Avoid the Most Common Accounting Mistakes
When you’re doing everything yourself, mistakes are bound to happen—and in real estate, those mistakes can cost you. Whether it’s forgetting to categorize expenses, mixing personal and business transactions, or skipping depreciation calculations, small slip-ups can quickly add up to big problems. The IRS doesn’t care if it was a mistake – if you get audited, your business is at risk.
Using accounting software helps eliminate those kinds of errors. TurboTenant’s system is built specifically for landlords, with built-in guardrails to prevent the most common mistakes. It can flag unusual entries, make sure you’re categorizing income and expenses correctly, and even help you stay consistent with how you track expenses across properties.
TurboTenant actually put together a helpful breakdown of the four most common accounting mistakes landlords make, so you can double-check your systems with an eye for these errors in accounting. If you’re managing things manually or across multiple tools, chances are you’re already making one of these mistakes without realizing it.
Avoiding these pitfalls protects your business and keeps your portfolio healthy over the long run. If you want to safeguard your investments with the right tracking, have a clear financial picture of your properties, and make tax time easier, TurboTenant is a great platform to use.
Investors Always Know the Score
Once I had more than a few doors under my belt, I realized that bookkeeping isn’t just about preparing for tax season; it’s also about making the right decisions regarding my properties. I needed to know which properties are pulling their weight, where expenses are creeping up, and how my overall portfolio is performing. Without good tracking tools, knowing what’s going on becomes a guessing game based on general cash flow and my gut instinct. When you’re trying to grow your portfolio, that kind of insight is what keeps you from buying a bad deal or holding onto a property that’s bleeding money.
More doors don’t always mean more profit. Once I was able to get my portfolio in order with effective expense tracking, I realized that my portfolio would actually perform better if I sold a couple of properties.
This realization came from using the 39 different reports available through my property management software. TurboTenant breaks down the numbers by unit, property, or across your entire portfolio. You can see your net operating income, rent roll, profit and loss, balance sheet, and more—and the best part is you don’t have to do all that math yourself.
I can get a clear picture of what’s working and what’s not, without needing to dig through spreadsheets or receipts. An added benefit with my growing portfolio is that I have different partners on different properties. The detailed bookkeeping makes it much easier to send the reports on the units for these specific partners. The breakdown is there for me to utilize and share accordingly.
Focus on Growth, Not Just the Grind
When I was deep in the weeds, I was pulling receipts from drawers, manually logging expenses, and hoping I didn’t miss anything before tax day. What I didn’t realize was how much time and mental energy I was losing.
Once I got serious about streamlining my accounting and property management in one place, everything shifted. I was no longer just reacting to the chaos; I was running my real estate portfolio like an actual business. Consolidating into one platform helped me finally step into the CEO role of my business, instead of being the overwhelmed assistant, stuck doing the administrative work.
TurboTenant’s platform makes it easier to keep your books clean, portfolio performance clear, and tax prep stress-free. Whether you’re managing one unit or 10, having software that handles the accounting and the day-to-day operations is one of the smartest moves you can make early on.
You don’t have to be your own bookkeeper, leasing agent, and administrative assistant. The sooner you automate the back end, the sooner you can get back to building front-end wealth.
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