Rental Property Books

Contents

1. 1Before you begin
2. AProcedure A: set up rental books
3. 2What new rental books open with
4. 3The menu: Property Management above Dashboard
5. BProcedure B: the Rental Properties worksheet
6. 4Why there is no Projects
7. 5Backups and copies of rental books
8. 6Checklist: ready to use
9. 7Check your understanding
10. 8Quick reference card
11. §Notes

Rental books are made with the same New Books pages as any other books (Chapter 1.2). Only two pages change: the tax page asks who owns the properties, and page 4 becomes Your properties. Have these facts at hand:

• Each property: a short nickname (such as 12 Oak St), its type, whether it has a mortgage, and its address if you want it on the reports. From 1 to 10 properties.
• Who owns them, for taxes: you (or you and your spouse), a partnership or LLC with two or more owners, or a corporation.
• Security deposits: whether you hold them, and in which bank account.
• How you run them: whether you only record rent as it comes in or invoice tenants, whether a property manager collects rent, and whether you pay contractors.

Start from the company list (Chapter 1.1) and click New company. Choosing Rental property does more than pick a chart of accounts: it decides which parts of BizBooks360 the books open with.

1. 1

   Page 1. Choose Rental property 1

   The card reads "Income and costs kept by property, ready for Schedule E. 1 to 10 rentals, owned by you or your LLC." Where plans are offered, a line under it names what the plan holds: Schedule E by property, Property Management, budgets and their reports, with the Assistant as an add-on. Click Continue: name your books 3.

2. 2

   Page 2. Name the books and say where they are

   The same name, state and time zone as in Chapter 1.2. The state matters more here than for most books: Property Management takes it as the state whose rental rules apply.

3. 3

   Page 3. Answer Who owns the properties, for taxes?

   For rental books the tax page asks about the owners of the properties, and names the return each answer files:

   Choice	Who it fits	Return
   Me, or me and my spouse	You, or a single-member LLC	Schedule E with your Form 1040
   Two or more owners	A partnership or multi-member LLC	Form 1065; each owner gets a K-1
   S corporation	A corporation or LLC that elected S status	Form 1120-S
   C corporation	A corporation that pays its own income tax	Form 1120

   If the rentals are in an LLC you own with your spouse, the page says to choose Two or more owners. The review page later gives the reason for each answer, for example "Because the rentals are yours, not in an LLC."²

4. 4

   Page 4. Add your properties 2

   "Each property gets its own income and expense accounts, matched to Schedule E lines." For each property fill one row:

   • Nickname, such as 12 Oak St. The first row is required; rows left without a nickname are dropped.
   • Type: Single-family home, Multi-family, Vacation or short-term rental, Commercial, Land or Other.
   • Has a mortgage, ticked when it does.
   • Address (optional).

   + Add another property adds a row, up to ten. More can be added later in Accounts.

5. 5

   Answer Do you hold tenants' security deposits?

   No, Yes, in my main bank account or Yes, in a separate deposit account. The page reminds you that last month's rent collected up front is rent, not a deposit, and that some states require deposits in a separate account. Then Continue: how you run them.

6. 6

   Page 4, continued. How you run them

   • How do you track rent? I record the rent that comes in (most landlords) or I invoice tenants and track what they owe.
   • Does a property manager collect rent for you?
   • Do you pay contractors for repairs or cleaning? Payments of $2,000 or more in a year need a 1099 from 2026.

   Receivable, manager and contractor accounts are added only when you need them. Then Continue: start date.

7. 7

   Pages 5 and 6. Start date, review, create

   The start date, closing and cash-or-accrual choices are those of Chapter 1.2. On the review page the panel Your books so far lists what is Set up for you, including Schedule E: one group per property with the number of properties. Click Create my books, then Open my books on Your books are ready.

Rental books open on the plan for rental property. It holds what a landlord uses and leaves out what a landlord does not:

The switch is the same one the owner's Enable button sets, made in the owner's name, so the module's overview page shows Own portfolio and the day it went on, just as after the button. Only that main switch is turned on. The other settings start where the Enable button starts them, so read through Settings → Property Management before anything goes to a tenant (Chapter 13.1).³

In rental books the day's work is rent, tenants and repairs, so Property Management sits first in the left menu, directly above Dashboard. It sits there in every set of books that shows it, rental or not.

Click Property Management to fold it open: a Find a page box, Today and Tasks, then the groups Money, Maintenance, Leasing, Properties and people, Month-end, Communication and Settings. Volume 13 explains each page. In books with no lease yet, Money → Rent roll says "No leases yet." and offers Add the first lease (Chapter 13.4).

Two parts of Reports are there for rental books with no clicks. The first is Rental Properties, in the Taxes group: "Each property's income and expenses on Schedule E or Form 8825 lines."

1. 1

   Open Reports → Rental Properties 1

   Or type rental in Find a report. The page is titled Rental properties: income by property.

2. 2

   Choose Lines 1 and Tax year 2, then Show 3

   Lines is Schedule E (Form 1040) or Form 8825 (partnership or S corporation). Books whose fiscal year does not follow the calendar see Fiscal year beginning in instead of Tax year.

3. 3

   Read one column per property A

   Each column heads with the property's nickname, then its address and type (line 1). Line 3 is rents received, lines 5 to 19 the expenses, line 20 their total and line 21 the income or loss B. The Total column adds the properties up.⁴

4. 4

   Hand it on with Download CSV

   The button at the top of the page gives the same lines to a spreadsheet or a tax preparer.

The page says what it is C: "A worksheet for your tax preparer, from the books. It is not a filed form." and "Fair rental days and personal-use days (line 2) are not in the books: enter them in the tax program."

Projects (Volume 7) keeps the income and cost of contracts and jobs. In rental books the property already does that job: every property has its own income and expense accounts, and both the Rental Properties worksheet and the Property management reports split by property. A second way to tag the same money would only invite mistakes, so rental books do not show:

• the Projects entry of the left menu;
• the Projects group of Reports and its report cards;
• a Project switch in Settings → Menus and words (Chapter 15.2), which is offered only where the plan holds Projects.

Nothing rental books need depends on Projects: the properties, Property Management and the assets kept by property all work without it. A repair goes on the property's own expense account, or on a work order in Property Management (Chapter 13.8).

A restore (Chapter 14.3) or a copy (Chapter 15.6) of rental books keeps the answers given at setup, so the new books open on the rental plan again. Property Management comes back on by itself when it was on in the original and the new books' plan includes it. Its e-mail sending, inspection app, outside services and listings feed stay off until someone with the right to edit its settings turns them on.

A backup does not carry the plan, paid add-ons, access given to staff, or tenant and owner portal access: invite those people again in the new books.

• Every property entered in New Books, with the right type and mortgage answer.
• Property Management above Dashboard, already on.
• Its settings read through before the first message goes to a tenant.
• Each property's building added in Assets with its own depreciation accounts.
• Security deposits entered per property, if you hold any.
• Rental Properties run once for the year, to see one column per property.