Property Management Software Introduces Quickbooks® Integration

Quickbooks Synchronization Utility

We’re pleased to announce the availability of the new Quickbooks® Sync Utility for Rentec Direct.  Now, with just a single click you can:

Copy all financial transactions from Rentec Direct into Quickbooks®.

Provide your accountant with a commonly recognizable formatted document to prepare your taxes or send 1099s.

Copy all rental income and any other tenant payments into Quickbooks®.

Copy all property income and expenses into Quickbooks®.

Copy over all owner disbursements into Quickbooks®.

Copy over all property management payments (when you pay yourself) into Quickbooks®.

Access all financial based reports in Quickbooks® based upon your data within Rentec Direct.

Optionally customize reports in Quickbooks® to display the data retrieved from Rentec in all possible reports formats.

RENTEC FOR ASSOCIATIONS

Rentec for Associations is designed for self-managed associations to easily keep track of dues, assessments, repairs and other recurring expenses associated with your association.

Provide secure online access to association members (owners) as well as any tenants and accept owner assessment payments online. Owners can login to make payments or view their payment history and set their email preferences.

Associations need predictable cash-flow and more and more are relying on ACH to automate the assessment collection process. No more deposits or late payers; ACH automates the process and automatically moves the money from their account to yours.

Take the guesswork about property and tenant accounting; Rentec Direct provides an easy to use general ledger accounting system complete with all the reports that are easy to understand by both you and your CPA.

Full bank, property and tenant accounting to keep your record keeping simple and accurate. Easy tab based navigation to switch between your properties, tenants, and other accounts. Queue and print checks directly from Rentec Direct.

Publishing your vacant properties online has never been easier. Enter details and pictures, and you are provided a unique web address for your listing(s) to publish in the paper, or craigslist, newsletters, or flyers. Even accept applications online.

Associations can use the tenant screening tools when directly placing tenants or to assist owners in placing tenants that bring value to the association rather than problems. Tenant screening includes full criminal as well as financial and eviction reports to ensure the next tenant placed is a good one.

Online file management allows file storage related to owners or properties safely and securely online. Bylaws, meeting minutes, rules, and other agreements are excellent items to store safely within Rentec.

Enter and track your own workorders, or allow tenants to place their own repair requests via the tenant portal.

Manage other recurring transactions such as: utility billing, landscaping or supplemental fees you may charge your tenants and let the software automatically generate the charges whether you're at a computer or not.

Tenant Portal If you also rent some of the units, the tenant portal allows tenants to login and review their account, make payments via ACH, or submit workorders.

Easily track bank deposits with undeposited funds support.

Many management reports to show your property performance.

At a glance stats and graphs of current and historical property performance.

Easily print checks with Rentec's built in check printing support.

Rentec Direct, leading providers of property management software, introduces integrated Quickbooks® features to offer clients powerful accounting tools.

Rentec Direct announced a major feature update to the popular property management software with new integrated Quickbooks® functionality to offer clients flexible accounting methods. Rentec Direct offers advanced cloud-based software applications for property managers, investors and landlords who seek powerful tools for managing rental properties online.

Rentec Direct provides complete accounting features integrated into the powerful management software but for property managers and landlords who seek additional functionality, the new Quickbooks® for Rentec Direct makes the software even more versatile.

“Because of the universal nature of Quickbooks, many CPAs, tax advisors, and business management professionals prefer to see data in a format they are familiar with such as Quickbooks,” explains Nathan Miller, President of Rentec Direct. “ To facilitate this, Rentec Direct has produced a Quickbooks export utility which will take all the pertinent accounting data from the Rentec system and insert it into Quickbooks for our clients.”
The new Quickbooks® for Rentec Direct offers the following features and benefits: 

One click export of all accounting data from Rentec Direct into locally installed Quickbooks® software.

One click import of all accounts, vendors, owners, and tenants from Rentec Direct into Quickbooks®.

Receive the full customizable reporting capabilities of Quickbooks® for all stored Rentec data.

Rentec Direct plans to offer the Quickbooks® Sync utility as a premium add-on feature to the online software but will not start charging clients until August 2015 in order to give clients the opportunity to test out the feature.

