Reports that matter (e.g., profit & loss and Schedule E helper)
  • Accessible from your smartphone

To setup a free account, get started at www.RentalIncomeExpense.com today!

Categories
General

Small Landlord Accounting Software Needs

small landlord accounting sofware needs
A small landlord has different accounting software needs than the big guys!

The accounting needs of General Motors are not the same as the accounting needs of Joe’s Pizza shop. Similarly, small landlords do not have the same accounting needs as large real estate corporations. What does a small landlord need in their accounting software?

Ease of Use

Large apartment companies generally employ their own accountants. Small landlords must learn a lot of accounting on their own. For many, using accounting software like Quickbooks is time-consuming and not intuitive. Small landlord accounting software that is dead simple to use is a huge timesaver.

Income Expense Tracking

Expensive online software like Appfolio or Buildium often have a myriad of features. However, do small landlords need these features? Generally, small landlords just need basic income (rent) and expense tracking.

Helpful Reports

Once a landlord enters their income and expense information, they really just need a few helpful reports. The first is a profit and loss report so that a landlord can see how they are doing financially. Next, landlords in the United States need a ‘Schedule E’ Helper report which helps them report property income to the IRS.

Low Price

Finally, small landlords often have slim budgets. They do not have hundreds of properties to spread the cost of accounting software across. They may just have one property.

Fortunately, there is online software that is perfect for small landlords and free. For many years, small landlords have used RentalIncomeExpense.com. This free service is easy-to-use, allows income expense tracking, and generates a few super important reports. Try it out at www.RentalIncomeExpense.com!

Categories
General

Rental Property Profit and Loss Statement

Profit and Loss Statement
The P&L shows how well or poorly the business is doing.

The rental property profit and loss statement is a report that summarizes revenues received and expenses incurred. Also known as a P&L or income statement, it shows how well or poorly the business is doing by its net income or loss. The majority of income is reflected by the rent landlords collect from tenants. As for expenses, they can vary and can range from general maintenance such as lawn care to property taxes. With the profit and loss report, landlords can identify areas to reduce expenses or make improvements to strengthen the business.

How do you create a an income statement? The easiest way is with landlord accounting software. There are free templates available, like the Zillow worksheet. Templates and spreadsheets are not the best choice for landlords because they are not powerful enough and can be one dimensional with limited reporting capabilities. Believe it or not, similar to templates, there is free landlord accounting software. For example, RentalIncomeExpense.com is an income and expense tracking tool designed for landlords. It is free and easily generates a rental property profit and loss statement. When using a good tool to generate reports, landlords can quickly determine how their business is doing.

Categories
General

The Landlord Cell Phone Expense

landlord cell phone expense
Are you expensing your cell phone usage for your rental properties?

Ever since some company named for a fruit unveiled the iPhone, the cell phone has changed from an important part of daily life to an essential part. From texts to emails to even (gasp! old school!) calls, most landlords today manage their rental property using their pint-sized touchscreen sidekick. Because it is so critical, cell phone related costs are a legitimate expense for a landlord.

What Phone Expenses Count For a Landlord?

There are two main components to cell phone expense.

  • The phone itself
  • The cellular plan (talk, text, and data) that allows you to use the phone on the go

Fortunately, both your purchase of a cell phone and the monthly cellular plan are legitimate landlord expenses. If you run your rental property business as a “pass thru” entity that shows up on your personal taxes (as many landlords do), these expenses will show up on the Schedule E of your IRS tax return.

Additionally, if you use just one phone for both business and personal, you’ll want to calculate roughly how much of your use of your smartphone is split between your landlording business and your personal use of the phone and allocate the expense appropriately (example, if 30% of the usage was for property management, expense 30%).

You may want to talk to a CPA about the expense also, as there are some advisors who suggest you can deduct the full cost of your line if you already have another line you use for your personal use.

Where On the Tax Return Does Cell Phone Expenses Appear?

If your rental property activities are as a ‘pass thru entity’ (aka appear on your personal return), then your landlord cell phone expense can appear on the ‘Other’ line of Schedule E.

