TurboTenant Accounting and Expense Tracking Features Q&A

TurboTenant acquired real estate accounting platform REI Hub to expand our accounting offerings to independent landlords. REI Hub is an accounting platform built around the U.S. tax code and IRS Schedule E to streamline bookkeeping for property owners.

When real estate investors look for a new property, they have to consider many factors. They’ll wonder, “Is it a good price?” “What’s the location like?” Next, they need to find tenants and determine the rent amount and processing method. The last piece of the puzzle usually comes around early spring when you realize you need to file taxes on your rental property. This is where the advanced functionality of TurboTenant Accounting comes into play.

In this article, we will provide answers to common questions related to TurboTenant’s rental property accounting tools.

What is TurboTenant Accounting, and how does it work?

TurboTenant’s bookkeeping features directly connect to TurboTenant’s property management software tools to streamline both property management and accounting, making it easy for do-it-yourself landlords to run their businesses.

What is included in TurboTenant’s accounting tools?

TurboTenant Accounting includes a wide suite of tools, including revenue and expense tracking, loan amortization, an expandable chart of accounts, and automation to aid the process of bookkeeping. TurboTenant rental bookkeeping software has over 40 reports. They include a profit and loss statement, operating cash flow report, net operating income statement, balance sheet, cash on cash report, and cap rate report.

How does the REI Hub integration improve TurboTenant’s accounting?

Previously, TurboTenant offered manual expense tracking. With the REI Hub integration, the offering expands to a comprehensive accounting offering tailored to the bookkeeping practices of real estate investors.

Who should use TurboTenant Accounting?

Real estate investors and landlords should use TurboTenant accounting. If you have at least one unit you own and rent out in any capacity, the software helps fill in the gaps. Revenue tracking helps you understand how much you collect each month, expense tracking helps you identify patterns across multiple units and properties, and a dedicated rental property accounting software can help you maximize deductions and streamline tax season.

How do you set up your TurboTenant Accounting Dashboard?

When you sign up for TurboTenant, you’ll want to add on TurboTenant Accounting. After adding it, you’ll find a product tour that shows you how to organize your properties, automatically import transactions, automate your accounting, properly split loan payments, and generate reports.

Can you import past transactions or connect bank accounts?

Yes, you can connect bank accounts and import past transactions. TurboTenant Accounting uses two data providers, Plaid and Yodlee, to link bank accounts for easy bookkeeping. As each bank dictates how much information is allowed to be electronically released, the platform also accepts five advanced file types of bank exports to prevent data gaps.

What advanced accounting features does TurboTenant offer?

Basic bookkeeping keeps track of revenues and expenses, since that’s all your tax return requires. But, as an investor, you know there’s more to it than that. TurboTenant Accounting is a complete bookkeeping platform that tracks revenues, expenses, liabilities, assets, and equity for a full picture of your real estate business.

Can TurboTenant track income and expenses by property?

Yes! A standard accounting report is called a profit and loss statement, which lists total revenues minus total expenses. TurboTenant Accounting takes this a step further, providing a report called the Net Income By Property. This report gives you a total for all the properties together, then a column for each individual property. If you have any business-level expenses, these will also populate in their own column.

Does it support cash vs. accrual accounting?

Yes, TurboTenant accounting supports cash vs. accrual accounting. Because the majority of real estate investors file taxes on a cash basis, we optimized the software for this method. Out of the box, our real estate bookkeeping software is a double-entry, cash basis accounting platform.

If you file on an accrual basis, consider consulting a tax professional to determine if this is the best move for you. Depending on the discussion, we can switch your account to an accrual basis.

How does TurboTenant handle property depreciation?

If you work with an accountant or tax preparer, they likely handle depreciation on your behalf. If they have the basis, or total value, of the asset, then we can recreate that in TurboTenant Accounting and enter their calculated depreciation amounts.

If you do not have a tax professional who created these values for you, our Help Center has tips on how to create this journal. The system can calculate a straight-line depreciation value based on the asset’s usable life.

What automation tools are available (bank feeds, rules, etc.)?

TurboTenant Accounting uses the nation’s two leading data providers to connect to nearly every bank in the U.S. These connections allow transactions to automatically come over from the bank, making your bookkeeping that much easier.

