Whether you’re a real estate agent, part of a team, or an investor, it’s essential to have the right tools to manage your business finances. The best real estate accounting software can track your income and expenses, automate billing and payments, and give you a clear picture of your business’s finances. To help you choose the right accounting software for real estate, we researched a dozen platforms and chose the top six options for real estate sales agents, investors, and property managers:
- Buildium: Best for property managers and landlords
- QuickBooks: Best third-party integrations
- Wave: Best for beginners
- FreshBooks: Best mobile accounting app
- Xero: Best for real estate teams
- DoorLoop: Best for growing real estate investors
Best real estate accounting software compared
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Buildium: Best for property managers and landlords
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Why I like Buildium
Buildium is well-known as one of the best accounting software for real estate investors. It is specifically designed as an all-in-one management platform for rental property owners, landlords, and property managers, and its accounting features are second to none.
It automatically reconciles multiple bank accounts and tracks every rent payment and vendor bill. It can even turn work orders into bills and automate recurring payments. It also creates easy-to-understand reports and graphs, whether you are managing one property or hundreds. Given these capabilities, Buildium is the best overall real estate accounting software for landlords who want the perfect blend of advanced tools on a user-friendly platform.
Buildium’s key features
- Mobile app
- Made for all types of properties, including single-family rentals, multifamilies, community associations, student housing, and commercial properties
- Ability to e-file 1099s
- Handles online payments from tenants, vendors, contractors, and other expenses
- Automated rent payments, bank reconciliation, and detailed reporting
- Great onboarding system and supportive customer service to make sure you make the most out of the platform
- Integrations to other Buildium apps and third-party apps
- Excellent user review ratings on third-party review websites
QuickBooks: Best local and third-party integrations
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Why I like QuickBooks
If you have looked at any accounting software at all, you already know about QuickBooks — it is easily the most well-known software for accounting. It includes a massive range of features and tools to fit the needs of new real estate agents, small teams, large real estate sales firms, and investors. For example, all plans include features like receipt capture, mileage tracking, income and expense tracking, invoicing, and payments.
Plus, QuickBooks has a class and location feature to track income and expenses on specific properties or on types of properties (like residential, commercial, and rental properties). This makes it easy to understand how each part of your business is performing. QuickBooks is also a great realtor accounting software because of its affordable plans, access to experts and customer support, and its integrations with other important apps to help you get established. For example, QuickBooks integrates with TurboTax, HubSpot, Google Workspace, Pipedrive, Zoho, and hundreds of others.
QuickBooks’ key features
- Income and expense tracking
- Invoicing and automated payments
- Receipt capture to easily track and upload expenses (i.e. coffee shops, restaurants, gifts)
- Mileage tracking to log travel to property showings, client meetings, and closings
- Reporting by property or by class (i.e., type of property or investment)
- Mobile app
- Tax reporting
- Over 750 third-party integrations
- Ability to work with a bookkeeping expert and/or tax expert
- Automated bookkeeping
- Access to live experts
- Includes Intuit Assist, an AI assistant
Wave: Best for beginners
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Why I like Wave
Wave is hands down the best accounting software for real estate agents who want the most affordable and user-friendly platform to get started. In fact, Wave is the only real estate accounting software on our list with a free forever plan.
The platform is also incredibly user-friendly, which is ideal for agents or real estate business owners who haven’t used accounting software in the past. It syncs to your bank accounts and credit cards and automatically tracks your expenses and income. The dashboard makes it easy to add customers, vendors, invite another user, customize your invoices, or look at detailed reports. Plus, the dashboard displays your real estate cash flow by month in an easy-to-understand graph. Overall, Wave is the best accounting software for beginners who want an affordable or free solution that is extremely easy to use.
Wave’s key features
- Free forever plan
- Income and expense tracking
- Unlimited invoices and estimates on the free plan
- Unlimited payments for vendors, contractors, and services on the free plan
- Mobile receipt capture (with an add-on fee)
- Automated reminders for invoices and bills with online payments
- Mobile app
- Dashboard with visual reports
- Live chat support is available 24/7
- Access to expert Wave advisors
- Integrates with other tools through Zapier
- Optional add-on features like receipt capture (free in the Pro plan) and payroll
- Excellent user review ratings on third-party review websites
FreshBooks: Best mobile accounting app
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Why I like FreshBooks
FreshBooks is an accounting software with a user-friendly app and built-in tools to easily track, upload, and organize all of your expenses. While other accounting software options offer these tools as an add-on option, FreshBooks includes mileage tracking, time tracking, and receipt uploads on the mobile app and in every plan. This makes it extremely easy to stay on top of your finances without having to block off an hour of your schedule every week — just click a few buttons in the mobile app.
FreshBooks is also one of the most intuitive apps and user-friendly real estate accounting software options, with features like automatic expense categorization and communication tools directly on invoices and payments. Plus, its receipt capture feature will scan your receipts and automatically import the expense and category. Overall, FreshBooks is best for individual agents or small teams who want a solution that works on the go.
