Sales and client interaction tend to be favorite activities for real estate agents. While finalizing paper work and going to bed at night after a closed deal is memorable, accounting and bookkeeping is not. The last thing on any real estate agent’s mind is the accounting that happens behind the scenes. While bookkeeping is a necessary evil, it’s important to properly account for all financial activity that’s flowing through your business. Debits and credits have their place in the world; for better or worse.
Trust Accounting
Trust accounting is inevitable. Without spending too much time on trust accounting, according to CosmoLex, it is simply the bookkeeping of trust accounts in accordance with laws. Trust accounting requirements vary depending on where you live but the common overlap is that accurate records are necessary. While there are many different bookkeeping software in the market, how would you identify the best software in bookkeeping for real estate? What are some things you need to look out for when hiring a good bookkeeper? Both are excellent questions but the verdict remains: Good bookkeeping is important no matter what.
Bookkeeping For Real Estate
As a real estate agent, you’ll need to have a system in place that can track your financial activity. Bookkeeping for real estate tend to generally be simple. For smaller sized companies, common bookkeeping software for real estate bookkeeping include Quickbooks and Xero. Both software come with important and common functionalities with an intuitive design for any user to understand. Even if you’re not tech-savvy, you can rest assure knowing that both these companies are backed by excellent technical support. They’ll easily walk you through the software and help set you up in no time.
Proper Bookkeeping
The best way to maintain your books is having the necessary systems in place. Once those are installed, everything moving forward will usually be automated to a certain extent. You’ll be able to easily manage both your financial activity and real estate portfolio with relative ease. This is necessary when tax season comes around or even if you get audited. Proper bookkeeping is similar to an organized library—You’ll be able to find what you want and when you want simply because everything is neatly organized. Sloppy bookkeeping not only prompts you to dig through an unorganized library, but it also unnecessarily expends precious work hours for tasks that should have been automated since the beginning. Figuring out the right bookkeeping and management software is an important first step.
How To Pick The Right Bookkeeping And Real Estate Software
When it comes down to picking the right bookkeeping and real estate software, there is neither a best answer nor a “one-size-fits-all” answer. Every business is different and so are there needs.
A good step forward is contacting these companies and requesting a product demo. Have them walk you through the process and also have their team perform a transaction walkthrough. The more questions you have and the more demonstrations you require, the better your assessment will be. And when the time comes where you do need to pick a bookkeeping and real estate software, you can be confident that your selection will be a strong fit for your business needs. Budget is also important so this needs to be factored in as well.
How To Pick The Right Bookkeeper Melbourne
To be realistic, accounting isn’t sexy. In fact, accounting for better or worse, is very black and white—it is either done well or it is done poorly. According to Intuit, finding the right bookkeeper, or even a good bookkeeper, can make all the difference in any small business. At some point, bookkeeping is going to be very mechanical and tedious. Your bookkeeper will reach a point where they’ll care less and less. This is how many accounting errors are made—there’s a lack of care.
The best advice to finding a great bookkeeper in Melbourne is making sure that they care. Accounting is more science than art, so any errors rolling forward is only going to add to your mountain of accounting issues. However, if they care, they will do a good job. A caring employee goes much further than the competent employee. Caring bookkeepers will constantly ensure that their job is done accurately and completely as both are necessities if you’re looking to pick the right Melbourne bookkeeper.