Am I the only person with a pile of receipts and/or transactions that need reconciling? How do you deal with them
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I have colored legal size envelopes. As I get receipts, I place them in the appropriate envelope (utilities, repairs, property taxes, etc). When itās tax season, I just tally each category and add it to the itemized expenses on my tax return. Itās very basic but it works for me.
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Deal with receipts as soon as possible so they wonāt mount up. But as life tends to be rushed, bung them in an envelope every week. Write āweek beginning [date]ā on each one. Ideally, deal with every one at the end of the week.
But, itās a good idea for hosts to buy their supplies online (at amazon for example) so that all transactions are recorded online.
I do hope @Ricky that you havenāt had a ābright ideaā for an app and thatās why youāre asking?
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If I wanted to use an app I can use Quick Books and it integrates with my Turbo Tax.
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Isnāt this just a basic How to Conduct Life as an Adult question?
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If this isnāt fishing for an opportunity to promote the OPs service or app Iād be very surprised.
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This year I have been WAY better about keeping up with categorizing my income and expenses, I use quickbooks online. I try and catch up once a week but sometimes I do a few weeks at a time. Way better (for me) than waiting until tax time like I have in the past. My accountant is going to be blown away when I tell her itās ready to go in January.
I use debit or credit cards for everything, then sync online in QB and categorize.
RR
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Iām an accountant, RR, and I do it all at one go in January! Iāve tried starting out with nice Quickbook accounts set up at the beginning of a year but I found I donāt keep it up. No excuse other than it suits me.
Itās pretty easy to pick out my Airbnb specific cc expenditures from online reports, and I have a ginormous spreadsheet that grows every year and has the direct expense types (supplies mostly) plus property tax, utilities, media account, mortgage interest, repair and maintenance, and depreciation formulas all set up, I just need to plug in rental days over rental plus personal days for the year.
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Being that we just purchased in 2018, I was hesitant to take the leap to a sole bank account and cards for the house. Iām a super super cautious person and I was fearful of overdrawing or miscalculating so it was less scary (but more difficult) to run everything through one account/card and sort out the numbers at tax time.
This year, I felt like I had a well enough handle on things so I separated everything out and kept an eye on things (to keep my OCD in check).
I have been reconsiling monthly and things look to be going well. It should make for a happy accountant this spring!
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Like, your checkbook? I have never reconciledā¦ I paid an accountant/bookkeeper once to try and sort out a few years and all it did was cost me money because it was too far gone. Now do not get me wrong, I keep track of everything but I seem to be unable to ābalanceā my checkbooks. Balance for me is there is more money in the account than I spend.
RR
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I bribe my granddaughter to sort the ones that I havenāt put in separate envelopes (Iām getting better). Itās very hard with an in-home rental situation because itās tough to say that something is 100% for guests. This year will be easy with COVID - weāve had three guests all year.
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Oh no, Iām not the checkbook balancing type either. My nature would have me chasing one missing penny for hours so I know better than to even start down that path. 
I just check receipts against statements to make sure nothing is missing or a surprise and then I close that month. My card is on file at a couple businesses near our home for my caretaker to make purchases so I mainly just check those to make sure everything is in order.
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Iām still using Quicken to run 2 businesses, since it will handle my 5 bank accounts (one is used only for receiving credit card and Air payments, and it never has more than $500 in it for more than a day, since thatās the only account to which Square and Air have access).
At yearās end I make sure that all expenditures and income are coded for the right tax categories, buy and install Turbotax, and have Turbo pick up all the info from Quicken, making sure I select all the right tax forms.
After all, Iāve got all this depreciation and mortgage interest to deduct.
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Thank you. Simple and straight forward solution. A similar stuation has kinda worked for me with 3 properties. Looking to add another 4 by June. I am really concerned about more than doubling my workloadš¤Æ.
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Thank you for your response. Putting receipts in envelopes etc has put me in this situation which I am just about coping with. I am looking to acquire more STRs next year hence asking for a more practical solution. Life does get in the way otherwose I woild deal with them instantly. I have received a few automated suggestions which I will try and hope these give me my time back relieve me of more stress. And no, I do not have a bright idea for an app.lol. I might look into that after getting fuguring out how to get rid of all these receipts.
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Not neccesarily and there is absolutely no need to be condescending. Everyone has a different solution and I am trying to learn which of their solutions would work for my current situation moving forward.
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Thank you very much for your helpful response. Very much appreciated.
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Thank you, thank you ! Very detailed and informative. This is gioing to be of great help.
You might think condescending, but you do know sheās right.
JF
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