Property management accounting for companies on AppFolio, Yardi and Buildium

A property management company does three different accounting jobs at once. It holds other people's money in trust. It produces statements, rent rolls and year-end packages for every owner it serves. And it runs a business of its own, with revenue, payroll, overhead and growth plans. Most management companies are set up to do the first two well enough and the third with whatever time is left over.

We work with residential, commercial and mixed portfolio managers who want all three jobs done properly:

• Third-party residential managers running single-family, small multifamily or larger apartment portfolios for many owners.
• Commercial and mixed-use managers handling CAM, operating-expense recoveries and tenant billing alongside owner reporting.
• Owner-operators who manage their own properties through a management entity and need the management company and the property entities kept cleanly apart.
• Growing managers taking on new owners or buying another management company, and bringing a second set of books into the fold.

We work in AppFolio, Yardi and Buildium, the property platforms our clients use most, and in QuickBooks Online or your current general ledger for the management company itself. You keep your systems; we make sure they agree with each other and with the bank.

When we first look at a property management company's accounting, the same issues show up again and again.

Trust money and operating money blur

Security deposits, owner funds, reserves and your own fees move through different accounts that get reconciled at different times, or only when something goes wrong. A trust account that hasn't been three-way reconciled is a risk to your owners and to your license.

Owner statements aren't tied back to the bank

Owner statements come out of the property software looking finished. But if nobody ties them to the bank and to the general ledger every month, small differences pile up: an unapplied payment here, a misposted vendor bill there. Owners notice eventually.

All of your revenue sits on one line

Management fees, leasing fees, renewal fees, maintenance markups, late fees and other income land together. You can see total revenue, but you can't see which services actually make money.

The cost of managing a door is a guess

Property-level staff, maintenance technicians, office staff and leadership are often mixed together in payroll. Without separating them, nobody can say what it really costs you to manage a door, or whether a new contract is priced to make money.

Acquisitions never fully merge

Buying a portfolio or another small manager brings in a second system, a second chart of accounts and a second set of habits. Months later, the combined company still closes twice.

We take on the accounting work for both sides of your business: the money you hold for owners and the company you're building.

Three-way trust reconciliations

Every trust and operating account reconciled monthly across the bank, the property software and the ledger, with each difference explained and cleared. Security deposit liabilities tracked against the cash that backs them. We don't give legal advice on your state's trust accounting rules, but we keep the reconciliations current and documented so you can show your work.

Owner statements and reporting

Owner statements reviewed and tied out before they go out, plus rent rolls, reserve balances and year-end owner packages produced on schedule. For commercial portfolios, CAM and operating-expense reconciliations with backup tenants can follow.

Payables for managed properties

Vendor invoices coded to the right property and owner, approved under your rules, and paid on schedule, with work orders and maintenance markups tracked correctly.

Your management company's own books

A separate, properly closed set of books for the management company, with revenue split by line (management, leasing, maintenance, other) and direct costs matched to each.

Margin per door

Revenue and cost per door managed, tracked month over month and by portfolio or owner group. This is the number that tells you which accounts to grow, which to reprice and what your next hire should cost.

Cash forecasting

A 13-week cash forecast for the management company itself, kept entirely separate from owner cash, so you can plan payroll, hiring and growth without ever leaning on trust funds.

Fractional CFO

When you're pricing a new contract, buying a portfolio, bringing on a partner or talking to a lender, a fractional CFO helps you build the numbers and present them.

Property management platforms are powerful, but they don't reconcile themselves. Each one has its own way of handling owner draws, management fee runs, deposits, vendor payments and month-end, and each one can produce a report that looks right while the underlying ledger drifts.

AppFolio

For managers on AppFolio, we focus on tying bank reconciliations to owner and tenant ledgers, reviewing management fee and owner distribution runs before they post, and making sure the management company's own income is carried cleanly into its separate books.

Yardi

Yardi portfolios are often larger and more complex, with more entities, more properties and more customized charts of accounts. We work within your existing property and entity structure, keep intercompany activity reconciled, and produce consolidated reporting your partners and owners can follow.

Buildium

For managers on Buildium, often growing residential portfolios, we tighten the monthly trust reconciliation, clean up how fees and markups are recorded, and set up a close calendar that keeps owner statements and the company's own books in step.

Whatever the platform, the goal is the same: the property software, the bank and the general ledger agree every month, and you can see your own company's performance as clearly as you report your owners'.

The fastest improvement in most management companies comes from separating revenue and cost by service line. Once you can see margin clearly, the decisions follow. Here's an engagement from our case studies where accounting and reporting work translated directly into margin.

It wasn't a property manager, but the principle carries over directly. When a management company can see margin by service line and cost per door, it can reprice the contracts that lose money, renegotiate maintenance markups and decide which owners to grow with.

Here's what a property management company should have on its desk every month, whether we're doing the work or not:

• Three-way reconciliation of every trust account, with differences explained.
• Owner statements tied to the bank and the ledger before they go out.
• The management company's P&L, split by revenue type, with direct costs matched to each line.
• Revenue, cost and margin per door, tracked month over month.
• A 13-week cash forecast for the management company, separate from owner cash.
• A short monthly package for you and your partners, delivered on a fixed date.

Our free rent roll and monthly close checklists walk through each step, and our article on why your management company's own books deserve the same care as your owners' goes deeper.

• Free review of last month's books. We look at last month for your management company, one trust account or the whole portfolio, and walk you through what doesn't tie and what we'd fix first.
• Catch-up and setup. We bring reconciliations current, restructure the management company's chart of accounts by revenue line, and set the close calendar inside the platform you already use.
• Monthly rhythm. Reconciliations, owner reporting and your company's own close delivered on a fixed schedule every month, with fractional CFO time when you need it.