Posts by Ben Day

Technology has made it relatively easy and accessible to complete accounting tasks online using software like Quickbooks or other programs. With easier access to those programs, those accounting-like tasks sometimes get assigned to an office manager or assistant.

EBIDTA is an accounting term that stands for Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation, and Amortization. The first three elements—earnings, interest, and tax—are relatively straightforward. Earnings are the money you bring in, or your revenue. Interest could be the interest on a mortgage payment or other debt. And we’re all pretty familiar with taxes.

When most people think about tax preparation, it feels complicated and daunting, but everybody needs it. In a perfect world, everybody wants a tax preparer who will do their job so well that they don’t have to pay any income tax. It’s not a perfect world, but the tax preparation market is all about finding ways to maximize tax savings.

Too many real estate investors go into the underwriting process without preparing the right way. There’s one huge thing you need to help increase your chances of getting a “yes.”

Underwriting for real estate investors can be a little different than underwriting for a normal home buyer. If they don’t prepare the right way, it can be easy to get stuck at “no” during that process.

Because of the dot com bubble bursting in the late ’90s and the housing bubble bursting back in 2008, real estate investors are always concerned about bubble-proofing their business. Of course, as I write this, it’s 2018, and the bubble’s cycle is eight to twelve years. So we’re right in the middle of that window and concern is warranted.

When I talk to people about bookkeeping for real estate investors, they’ve all had different experiences with their current or former bookkeepers. Sure, many of them have a bookkeeper that’s always late. I love helping those people, because I’m always on time.

Small businesses and solo entrepreneurs often put off things like proper bookkeeping. And sometimes they can get away with that their whole life. But if you ever want to scale up or get help from someone else, you need to use official accounting software.

If you handle a lot of cash, it can be a pain to track accurately. How can you remember weeks later what you spent your cash on? You can’t! Really good bookkeeping is about not wasting your brain on things like that.

Before we start working with a new client, we answer a lot of questions about our process and how it all works. We’re talking about managing the books for their business and having access to all their financial data, so it’s good to ask questions and understand the process.