Using GnuCash for Rental Properties

[Russell Mercer]

Rob,

There are many different ways to set up GnuCash.  When you create a new
file, any of the account options that you check, simply create a standard
list of accounts.  You can then modify these as necessary.  When I set up
GnuCash, I found that it was easier to simply create my own accounts in the
account tree, under each of the major types, Income, Expense, Asset,
Liability.

I use GnuCash to manage all of my financial transactions, including rental
properties.  I have the real estate broken out into it's own set of account
groups, as I want to be able to track them separately.  Here is a sample
account tree that is similar to what I have set up.

Assets
  Bank Accounts
    Checking - Property 1
    Checking - Property 2
    Savings
  Investment Property
    Property 1
      Initial Purchase
      Escrow Account
      Gain/Loss
    Property 2
      Initial Purchase
      Escrow Account
      Gain/Loss

Expense
  HOA Fees
  Insurance
  Maintenance
  Management
  Repairs
  Taxes

Income
  Late Fees
  Non-refundable Deposit
  Rent
    Property 1
    Property 2

Liability
  Credit Card
    Business Visa
  Mortgages
    Property 1
    Property 2

I use something like this to track my real estate.  I have a few more
categories, and obviously that is specific to each person's needs.  You
could also have an Equity Account, which you would use if you are closing
your books at the end of each year.  Also, if you are starting to track your
expenses midway along, you use Equity as the source for your opening
balances.

I try to keep expenses separate between properties, as it is easier to total
up that way, the same with income.  The best way has been to either have a
separate checking account for each property.  If that is not feasible, then
under Expenses, have a set of expenses for each property, thus giving you an
easy way to report on them separately, or get a total for all expenses.

I go into some detail with mortgages and escrow accounts.  This again allows
me to break out taxes and insurance paid, if it is escrowed.  I also
separated out the initial value into a separate sub-account from any gains
or losses, as I like to be able to see both bits of information without
opening up an account register to look.

Thinking about it now, I am pretty sure I tried to match my Expense account
entries to the entries for the Rental Real Estate Tax forms for the USA.
Not sure where you are, so these may not apply, though they are pretty
generic.

Hope this helps.

Russell

On Wed, Jul 6, 2011 at 9:08 AM, highred <rob at robcaldwell.net> wrote:

> Anyone?
>
> --
> View this message in context:
> http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/Using-GnuCash-for-Rental-Properties-tp3642658p3649248.html
> Sent from the GnuCash - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
> _______________________________________________
> gnucash-user mailing list
> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> -----
> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
>