Accounting sytems

[bernly]

I've been wanting to tidy up our financial records with regard to IP's (8) and personal stuff and have just started using spreadsheets. A forum friend suggested doing things "properly" via an accounting system such as Quickbooks or MYOB. Have "googled" comparisons between both systems and have been overwhelmed by the negativity of users of either system. Our accountant has suggested using "Banklink" which many of his clients like and which is available at no cost to us. Have also looked at "freeware" accounting systems. My accounting experience extends only to an Associate Diploma of Accounting completed when my children were smallish, about 10 years ago, as a means of keeping my mind active and which I've never put into practise. Which way to go? Any advice would be much appreciated.

[Rixter]

I use Property Manager Pro. Does the job very well.

[sailor]

Rixter, is Property Manager Pro compatible with any other systems? Just interested in case I wanted to transfer over my existing system.

[JoannaK]

I use MYOB and like it

[bernly]

Thanks very much, Rixter. Our bookkeeping has been pretty appalling - boxes of receipts and files of notices, invoices etc so that there is mild panic and activity at the approprate time when all needs to be collated. Have been running two households for the past 7 years with children at school in the city and husband at home in the bush so have spent too much time commuting and barely keeping on top of cooking and cleaning and all those wonderful things for both homes. We have a great accountant who is very helpful and now I have the time to tidy up all those areas that have been let go. One of the best things to come out of our decision to not board the children, though, was to buy a small house on a big block of land near the children's school in a good Adelaide suburb which has more than tripled in value in those past 7 years and which has enabled us to buy several more IP's. If we sold the place now we would have covered college fees, boarding fees, transport fees etc etc and still have spare change.:)

[duncan_m]

Which way to go? Any advice would be much appreciated.

This came up a few months back..

Thread here : http://www.somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27101&highlight=software

[bernly]

Hi again, Rixter. This is off track but I just noticed that you use Skype. I have overseas friends who communicate with me via Skype and was keen to do same but was advised by others that there are security probs. Have you had any trouble?

[bernly]

Thanks, Duncan. Lots of relevent info at that address. I'm still finding my way around Somersoft. How would I have found that link for myself if I'd not know that it existed?

[duncan_m]

How would I have found that link for myself if I'd not know that it existed?

Search link at top of the page.. I searched on "software".

[bernly]

Duncan, I notice that you, too, are a Skype user. Any Probs?

Cheers

[duncan_m]

Duncan, I notice that you, too, are a Skype user. Any Probs?

Cheers

Hi..

No I dont use skype.. I just filled in the all the IM/Messenging links in my profile to get a string of pretty icons appearing near my name :)

[bernly]

LOL

Good for you. It certainly looks impressive!

[Rixter]

Hi again, Rixter. This is off track but I just noticed that you use Skype. I have overseas friends who communicate with me via Skype and was keen to do same but was advised by others that there are security probs. Have you had any trouble?

Bernly, none that I'm aware of. No problems what so ever.

I use it Skype to Skype. Its a great a service.

[Rixter]

Rixter, is Property Manager Pro compatible with any other systems? Just interested in case I wanted to transfer over my existing system.

Sailor, its a stand alone program. You can email your data to someone/where else (ie Accountant) providing they have Property Manager Pro themselves to import the data into.

If your accountant doesn't use it you can print out hard copy income/expenses reports etc etc and give them to the accountant.

Hope this helps.

[Celeste]

Hi bernly

I am a senior bookkeeper (contract )and I have been for 26years, I have cleaned up alot of messes in my time.

My recommendations is quickbooks, real easy to fix mistakes,( MYOB is a pain in the $%##$%). You can email the file to the accountant, he can fix and adjust and send it back. quick books also restores to the original file - MYOB always needs a new file.

I have used many programmes, I use quick books, you only need the standard package, I have never had to ring the support line for quick books and I have been using it since its conception - I even get my client to change over.

My hubby uses MYOB ( he got B4 I came on to the scene - he got used to it and he uses it properly - he doesn't want to change because it would be a big job to redo his client list / stock etc. and retraining his office girls) he has to ring the support line at least 2 times a year, he always has problems with updates. His co. is airconditioning

If you decide to purchase Quick books you can email me any time for advice / problem solving - If you know basic bookkeeping, that is 1/2 the battle with any package.

though saying all that, B4 these fancy programmes and windows I did use a $7.95 shareware programe that was fine for basic bookkeeping.

