Monthly folders definitely simplify things—I learned that lesson myself after years of overly detailed spreadsheets. Personally, I prefer tracking expenses by property rather than month; makes it easier to pinpoint issues or trends later on. Your notes idea sounds practical, might give that a try myself...
Interesting, I've never thought about organizing by property instead of month—doesn't that get messy during tax season though? I mean, do you have to reshuffle everything back into monthly order for your accountant, or is there a workaround I'm missing? I've been sticking to monthly folders myself, but now you've got me wondering if I'm making things harder than they need to be...
I've tried the property-based system before, and honestly, it's not as neat as it sounds. Sure, it's handy when you're trying to quickly grab info on a specific property, but when tax season hits... well, my accountant wasn't thrilled. Ended up spending a weekend reshuffling everything into monthly order anyway. Maybe I was doing something wrong, though.
Curious if anyone here uses software or apps to bridge that gap? I've heard some people swear by certain digital tools that let you tag expenses by both property and month—anyone have experience with those? Seems like it could be a solid compromise without the paperwork shuffle each April...
"Ended up spending a weekend reshuffling everything into monthly order anyway."
Yeah, been there myself—it's a total headache. I switched to using QuickBooks Online last year, and it's honestly made things way smoother. You can tag expenses by property and month, and my accountant seemed relieved this past tax season. It took a bit of setup at first, but now it's pretty much automatic. Might be worth checking out if you're tired of the annual paperwork shuffle...
I feel your pain on the weekend shuffle—I used to dread tax season because of exactly that. Tried QuickBooks too, but honestly found it a bit overkill for my needs. Ended up just setting up a simple spreadsheet template in Google Sheets, sorted by month and property. Takes a couple minutes each week to update, but come tax time, it's all ready to go. My accountant didn't hate me this year, so that's progress...