Rentec Direct announce the new Quickbooks® feature on the company blog on Monday, April 27, read the full story here: http://bit.ly/1QBmeCR

To learn more about how Rentec Direct’s property management software can help managers and landlords improve efficiency and increase profits, visit http://www.rentecdirect.com or email info(at)rentecdirect(dot)com.
About Rentec Direct 

Rentec Direct provides affordable property management software solutions to property managers and landlords. Other popular solutions offered by Rentec Direct include tenant ACH payment processing, tenant credit check services, and online syndication of vacancies to more than 20 popular websites.

QuickBooks Online Essentials

Essentials plan can be used by up to three people simultaneously and is suitable for a services business. It has 40 reports.

Financial records: What to keep, what to toss

(The author is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.)

By Liz Weston

(Reuters) - I don't make New Year's resolutions. Instead, I resolve every tax season to get a better handle on my paperwork - with mixed results. This year, I turned to three certified public accountants to find out what apps, software and strategies they use to keep track of everything.

Kelley Long, a Chicago CPA and personal financial specialist, tries to generate as little paperwork as possible, opting for electronic records instead.

"The IRS accepts electronic records," said Long, resident financial adviser with Financial Finesse in Chicago. "There's no need to keep paper. That's the one thing they're modern about."

Long keeps a folder on her computer desktop for the current year's tax documents. If a document comes to her in paper form, she scans it, saves it in the folder and shreds the original. She converts emails documenting charitable contributions and other tax-related expenses into PDF files by choosing the "print" function and then "save as PDF."

Long saves copies of her calendar to help corroborate business-related travel, meetings and other costs. At the end of the year, she downloads her bank and credit card statements into the folder.

Banks and brokerages are required to keep those records for at least six years - the longest someone is likely to need them for an IRS audit. But some financial institutions charge fees to access older statements, and not all credit card companies make the documents readily available, so Long opts for the once-a-year download.

Even taxpayers who cling to paper should start scanning their receipts because the ink can fade quickly, rendering them useless in an audit. Long marks each receipt with the relevant information, such as the people present and what was discussed - "the who, what, where, when and why," she said. She then scans it into her system and shreds the original.

Finally, Long maintains a spreadsheet where she logs each business-related expense. Software such as Quicken or QuickBooks can perform a similar function, but she prefers the simplicity of a spreadsheet. She also has the Expensify app on her phone to record receipts and other business-related expenses on the go.

Long backs up her records using an external hard drive, but suggests services such as DropBox or Syncplicity for people who want a cloud-based service that allows them to access their records from different locations and devices.

ShoeBox is another app that can help people keep their tax records together. Clare Levison, a certified public accountant in Blacksburg, Virginia, warns against spending too much time trying out different apps, especially if the learning curve is steep.

"If it's not relatively easy, then it defeats the purpose," said Levison, author of the book "Frugal Isn't Cheap: How to Spend Less, Save More, and Live Better." "You need to come up with a system that works for you, that saves you time and that you'll actually use on a regular basis."

Levison uses a flash drive and Microsoft Cloud for her backups, while CPA Leonard Wright of San Diego recommends Box as a more secure alternative to DropBox.

One app that Wright - who survived four consecutive audits by the IRS - swears by is MileIQ, which automatically tracks the miles you drive based on your phone's GPS. Each trip shows up separately in the app, and users simply swipe left or right to classify each as business or personal.

"We all get busy and you forget to track everywhere you go," said Wright, a personal finance specialist who typically drives more than 70,000 miles a year for his job as a financial adviser with Northwestern Mutual. "This does it for you. It's effortless."

Absent an audit, the only records people really need to keep in physical form are the ones that are a hassle to replace and for which originals may be required, such as birth, death and marriage certificates, Levison said.

Otherwise, look for ways to replace paper with digital copies, opting for electronic statements and receipts when possible.

"I like to have that piece of paper never generated to begin with," Levison said. "That way you don't have to worry about taking care of it afterward."

