The real estate profession is a desirable sought-after career. It provides flexibility to create your own schedule, has unlimited income potential, and you get to help make dreams come true.
But like any freelancer career, you have to track your income and expenses. The good news is that most independent contractor real estate agents don’t have to concern themselves with many income and expense categories in their bookkeeping. Most real estate agents can get by with just the following six categories:
- Commission income
- Real estate fees and dues
- Real estate education expenses
- Office expenses
- Marketing and advertising expenses
- Vehicle mileage and costs
You may have more, or you may want to break these down into sub-categories. The point is that you don’t require a sophisticated accounting system. Yet, many agents are spending way too much time and effort tracking expenses. A more significant amount of time is spent at the end of the year gathering receipts and inputting a long list of entries if there was no bookkeeping throughout the year.
Money Tips for Real Estate Agents
The ideal bookkeeping system allows you to spend less than ten minutes a day updating your records. It requires minimal or no typing ensures no expenses are missed and is easily accessible on-the-go.
IOOGO Books
There are many options for online accounting systems available, including the popular QuickBooks, but IOOGO Books is a good fit for the independent real estate agent.
IOOGO Books creates a Profit and Loss Report on demand for any date range. This allows you to see how your business is performing at any time and provides the information necessary to make quarterly tax payments. The report is also simplified and much easier to read than most P&L reports you find in other accounting systems.
IOOGO Books also securely integrates with your bank and credit card accounts making it easy to auto-import income and expenses. This saves you hours of time and ensures you don’t miss any expenses.
Lastly, no download is required so you can securely access your data from anywhere, anytime. After all, the real estate agent’s life is not your typical 9-5 office job!