Does tracking rental property expenses seem daunting? Never fear! Look into a free online tool like RentalIncomeExpense.com. With this software, you can easily record property expenses and generate a Schedule E Helper report at tax time.

Categories
General

Free Landlord Income & Expense Tracking Software

Free Landlord Accounting Software
Get started with free landlord accounting software at RentalIncomeExpense.com!

Landlords wear a lot of different hats. They are marketers when trying to advertise and find tenants. They are handy people when trying to maintain the physical upkeep of their rental property. And they are accountants who have to keep track of the income earned and expenses made related to their rentals. There is a lot of choice for landlords when it comes to accounting software to help manage rental property. One of the free landlord income & expense tracking software that is easy to learn and designed specifically for landlords is RentalIncomeExpense.com.

Expensive property management software (like Renttec Direct, Tenant Cloud, or Buildium) is overkill for the small landlord – costing more in time and money than it is worth. On the other hand, an Excel spreadsheet isn’t nearly powerful enough.  For example, it cannot easily generate the different reports that a landlord needs.

RentalIncomeExpense.com is the best of all worlds:

  • Simple to setup
  • FREE
  • Designed for landlords
  • Instant reports that matter (such as profit & loss and the 1040 Schedule E helper)
  • Accessible from your smartphone
  • Backed up by ClearNow’s proven online infrastructure (since 2000)

To get started with free landlord income & expense tracking software, set up a free account today at RentalIncomeExpense.com today!

Categories
General

Helpful Tools for Small Businesses

Tools for Small Businesses
There are many helpful tools that make running a small business easier.

Starting a business is not easy. Managing the day to day activity while trying to grow the business is not easy either. With today’s modern technology and innovative minds, there are many helpful tools for small businesses to make their lives easier. Here are a few to mention:

Accounting/Bookkeeping Tools

Keeping track of income and expenses is important for two primary reasons. First, you need this information to complete income taxes every year. Second, this information will give you an idea of how well your business is doing – Do you have profits? Are you growing? There is a variety of accounting tools available for small businesses. Some are free and focus on a target market like RentalIncomeExpense.com, which caters to landlords and rental property. Some are expensive but applicable to any business like QuickBooks. Whatever accounting tool you choose, know that this tool is pretty important and helpful, especially if you can run reports that summarize how your business is operating.

Communication Tools

Communicating with customers and employees is important. How you communicate and the ease in which you communicate can make running your business easier. Email is pretty standard and in many respects becoming more popular than telephone. Similar to accounting tools, there is a lot of choice with email providers. One of the most popular email providers is Google’s Gmail. For businesses, Google Workspace consolidates a number of tools, such as email and storage, enabling you to better manage operating your business.

Similar to email, electronic signatures are another paperless communication tool that can streamline your business. Whether you need signatures from employees or from customers, using electronic signature software will save everyone time. There are some esignature tools that charge a low flat fee like eSignToday and some that charge a recurring monthly fee like DocuSign.

The tools available make running a small business easier. Some are free and some are well worth the cost. Nevertheless, there is a lot of choice, and finding those that best fits your needs will put you on the road to running a successful business.

Categories
General

Automatic Landlord Income Expense Tracking

Landlord Income Expense Tracking
Automatic and free landlord income expense tracking software makes life easier.

As we’ve already discussed, landlord income expense tracking is an important yet time consuming task for landlords. With all of the options available from a worksheet to landlord accounting software, each one has its pros and cons. We are going to highlight two major pros for landlords using RentalIncomeExpense.com – automatic recording of information and price.

Automatic Landlord Bookkeeping

If landlords want to save some time on tracking rental income and expenses when using RentalIncomeExpense.com, then they should use ClearNow for online rent payment. Rent collected via ClearNow is automatically recorded as income in RentalIncomeExpense.com. Furthermore, fees paid to ClearNow to collect rent online are also automatically recorded in RentalIncomeExpense.com. So just by using ClearNow, landlords eliminate the need to manually record rental income and the associated expense and thus save time.

