What Bookkeeping Costs for an Apartment Building, Priced per Door

How is bookkeeping for an apartment building priced?

Per door, per month. The price depends on the number of doors and on the service: full books, or review only. More doors means a lower rate on the extra doors.

A door is one unit. Full books means we record every transaction and send the reports. Review only means your manager keeps the books and we check them every month. The lower rate on a bigger building covers only the extra doors, so an owner with more doors always pays more in total. What the monthly work is, step by step, is in apartment building bookkeeping.

What does full-books bookkeeping cost per door for an apartment building?

Full books cost $10 a door for the first 100 doors, $8 a door for doors 101 to 250, and $6 a door for doors 251 to 500. The minimum is $699 a month.

Each rate applies only to the doors inside its bracket. At $2,200 for 250 doors, the first 100 doors cost $1,000 and the next 150 cost $1,200.

What does review-only bookkeeping cost per door for an apartment building?

Review only costs $7 a door for the first 100 doors, $6 a door for doors 101 to 250, and $5 a door for doors 251 to 500. The minimum is $699 a month.

Review only is for the owner whose manager keeps the books. We check the manager's work against the rent roll and the bank, every month, for every door.

What does apartment building bookkeeping cost at 50, 100, 250 and 500 doors?

Full books cost $699, $1,000, $2,200 and $3,700 a month at 50, 100, 250 and 500 doors. Review only costs $699, $700, $1,600 and $2,850.

Over 500 doors is a custom quote.

The cost per door falls as the doors go up. At 50 doors the $699 minimum works out to $13.98 a door for either service. At 500 doors full books is $7.40 a door and review only $5.70.

How does the $699 monthly minimum work for a smaller apartment building?

Every client pays at least $699 a month. For full books the per-door price passes the minimum at 70 doors. For review only it passes it at 100 doors.

Birch Way has 50 units. Full books at $10 a door is $500 and review only at $7 a door is $350, so $699 applies to both.

The 5 board buildings have 90 doors between them. Full books at $10 a door is $900, above the minimum. Review only at $7 a door is $630, so the $699 minimum applies.

The minimum stops applying at 70 doors for full books ($700) and at 100 doors for review only ($700). A small association meets the same minimum, shown in what HOA bookkeeping costs.

What moves the cost of apartment building bookkeeping up or down?

Door count and service level set the monthly fee. Bank accounts, LLCs, the software the records sit in and months left undone set how much work stands behind it.

• Door count. More doors means a bigger fee in total and a lower rate on the extra doors.
• Service level. Full books costs more per door than review only, because we record every transaction instead of checking them.
• Bank accounts and LLCs. Every account is reconciled every month, so each one is work behind the same per-door price.
• Months left undone. Books that stopped some months ago are caught up first, as a one-time cleanup add-on.

Why every building and every LLC adds an account to reconcile is in separate books for several buildings. Where the records sit also matters, covered in accounting software for apartment buildings.

What does the monthly fee for an apartment building include?

Recording every transaction per building, matching the rent roll to the bank, tying out deposits and reserves, reconciling every bank account and sending each building's reports. Bill pay, a yearly budget, lender packages and cleanup are add-ons.

Included in the monthly fee, for every building:

• Every transaction recorded, tagged to its building.
• The rent roll matched to the bank, with the gap named.
• Tenant deposits and reserves tied out, so the cash that is owed back or set aside is shown.
• Every bank account reconciled.
• Each building's reports sent every month.

Add-ons, priced on their own:

• Paying the bills.
• The yearly budget.
• A lender or audit package.
• Cleanup of months left undone.

The add-on prices are on the home page. Months that fell through when a manager left are covered in the property manager handover checklist.

Is an in-house bookkeeper cheaper for an apartment operator?

It depends on door count. An in-house hire is a fixed cost whatever the number of doors. A per-door fee grows with the buildings. Compare both against the doors you own today.

Put the 2 side by side for your own door count. An in-house hire costs the same whether you own 50 doors or 500. Our fee at each of those sizes is in the table above, and it moves only when the doors do. The full comparison is in in-house property accountant or outsourced bookkeeping.