Original article can be found here:  http://www.reuters.com

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QuickBooks Online: Procedure to enable custom transaction numbers

1) Gear icon > Company Settings

2) On left side click Sales

3) On right side, in "Sales form content" section, click the Edit icon (pencil symbol on far right side)

4) Click on box to left of "Custom transaction numbers" to turn this feature on

5) Click Save button

6) In lower right of screen, click Done button

Woman ordered to pay $170K-plus for embezzlement

An Oklahoma City woman who pleaded no contest for embezzlement was ordered Monday to pay more than $170,000 in restitution and serve a split sentence of two years in prison, eight years out.

District Judge Thad Balkman also ordered the woman remain on supervised probation for one year following her imprisonment.

Rebecca Lorene Ray, 43, was originally charged with embezzlement in January 2012 after owners of Millennium Roofing found out she was making unauthorized purchases with a company credit card.

A liquor store, a casino, a boat marina and convenient stores were some of the locations the owners discovered Ray had swiped the company card, court records show. She used the card after she was no longer employed there, telling law enforcement those purchases were treated as advances for supplement, or commission checks, as part of her job.

An affidavit filed with the 2012 charge shows Ray made unauthorized purchases with the company card totaling to approximately $26,000.

The owners later found out Ray also had forged the owners’ names on business checks and would either change the payee names or delete checks in their Quickbooks program to avoid detection, the affidavit shows.

The unauthorized payments made to herself and others through the company checks came to a total of approximately $60,000 according to the affidavit. Testimony on Monday indicated that Ray stole more than $100,000 from the company while she worked there as an office manager.

Felony information filed states the embezzlement occurred between December 2009 and June 2011.

Ray’s testimony Monday was that she was not trained properly to handle certain duties, such as bookkeeping, but was assigned the task after the two owners fired one of their partners. She testified that she changed the payee names on checks and deleted checks in QuickBooks at the request of the owners to reduce the amount of taxable income.

The affidavit states Ray admitted to signing the owners’ names on checks but did it out of necessity when they were not in the office.

After Ray testified that she had tons of employers say she was a good employee, Assistant District Attorney Zack Simmons questioned her about numerous jobs in which employers had accused her of theft, which often led to her either quitting or being fired.

According to her testimony, all of those employers were lying.

Ray has no prior criminal history, but because she had engaged in an alleged continuous pattern of this behavior, Balkman said there was a moderate risk that she would reoffend. Evidence also showed that Ray had a “lack of remorse” and instead of taking responsibility for her actions, she pointed a finger at others.

“This is a person that over the past several years has victimized businesses, and ultimately customers, as the judge said, and for the most part has gotten away with it over the past several years,” Simmons said. “The owners of Millennium Roofing decided to take a stand against her and follow through with this case to make sure she was held accountable.”

Simmons said he hopes Ray learned something from the case and the victims are somehow made whole again.

Assistant District Attorney Dane Towery also was a prosecutor for the case. Attorney Steve Parker represented Ray. 

Original article can be found here:  http://www.normantranscript.com

To stop fraud encourage whistleblowing

The average business loss due to fraud is estimated at 5% of gross revenue.  What can you do about it?

According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, more than 40% of fraudulent acts are identified by employees.  This has led many firms to set up a system where employees can report fraud to a third party in the form of a hotline or administrator. 

The problem is that employees are often hesitant to report wrongdoing to external third parties. Here's how to overcome this reluctance. 

When your third-party administrator or hotline is established:

Make sure any third-party system, such as a hotline, is perceived by employees to be part of your company.

Stress that your firm prefers and supports this method of reporting.

If you use a hotline, do not call it a "hotline" because it implies something to be used only in emergencies.  Instead, use terms such as Open Line or Help Line.

Let employees report fraud anonymously to prevent fear of retaliation or being too involved with the wrongdoing.

• Periodically ask employees if they are aware of potential fraud; quarterly or annually is fine.
• Remind them that it is everyone's responsibility to report wrongdoing because losses due to fraud can cost jobs by threatening the firm's financial health.
• Institute policies for following up on reports of fraud to make absolutely sure that such reports are not ignored or brushed aside.