New user: understanding dimensions and tags

Thanks for your reply. I researched sub ledger and that could be useful. Would I need to create an account for each property then? By somehow using tags or dimensions, if appropriate, I was hoping to have one account and just assign entries to the tag or dimension which I still don't understand.

One thing to note is that I don't actually collect rent from tenants. Rent payments go directly to landlord accounts and they pay me management fees separately. The rent does not hit my accounts. I just have to record them for the landlord statements. Should I create 2 different companies or do everything in one?

Where would I find the repos you're referring to and what would I be looking for? Thank you.

Quickbooks classes are the same as FA dimensions.

Tags were introduced for filtering G/L accounts on reports. They could work for you by using separate G/L accounts (or sub accounts) where transactions are posted and tagging each G/L account .   Every property transaction would need the correct G/L account.   Support for tags is limited.  Tagging would be useful if you need to examine profitability of groups of properties.

Simpler would be to assign a dimension to each property.  Every property transaction would need a dimension.

FA supports two levels of dimensions.   You can have a single company with two dimensions (brokerage and property management).  The property management side can have property dimensions.  Then you can generate separate P/L statements for the brokerage and property management side, as well as separate P/L for each property.

You are better off with using dimensions than creating two sets of books in most cases.  That is because bank accounts and expenses can be shared within a single company.  For example, if you have a single credit card and pay for expenses for both sides of the company, reconciliation is simple if both sides are part of the same company but impossible with two sets of books.

You should experiment by creating a company and trying out your ideas and look at the P/L statements.  Run those by your accountant or bookkeeper and see if they make sense.   You will save yourself and others time if you set up a system that everyone is comfortable with.

Try to keep the number of G/L accounts/dimensions to a bare minimum.   The more you have, the more complex is the transaction data entry.   For example, if you pay for some item and it is not clear which property it is for or is shared between multiple properties, that bogs down data entry.   You may find that keeping data entry separate for each property is a nightmare and not worth the effort in tracking profitability.

Thanks for this very helpful advice! I will test this out on my development site first. I think dimensions may be the answer for me instead of 2 books. A bookkeeper I was talking with was telling me the problem is that the rents would be reported on my books even though I am not collecting them but am only recording them for the landlords accounting. That's why she said I may need to maintain 2 sets of books. I'm all for keeping things simple and straight forward but I'm not sure accounting is like that.

I do have a question. If I want to give a bookkeeper access to and control of the accounting for the property management side only, ie. the statements which go to the landlords for their properties, and not the brokerage operations, is it possible to do this keeping just one set of books but using dimensions?

I have one brokerage (company) for both property management and brokerage operations. The main common transaction is the property management fee I receive from each landlord each month. I also handle all the repairs from a reserve account where I hold funds from each landlord for his properties. So there is definitely interaction because it's part of my business. Unlike other management companies, rent doesn't hit my books but goes directly to landlord accounts so it needs to be kept off my books but tracked for the landlord PL statements, etc.

Another quick question about customers. I guess customers would be my landlord clients? I can add them and connect each to a dimension (property) but one landlord can have multiple properties. They send me one payment each month for all their properties if they have more than one. I send them one statement per property. Is there a way (or is it even needed) to connect landlords (customers?) to their properties? What about tenants? I wouldn't consider them customers but they are the ones paying the rent to the landlords.

Trying to understand how to map all this to my accounting system in FA. Appreciate the help.