For transactions that recur, we have transaction matching rules that can automatically categorize those transactions to the desired account and property.

Does TurboTenant have automated loan amortization?

Yes. The coolest automation at TurboTenant Accounting is our loan amortization. With each standard loan payment, a portion is assigned to principal, interest, and escrow (if your loan servicer pays your property insurance and taxes on your behalf). The system can identify these loan payments and, using the same math your bank does, calculate how much of each payment gets split into these components.

How do reports work in TurboTenant Accounting?

The reports in TurboTenant Accounting are available as soon as you enter information! When you link your bank account, you can then go and “book” or categorize your transactions. Your reports update in real-time with each booked transaction.

What types of reports are available (e.g., P&L, Schedule E)?

TurboTenant Accounting has over 40 reports! We have the standard account reports, such as the net income statement (sometimes called a profit and loss statement or P&L), cash flow statement, and balance sheet. Additionally, we offer reports like the Operating Cash Flow by property, which includes your revenues and expenses, while also factoring in loan repayments.

Can you generate reports by property, unit, or portfolio?

In TurboTenant Accounting, the most granular reporting metric is a unit. From there, it flows up to a property, and then it goes up to the total portfolio. This capability allows you to generate reports at any level to see overall and specific values.

Are reports exportable for accountants or CPAs?

All TurboTenant Accounting reports are exportable to Excel, PDF, or both. You can download them straight to a computer or email them directly from the system. Our software also allows multi-user access, meaning you can give your accountant full or read-only access.

Another great feature is called the Tax Packet. The tax packet starts with a review of commonly missed deductions,

How does TurboTenant help with taxes and year-end reporting?

Have you ever reached tax season only to find your receipts and utility bills scattered around your desk? Have you combed through past bank statements and felt overwhelmed? This is a common experience that we can help alleviate.

The system is optimized when you check in regularly throughout the year to do your bookkeeping. You can categorize all your transactions to access monthly or quarterly reports easily. At tax time, TurboTenant Accounting has a convenient tax review to check commonly missed deductions and provide all the necessary information for your accountant to file your tax return.

Can TurboTenant generate IRS Schedule E data?

Yes. TurboTenant can generate IRS Schedule E data, just not the actual form. You’ll get a property-by-property breakdown directly aligning with the IRS form’s revenue and expense accounts. Additionally, we offer the option to prorate any mileage and overhead expenses to include in the Schedule E export.

Does it track mileage and business use of home deductions?

Yes! Use whatever tracking software or process you’d like, then make entries in the system. At tax time, the system can then prorate mileage evenly across your properties on the Schedule E report. Some users prefer to enter every trip, while others prefer to make monthly, quarterly, or yearly summary entries.

For business use of home deductions, they’re based on the square footage of your personal home vs. your home office. Typically, customers will either prorate each expense (i.e., electricity, water, internet, etc.) throughout the year for accurate reports. Additionally, users can add the full amount of the transaction and prorate those numbers once at the end of the year.

How does it help with 1099s and other tax forms?

Although TurboTenant Accounting does not generate 1099 forms, we have Vendor Tracking. This tool allows you to easily track how much you pay a vendor for expenses and fixed asset purchases. At the end of the year, you can pull the Expenses By Vendor Report to find the totals and fill out the 1099 form.

Is TurboTenant Accounting suitable for multi-property landlords?

To be a successful, growing landlord with an expanding portfolio, you need good data quickly. When hiring a traditional bookkeeper, it can sometimes take 3-4 months to get standard reports like a profit and loss statement. It’s hard to make quick, informed decisions without reliable data to review. With TurboTenant Accounting, all of our reports, like a profit and loss or operating cash flow statement, are available as soon as you finish categorizing transactions.

Can it handle multiple entities or portfolios?

You can keep the books for multiple LLCs within one TurboTenant Accounting portfolio. Fundamentally, our accounting system is all about property-by-property tracking, so most LLC accounting simply groups properties and pulls reports on just that group. That said, it also depends on the ownership structure, the degree of separation required, and your personal preferences.

You can keep multiple legal entities in the same portfolio if you file them on the same tax return or have the same ownership group. For a totally separate business that files its own tax return and has a unique ownership group, we generally recommend creating a new portfolio for the maximum level of separation.