I am sure there are some programmes out there that are specific to Property Investing - and therefore would mean easier to set up, I do not know how you would go with your accountant, you may have to print everything out or give him a copy of the programe - quick books you just email him the file, all the Accountants I know have it.

Celeste

[bernly]

Thank you, Celeste

Experience counts for everything and I will take on board all that you have said. I appreciate your generosity and that of the other forum members who make the time to share their wealth of knowledge. Our accountant is quite keen on Banklink but I'm not that happy about his staff having access to all our bank statements etc. I live in a smallish country town and don't really want it known where I shop and how much I spend at Woolies etc. Maybe I'm just paranoid. Nothing much is private these days - I got an Indian call centre person on my mobile phone yesterday. I was furious as only a very few people have access to that number, mainly family. I suspect an airline may have sold the info - can't think of anywhere else where I have given that number out as a contact.

Cheers
bernly

[Rixter]

Maybe I'm just paranoid. Nothing much is private these days - I got an Indian call centre person on my mobile phone yesterday. I was furious as only a very few people have access to that number, mainly family. I suspect an airline may have sold the info - can't think of anywhere else where I have given that number out as a contact.

Bernly,

Maybe you're being secretly targeted by India's equivilent to the KGB?

The newly formed group calling themselves the "BBB"! (Big Brother Bombay!) ;)

:D

[DaveJ]

Speaking of quicken and such... Does anyone have a set of categories or classes that would be appropriate for quickbooks? ( i have HDT/PTYLTD/personal)
I think it is called a 'chart of accounts'?.

I would like to set things up properly before my 'financial world' gets too big!! :p :cool:

DaveJ

P.S I have personal Plus 2004 and am thinking of upgrading to quickbooks and/or quicken2006/2007?

[sailor]

Speaking of quicken and such... Does anyone have a set of categories or classes that would be appropriate for quickbooks? ( i have HDT/PTYLTD/personal)
I think it is called a 'chart of accounts'?.

I would like to set things up properly before my 'financial world' gets too big!! :p :cool:

DaveJ

P.S I have personal Plus 2004 and am thinking of upgrading to quickbooks and/or quicken2006/2007?

Dave, I've been running the Quick** stuff for 15 years now. Currently running quicken 2006. Tis quite simple to add your own categories into the chart of accounts. Leave the 'classes' to identifying your various properties. That way you can run a P&L, Balance Sheets, etc for each individual property.

Under the Chart of Accounts I also have one for each property under expenses. Then under each property have one each for: rent, body corp fees, repairs, etc.
Works well.

[Celeste]

Hi Dave

Does that version have job costing?

If it does, set up a job (customer) for each property. Then when you input transactions you link it to the job, you then set up 1 account for each asset/liability/income/expense you will need. You can break it down further ie
Set up an a/c called income the you can link other accounts to this ie Rental Income / other income / etc

So your chart of accounts looks like this:

Income
- rental income $00.00
- other income $00.00
Total Income $00.00

I have for example do both buy/reno/sell and buy and hold, I have my basic accounts linked to a main account, so I can recognise holding costs (rates / strata etc / reno costs / selling costs (REA fees / advertising etc). Makes it easier to identify where my money is going to do budgets and work on areas where I may be able to do things differently to save money.

This will allow you to do budgets for individual properties, really handy for reno's. It will allow you to do P&L for each property and compare actual to budget P&L's for each property.

This then leaves your balance sheet and P&L uncluttered. In other words your basic balance sheet and P&L will be your overall position and you can do specific P&L's for your properties (much easier to read) . You can then use classes to further identify your properties ie: buy and holds - buy reno sell's

Using the chart of accounts as a way of seperating properties make your balance sheets etc complicated and harder to read. ( When I have a new client that uses their accounts this way, it's the first thing I change). Your report writer works better also.

Any way this more than likely sound very complicated, its not once you are set up.

