What Is Bookkeeper?
A bookkeeper handles day-to-day financial tracking: categorizing rental-income and operating-expenses, reconciling bank accounts, and producing monthly or quarterly reports. Your real-estate-cpa uses these records for tax prep and depreciation. Cost: $200–500/month for a typical investor with 1–5 properties. Property-management-company reports can feed the bookkeeper—or you can use software (QuickBooks, Stessa) and do it yourself until you scale. Hire when you have 3+ properties or when your time is worth more than the fee.
A bookkeeper tracks and categorizes income and expenses for your rental properties, producing reports that your real-estate-cpa uses for tax preparation.
At a Glance
- What it is: Someone who tracks and categorizes income and expenses
- Why it matters: Clean records = accurate taxes and depreciation
- When to hire: 3+ properties or when your time is worth more than the fee
- Cost: $200–500/month for 1–5 properties
- Works with: Real-estate-cpa for tax prep
How It Works
What they do. Categorize income (rental-income, other) and expenses (operating-expenses, capex, mortgage interest). Reconcile bank accounts. Produce monthly P&L and balance sheet. Track security-deposit liability. Provide year-end reports for real-estate-cpa.
Data sources. Bank statements, property-management-company reports, receipts. You give them access (read-only) or upload. They categorize and reconcile.
Software. Most use QuickBooks or similar. Stessa and other property-specific tools can work for smaller portfolios. The bookkeeper ensures consistency and catches errors.
Real-World Example
Jacob in Kansas City. Jacob had 4 rental properties. He was spending 4 hours/month on bookkeeping—categorizing expenses, reconciling accounts. He hired a bookkeeper for $350/month. She categorized all income and expenses, reconciled 4 bank accounts, and produced monthly P&L. At year-end, she gave his real-estate-cpa clean reports. The CPA's tax prep time dropped from 6 hours to 2—saving Jacob $400 in CPA fees. Net cost: $350/month. Jacob's time value: $100/hour. He saved 4 hours/month = $400. The bookkeeper paid for itself.
Pros & Cons
- Clean records for real-estate-cpa and depreciation
- Frees your time from data entry
- Catches errors and missing receipts
- Scalable—add properties without adding your time
- Cost—$200–500/month
- Requires organized input—you still need to provide receipts and access
- Overkill for 1–2 properties—you can do it yourself
Watch Out
- Categorization: Operating-expenses vs. capex matters for depreciation. A good bookkeeper knows the difference. Roof replacement = capex. Roof repair = expense. Train them or use a real-estate-cpa who can guide.
- Timeliness: Monthly reconciliation is better than year-end catch-up. Give your bookkeeper access or upload regularly. Backlog creates errors.
- Security: Use read-only bank access. Don't give bookkeepers ability to move money. Protect your accounts.
Ask an Investor
The Takeaway
A bookkeeper tracks income and expenses so your real-estate-cpa can do taxes. Hire when you have 3+ properties or when your time is worth more than $200–500/month. Clean records save money and stress.