FreshBooks’ key features
- Mobile app
- Mileage tracking
- Time tracking for evaluating individual transactions, clients, or investments
- Project tracking to view the profitability of each part of your business
- Client account portal (ideal for home buyers, sellers, or tenants)
- Income and expense tracking
- Invoicing and automated payments
- Automatically generate tax reports
- Over 100+ integrations
- “At a glance” performance dashboards
- Team member roles
- Excellent user review ratings on third-party review websites
Xero: Best for real estate teams
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Why I like Xero
Xero is a highly customizable online accounting software designed for small businesses, and its flexibility and customization may be perfect for real estate agents, teams, property managers, or investors at every level. One of the many ways that it stands out from other accounting software for real estate is its tracking tools and projections. For example, its project tracking tools include time tracking, mileage tracking, and expense tracking that can be divided into projects. This can help real estate agents understand which clients or transactions are taking the most time and money, as well as help investors evaluate the success of their rental properties or fix-and-flip projects.
In addition to their tracking features, Xero allows an unlimited number of users. This makes Xero the best real estate accounting software for teams. However, its tracking features, automation, and highly customizable dashboards make it the best option for real estate professionals who want an in-depth understanding of their business finances on the most user-friendly platform.
Xero’s key features
- Mobile app
- Unlimited users
- Income and expense tracking overall and by project (for transactions, clients, and properties)
- Hubdoc document management and storage (ideal for real estate contracts)
- Contact management tools to track communication between team members and clients
- Easily create and send quotes and invoices
- Mobile receipt capture
- Analytics that track your cash flow and create short-term cash flow projections
- Business snapshot with easily customizable metrics
- Third-party integrations
- Onboarding specialist for first 90 days
- Excellent user review ratings on third-party review websites
DoorLoop: Best for growing real estate investors
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Why I like DoorLoop
DoorLoop is a real estate property management software with important accounting features, similar to Buildium. However, DoorLoop is a more user-friendly platform than Buildium, with simplified processes, visual reports, and an easy-to-use mobile app. It syncs with bank accounts to track your income and expenses and allows you to collect rent payments, send payments to vendors, and reconcile all transactions. You can even upload documents like receipts and invoices through the app.
Plus, DoorLoop integrates directly with QuickBooks for more in-depth accounting features. Overall, DoorLoop is best for landlords and property managers who want advanced accounting tools from QuickBooks combined with a simple, user-friendly property management software.
DoorLoop’s key features
- Mobile app
- Income and expense tracking
- Online rent payments
- Automated invoice and bill reminders
- Maintenance and expense tracking
- Real-time transaction reporting
- Native integration with QuickBooks
- Detailed financial reports
- Excellent user review ratings on third-party review websites
- Highly responsive customer support
How to choose the best real estate accounting software
You shouldn’t just choose an accounting software because it’s popular — the best real estate accounting software for your business depends on your specific business. For example, rental property owners will benefit from an accounting software that accepts and automates rent payments. On the other hand, real estate agents should be more focused on a platform that works well on the go.
Here are a few things to consider as you look for the right accounting software:
- Specific features: Consider the specific features you need as an agent, investor, property manager, like receipt capture, mileage tracking, time tracking, rent collection, invoicing, reporting, bank reconciliation, or payroll.
- Integrations: Look for a software program that fits with your existing tools or has a direct integration.
- Pricing: To state the obvious, you should be able to afford your accounting software. If you aren’t generating consistent income, start with a free software. As you grow, consider what accounting features you need, how many users should have access, and how you can consolidate your software tools for the best price.
- Ease of use: Even the best accounting software won’t do you any good if you don’t understand how to use it! Choose a software option that is intuitive, easy to navigate, and has customer support options when you have questions.
Our methodology: How we evaluated the best accounting software
At The Close, our methodology is based on providing real estate professionals with the most accurate, detailed, objective information to make smart business decisions. Our team of real estate professionals, researchers, and writers work together to do thorough research.
To help you find the best real estate accounting software for your business, we considered a variety of options based on these criteria:
- Core accounting features: We looked for software that included the most basic and important tools like expense tracking, invoicing, profit and loss statements, and bank reconciliation.
- Pricing: We chose software at a variety of price points, considering what fits the needs of real estate professionals at different stages of their career.
- Customer support: We prioritized platforms that offer a variety of customer support options and onboarding systems.
- Ease of use: Since accounting can be complex, it’s important to choose a platform that is easy to learn. We evaluated and compared the ease of use of each platform.
- Reporting and analytics: Reporting is an essential part of accounting and tracking your business’s finances. We looked for platforms with easy-to-understand financial reports.
- Additional features: We chose software solutions with features that fit the needs of real estate professionals, like mileage tracking, time tracking, collaboration, tax forms, and invoicing.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Should I use QuickBooks as a real estate agent?
Yes, QuickBooks is a great accounting software for real estate agents, with affordable pricing, a mobile app, mileage tracking, receipt capture tools, and automatic income and expense tracking. It even offers a 30-day free trial for you to test it out for free.
What type of accounting is used in real estate?
Most real estate businesses use cash accounting, which means that income and expenses are only recorded when money is actually spent or received. Real estate accounting also includes tracking commissions, expenses, property depreciation, and rent payments.
Do real estate agents need bookkeeping?
Yes, bookkeeping is essential for any successful business. Bookkeeping for real estate agents means tracking income and expenses to make sure the business is profitable and growing.
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