When you buy a programe I will offer my services to help you set it up. The hardest part is setting up your chart of accounts properly then its easy.

I also offer sailor some advice if he wishs to make his programme work more efficiently for him.

Cheers

Celeste

[geoffw]

I also offer sailor some advice if he wishs to make his programme work more efficiently for him.If tou have a look at Sailor's profile,you will find that his first name is Sharon :D

[lizzie]

being a smallish investor (under 20 ips) i use property manager pro. it's fast, simple, easy to fix and no complaints from my accountant yet.

although i can see room for improvement in the way reports can be collated.

[gooram]

Bernly,

To date I have been using my own spreadsheets to track income and expenses for my IPs. As time goes by, it can get out of hand if it's not set up properly. Rather than develop my own solution I decided to try various rental software packages available on the market.

These include:

Rental Worksheet - My favourite for ease of use, complete coverage including PAYE income and taxation. Downside of this is you pay for a 12 month license. Each year the taxation stuff is updated to reflect the current tax laws which is not such a bad thing of course.. depends on your budget.

Property Manager Pro - Probably least favourite. Very clunky user interface, poor reporting and limited functionality.

Moneybeans - Quite good but a bit light on when it comes to handling personal income and gearing.

My next step I think is to get a bit more sophisticated and trial Quicken. In the mean time I'm still using my spreadsheets.

Cheers,
Gooram

[sailor]

I also offer sailor some advice if he wishs to make his programme work more efficiently for him.
Cheers

Celeste

Thanks Celeste...I'm all ears...and yes...I'm all girl!:)

[bernly]

Thanks Gooram, Celeste et al. At this stage I'm tossing up between Quicken and Excel. Celeste makes Quickbooks sound so easy to use and then there the those members who are passionate about Excel. I know that our accountant uses MYOB but I'm sure that he'd just be glad if we improved our present system (the Hunter system - hunting all over the place for everything). I really want something that's easy to use, with support that is readily forthcoming if needed (our accountant encourages his clients to contact his office for help rather than go through the MYOB helpline which is definitely an advantage, as is the fact that his office can buy in the programme at a good discount on RRP). I haven't read too many postings, though, from passionate MYOB users and that is a definite consideration. I want to keep things as simple as poss but without cutting off any options. Celeste, when you say I would just need the standard package, which level of Quickbooks are you talking about and is there an annual renewal fee?

Cheers
bernly

[Celeste]

Hi all

Sorry Sharon I did scan down for a name, didn't check the profile.

Quicken have a range of products from home use to superduper professional. Have a look at their web site.

I use 7.4 professional as I needed wages/job costing etc for clients accounts. Since I do not do bookkeeping at home any more I do not even bother to upgrade it, my accountant has lots of versions so it doesn't matter - upgrades important for GST & wages tax tables, if you do not use these, you do not to upgrade every time.

I would recommend the basic office one with job costing.

Hint MYOB were very clever using Accountants to sell their product -I believe, have heard in the early years, not confirmed, but makes sense, that they gave free copies & upgrades to the accountants as an incentive to promote them.

Do not quote me a little bird told me!!

Celeste

[Celeste]

Hi all

Has any one used money on windows, I haven't even looked at it, is it any good? What does it do?

Also, Excel is just a spread sheet you have to set it up and it doesn't do P&L's / Balance sheets etc.

If you choose excel I can help with that as well.


Celeste

[Mry]

MYOB were very clever using Accountants to sell their product -I believe, have heard in the early years, not confirmed, but makes sense, that they gave free copies & upgrades to the accountants as an incentive to promote them.

Yes they did, except it was a really clumsy system earlier on. They have certainly made things better. Our support used to be free now we have to pay about $500 a year to continue to receive support and the programs so we can do our job. Quickbooks is doing the same thing. At least I got a free version of XP Professional and Office from Quickbooks.

[trajik]

Bernly,

The dividing line between MYOB & QB is very contentious, everyone has their opinion on why the other one is crap, but personally I like MYOB for it's easy to understand format, etc. You might find it easier to get someone else to get your books up to date and then you take over from there. Email me if you're interested or need any further help.

ross@myobmechanic.com
or
http://www.myobmechanic.com