Is it possible to separate personal and business transactions?

Although it is possible to separate personal and business transactions, we don’t recommend it. The concept, known as commingling, is very frowned upon in accounting and bookkeeping practices, so it’s best to keep business as separated as possible from personal transactions.

Are there any limits on the number of properties or users?

Nope, there are no limits to the number of properties, users, accounts in the chart of accounts, or bank accounts.

What are the key benefits of using TurboTenant Accounting over spreadsheets?

Do you know the difference between a debit and a credit and how they change between revenue, expense, equity, liability, and asset accounts? If not, a lot of real estate investors don’t either. This is the advanced functionality that makes TurboTenant Accounting so powerful – our product is structured specifically for real estate, and we provide guardrails that reduce human error.

We have automation for recurring transactions and loan payments, which ensures ease of use. Our staff is happy to help and provide as much information as possible, saving you time and frustration. Plus, you don’t need to know debits and credits and liabilities, as that accounting knowledge is baked into the system and built around the U.S. tax code and Schedule E form.

How much does TurboTenant Accounting cost?

TurboTenant Accounting is a paid add-on that integrates your property management and bookkeeping platforms. There are tiered plans based on the number of units, ranging from $15 to $85 per month, with every feature available at every tier. To compare, the average cost for a bookkeeper starts at $100 an hour.

Because we know everyone’s situations and preferences are a little different, we have a two-week free trial available so you can evaluate the system for your setup. If you subscribe and you’re finding the platform hard to navigate or think it’s not the best fit for you, reach out to our customer support team, and we’re happy to help.

How secure and private is your financial data on TurboTenant?

We take data privacy and security seriously. We encrypt the information and use the nation’s leading data providers to make sure your financial data is secure. 

Is TurboTenant Accounting secure? What encryption or data protection standards are in place?

Yes! Our staff takes security very seriously. Our software is secured using SSL certificates and forces the use of ‘https’ throughout the entire app/site. All data is encrypted both in transit and at rest. Passwords are encrypted in our database and are inaccessible, even to us.

Most importantly, we have structured our product so that your most sensitive data (your bank username and password) never even touches our servers at all. When you link a bank account through Plaid or Yodlee, you use the company’s billion-dollar, bank-grade security tools. They pass a token that authorizes us to receive your bank feed and nothing more. No information that you enter while connecting to your bank accounts is ever touched or stored by TurboTenant.

Who has access to your accounting data?

Initially, you are the only user with access to your accounting data. You can securely grant access to trusted individuals like business partners or accountants. If you’d like support, our entire team is verified and background-checked.

Final Thoughts: Is TurboTenant Accounting the right choice for you?

TurboTenant is the industry leader in DIY property management, and TurboTenant Accounting is the next best step for independent landlords. We obsess about the rental process so we can provide the best platform and tools available. 

Who benefits most from using TurboTenant + REI Hub?

Independent landlords, especially those who also have obligations to a full-time job or family, benefit the most from using TurboTenant and REI Hub. We save you time and money by being the one-stop shop and field experts, so you can focus on your business with time leftover to dedicate to the things that matter most to you.

What are some user reviews or testimonials?

Our office has found REI Hub to be THE best software for our apartment rental bookkeeping and other property management needs. Very user friendly and super affordable, not to mention the customer support is outstanding! Our tenants rave about the convenience and ease of use, and love being able to communicate with us with any needs they may have with payments, lease renewals and even maintenance issues. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for REI Hub and what they develop next to assist us with keeping our rentals on track and running smoothly. HIGHLY RECOMMEND – well worth the value! -Malcolm Lane

Excellent software! This is the program to manage any type of property. I have already referred REI Hub to other property owners and accountants! Can’t recommend this software enough. Don’t wait, get REI Hub today and make your property accounting easy! -Colleen Brown

I absolutely loved the way REI Hub has streamlined my property management activities. I used to use other generic accounting services, but those software subscriptions never gave me a clear picture of how much each property is profitable. It was always hassle+guess work to get Schedule E at year end. With REI Hub, this is a breeze. REI Hub is definitely the best product for Real Estate Investors like me. -Raman Singh