Hey All!
So I'm just about to purchase my second property. Offer was accepted – wohoo.
Now an issue I see is how to keep track of all the costs. Both property related and in general. At the moment I have 4 accounts (mortgage, off-set, expense account, share trading account), which I plan to consolidate shortly.Yet within the next 6 months I will (fingers crossed) have 5 dwellings on the 2 blocks of land and thus multiple income streams. I am struggling to keep track of costs as is. What method have you used to keep track of cashflow?I started an excel using cost-codes to track just property items (cost codes for Capital, Renovation, Maintenance, Other Outgoing and Incoming costs) and plan to use Pivot Tables as my main method of cost tracking. What do you find works for you?I see things getting very messy very quickly if I can’t sort it out soon.RegardsNHG
Just excel with one sheet per property and then link it all back to the summary sheet.
Terryw | Structuring Lawyers Pty Ltd / Loan Structuring Pty Ltd
http://www.Structuring.com.au
Email MeLawyer, Mortgage Broker and Tax Advisor (Sydney based but advising Aust wide) http://www.Structuring.com.au
I agree, for the small scale investor use Excel or similar spread sheet, keep your data for each property in it's own sheet in the workbook.
you can use formulas to link data to your summary page or graphs / projections pages if you want to go that far into data analysis.just one BIG thing, keep a backup and keep a backup of that backup… keep them all up to date and if possible keep one off site (even if it's a spare you email to your internet based email address, not the most secure but if your house gets robbed you'll recover it instantly)
Working in IT, you soon learn that if it's important and you dont back it up.. that's the day the file decides to corrupt itself or get accidentally deleted.
Good point about backing up.
I use google for email and the google docs cloud where you can upload or even start documents which are held on the google server somewhere. So where ever you go you can access them without the need to have your files on your computer.
Terryw | Structuring Lawyers Pty Ltd / Loan Structuring Pty Ltd
http://www.Structuring.com.au
Email MeLawyer, Mortgage Broker and Tax Advisor (Sydney based but advising Aust wide) http://www.Structuring.com.au
Terryw wrote:Just excel with one sheet per property and then link it all back to the summary sheet.That's all I do. Have income on one side, expenses on the other. Spend 10 minutes each month updating the spreadsheet. Spend a couple of hours at EOFY double checking that you haven't missed anything and email a copy to your accountant.
Cheers
Jamie
Jamie Moore | Pass Go Home Loans Pty Ltd
http://www.passgo.com.au
Email Me | Phone MeMortgage Broker assisting clients Australia wide Email: [email protected]
Thanks guys,
Working on something now, will post when I finish it (if I can).
Im interested in how these spreadsheets are set up since the way I track my costs could use improvement.
I use what I call a net debt graph where I track my overall account balance against time. Generally it trends down which is a good thing…. Im sure there is a better way though. Just havent worked it out yet…
Another spreadsheet I keep seperate is all income and all outgoings for each property. One tab per property. Will make it easy when it comes to claim my tax at the end of the year. As Terry suggested, this takes a few minutes per property every month.
If someone is willing to share their set up I would be very interested!!
At the moment we have 6 properties (hopefully) soon to be 8.
Each of these properties werent really planned through very well in the early stages and i have continued with my ‘ad hoc’ way for 6 years now. I have a separate spreadsheet per property so I could see the comparison from year to year, this worked well the first few years with only 1 or 2, but is now giving myself more work than intended.
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