Free Income Expense Tracking

RentalIncomeExpense.com is free rental property software. It’s hard to beat free. Many will ask, “What’s the catch”, when something so valuable is free. Believe it or not, there is no catch. Designed for landlords, RentalIncomeExpense.com is simple yet powerful landlord accounting software. Because it is free, landlords lose little when trying it out before taking out their wallets and purchasing software for their rental property needs. Beyond free, it also provides reports, like profit and loss, that tell landlords how well business is doing.

Information is powerful. A free tool like RentalIncomeExpense.com makes the mundane task of landlord bookkeeping all the more valuable.

Categories
General

Should Landlords Use Quickbooks?

Should Landlords Use Quickbooks
Quickbooks is great software for small business. But landlords can do better with other services.

Quickbooks by Intuit is a leading small business accounting software. Landlords often consider Quickbooks to do rental property accounting. However, there are much easier tools for landlords to use.

Quickbooks is too complicated

Quickbooks, by reputation, is not easy to learn. People buy books and videos to answer questions about how to set-up things in Quickbooks.

Moreover, even for Quickbooks experts, using Quickbooks for property management is difficult. In fact, it is challenging enough to warrant a video course on how landlords can use Quickbooks.

Landlord-specific accounting software is easier to use

Fortunately, there is a lot of landlord accounting software available as alternatives to Quickbooks. Just as a handyman has many tools in their toolbox (hammer, screwdrivers, wrenches) to fix problems, the right sized landlord software can make your life so much easier.

For landlords who just need a few reports and simple income and expense tracking, RentalIncomeExpense.com is an easy-to-use and free alternative to Quickbooks. For large property managers with complex needs, there are property management accounting services such as Appfolio and Buildium.

As one example of the benefits of using a dedicated tool like RentalIncomeExpense.com, a landlord can quickly create an IRS Schedule E helper report with just a click of a button. This report contains all categories on the IRS form that their accountant will need at tax time. Try doing that with Quickbooks!

Categories
General

Increase Rental Income & Value of Rental Property with Simple Steps

Simple steps to increase rental income and value of rental property
There are simple steps landlords can take to increase rental income and the value of rental property.

Successful landlords want to increase rental income and the value of their rental property. There are some simple ways to achieve both goals. With any business, investing in your property so that you can offer more value can justify commanding a higher rent from tenants.

Boost Curb Appeal & Rental Income

One of the driving factors tenants consider when searching for a rental is location. If your property is located near parks, popular businesses like grocery stores, or main travel routes, stressing the benefits of the physical location of your rental property can boost interest and value. Following close behind geographic location is the curb appeal of your property. Is the exterior clean and in good shape? Is the landscaping neat and attractive? If the answers to these questions are “YES”, then you’re already one step ahead in providing value.

Take a Look Inside

You don’t have to do a major renovation to make the interior of your rental property feel fresh and clean. Instead, simple upgrades like a fresh coat of paint, new hardware, and brighter lightbulbs can create an attractive vibe. And something as simple as a good scrub – in the bathrooms and kitchen for example – make a clean unit go a long way. If the interior of your rental property looks and feels great, then it’s easier for you to find a tenant willing to pay your asking rent.

Sell Amenities

Who doesn’t like great amenities especially if they are included in the rent? You may be able to earn more if you charge a la carte for extras, but no one likes to be nickeled and dimed. If you offer great amenities just include them as part of your rent and thus get the asking rent that you want. Here are some amenities that can increase the value of your property and your rental income:

Online rent payment: Tenants want an easy way to pay rent. If rent payment is on auto pilot for tenants, it will make your life easier to get paid. Consider services like ClearNow or RentPayment for online rent payment.

Short term leases: Typically, rents tend to be higher for shorter term leases. So if you have a prospective tenant willing to pay more for a shorter than standard lease term, you can enhance your rental income.

Boosting curb appeal, improving the look and feel of the inside, and offering great amenities will help you increase your rental income and value of your rental property. These steps are easy to take and can make a lasting difference. Whatever you decide to do to increase rental income and the value of your rental property, be sure to keep track of what you spend. Tracking your rental property expenses with a free tool like RentalIncomeExpense or other form of rental property accounting software will make your life so much easier!