Rental Property Bookkeeping, Property by Property

What do you get every month on your rentals?

A profit and loss for each property and each rehab, with cash against profit, a portfolio view across all of them and reconciled books. The year-end package for your tax preparer comes from the same books.

• A profit and loss statement for each property: its rent, its costs and its loan interest.
• A portfolio view: every property and every LLC rolled up into one report.
• Cash against profit: what is in the bank next to what each property made.
• Reconciled books: every bank, card and loan account tied out to its statement at the monthly close.
• A year-end package for your tax preparer: financials, cost basis per property and the records your CPA uses to set depreciation. You or your CPA file.

To see how a monthly report from us reads, look at our real estate bookkeeping report example. It is built for a flip company, Demo Flips LLC, with invented data.

Each property's statement is its own income statement: rent, operating costs and loan interest. Our guide to the rental property P&L shows how one reads.

How is each property kept separate?

Every transaction is tagged to the property it belongs to, including the mortgage, insurance and property tax on that property. Each property has its own statement. Nothing is allocated by guesswork.

Rent and late fees are recorded per unit, and so is rent that did not arrive. A security deposit is recorded as money owed back to the tenant. It never shows up as income.

In the sample books, Demo Rentals LLC owns Property 1 at 275 Demo St, Davis and Property 2 at 1640 Test Way, Vacaville. Each one has its own statement every month.

What about properties in different LLCs?

Each LLC gets its own set of books, and money moving between them is recorded on both sides so the two agree. The portfolio view sits above all of them.

Here is an example with invented data. Demo Flips LLC sends $40,000 to Demo Rentals LLC for the rehab on Property 2. Demo Flips LLC records $40,000 owed to it by Demo Rentals LLC. Demo Rentals LLC records $40,000 owed to Demo Flips LLC. The two sets of books agree.

Separate books for each entity, with every transfer tied out on both sides, is what our bookkeeping for multiple LLCs does for flips and rentals alike.

How are mortgage payments and escrow handled?

One payment, three parts. Principal reduces the loan, interest is a cost, and escrow is money held for tax and insurance. Recorded as one lump, a rental's profit is wrong every month.

Here is the October 2026 payment on Property 1, 275 Demo St, Davis.

Recorded as one $2,074.00 cost, Property 1's costs for October would be $859.40 too high. We check the split against the lender's statement every month. When the lender pays the tax or insurance out of escrow, that payment is recorded as a cost of Property 1.

We work through the 3 parts of the payment, and the check against the lender's statement, in how to record a rental property mortgage payment.

What happens when a property is refinanced?

The old loan comes off, the new loan goes on, the loan costs are capitalized, and cash taken out is not income. Done wrong, a refinance can make a year look far more profitable than it was.

Capitalized means the loan costs are recorded as an asset, not as a cost of that month. How they are written off over the years is a tax question, and your CPA decides it.

Property 2, 1640 Test Way, Vacaville, is a BRRRR: bought, rehabbed, rented, then refinanced. Here is the refinance.

Recorded as income, the $55,200 would make Property 2 look $55,200 more profitable that year.

A BRRRR keeps one property record from the purchase through the rehab, the lease and the refinance. We follow that record phase by phase in BRRRR bookkeeping.

Is this different from using Stessa or REI Hub?

Flipper Bookkeeping is a service, not software. A bookkeeper records every transaction from your statements each month, splits each mortgage payment and asks you about anything missing.

Both programs can split a mortgage payment. Stessa's help center shows how to split a payment into principal, interest and escrow. REI Hub uses a loan payment template, and says to adjust it when the escrow changes. The difference is who does the work. We record your books from your statements and ask you about anything missing.

Plans and features change, so check each one with the vendor on the day you choose.

No bookkeeping software is required to work with us. QuickBooks is fine if you already use it.

What do you need from me to start?

Your monthly bank, card and loan statements in one shared folder in your own Dropbox or Google Drive, your closing statements, and your property manager statements if you use one.

1. 1Book a free call and tell us about your properties, your LLCs and your loans.
2. 2Share one permanent folder from your own Dropbox or Google Drive. Drop in your monthly bank, card and loan statements, and your property manager statements if you use one.
3. 3Send closing statements from purchases and refinances to the mailbox we set up for you. Or we request them from escrow with your authorization.

Paper receipts can be photographed into the folder or mailbox. For cash with no receipt, send a short note: date, amount, property and what it was for. We never need access to your personal email.

Who is this for, and who is it not for?

Investors with several doors, usually across more than one LLC, who want statements per property. It is not for a single rental where a spreadsheet is enough.

Who it is for

• Investors with several rental doors who want a statement for each one.
• Investors with properties in more than one LLC, each kept on its own books.
• BRRRR investors, whose refinances need to be recorded as loans, not income.
• Investors with flips and rentals in the same portfolio.

Who it is not for

• Someone with a single rental, where a spreadsheet is enough.
• Someone who wants taxes filed. We deliver tax-ready books, and you or your CPA file.
• Someone looking for rental software. This is a service, not an app.