Guides and troubleshooting for property management bookkeeping — written from state audit manuals, disciplinary records, and real reconciliation work.
An honest comparison of APM Help, Proper, OJO, REA, and independent audit services for property management bookkeeping — who publishes pricing, who serves small portfolios, and what each model actually covers.
Comparisons · 2026-08-05
Arizona trust account rules for property managers — the statutory three-way reconciliation requirement under ARS 32-2151 (as amended by SB 1171), the random ADRE audit program, three-year record retention, and the item-by-item variance rule.
State Compliance · 2026-08-05
Buildium reconciles your bank accounts and syncs to QuickBooks natively — so what does an independent audit add? A concrete walkthrough of which errors the built-in tools catch, and which ones they structurally cannot.
Comparisons · 2026-08-05
Every DRE trust account rule California property managers are audited against — deposit deadlines, the 25-day fee rule, three-way reconciliation, account titling — with real disciplinary cases and dollar amounts.
State Compliance · 2026-08-05
Colorado's trust account rules for property managers under 4 CCR 725-1 — the two-account requirement, 5-day deposit deadline, monthly three-way reconciliation, and the 60-day handover rule, with a 2024 license revocation showing enforcement.
State Compliance · 2026-08-05
Florida escrow rules for property managers — the 3-day deposit rule, $5,000 personal funds cap, monthly reconciliation under Rule 61J2-14.012, conflicting-demand reporting, and real FREC fines with case numbers.
State Compliance · 2026-08-05
NCREC trust account rules for North Carolina property managers — account titling, 3-day deposits, the 30-day fee rule, per-HOA accounts, and a dozen named disciplinary cases from 2023–2026 showing exactly what gets licenses suspended.
State Compliance · 2026-08-05
What TREC §535.146 actually requires of Texas property managers — the second-business-day deposit rule, 30-day commingling limit, property-level traceability, and security deposit law under Property Code Chapter 92.
State Compliance · 2026-08-05
Washington State trust account rules for property managers — the next-banking-day deposit rule, WAC 308-124E-105 payment prohibitions, security deposit handling under WAC 308-124E-115 and RCW 59.18.270, and what DOL auditors test.
State Compliance · 2026-08-05
How trust accounting works in AppFolio — property-level ledgers, the reconciliation screen, security deposit handling — and the four categories of failure the software is structurally unable to detect.
Guides · 2026-08-02
Who gets a 1099-MISC and who gets a 1099-NEC in property management, what gross rents means for owner reporting, and why filing from unreconciled books creates corrections you will pay for twice.
Compliance · 2026-08-02
How to structure a chart of accounts for property management trust accounting — separating trust liability from company revenue, per-property tracking, and the account structures that cause failed three-way reconciliations.
Guides · 2026-08-02
Undeposited funds should be a transit account that returns to zero. When it doesn't, your reconciliation is off by exactly that amount. How the balance accumulates in AppFolio and how to clear it correctly.
Troubleshooting · 2026-08-02
The most common causes of an off adjusted cash balance in AppFolio — cross-period voids, stranded clearing accounts, migration errors — and how to locate the exact transaction.
Troubleshooting · 2026-07-16
The nine mechanical causes of an out-of-balance Buildium reconciliation — wrong opening balances, cross-period voids, bulk transfers — and how to find each one.
Troubleshooting · 2026-07-16
A negative owner balance means one owner's expenses were paid with other owners' money — conversion of client funds in most states. What causes it, how to find every instance, and how to fix it.
Compliance · 2026-07-16
How property management accounting actually works: trust vs operating accounts, security deposits, management fees, owner statements, three-way reconciliation, 1099s, and the errors that get companies cited in state audits.
Guides · 2026-07-16
How to do a three-way trust reconciliation step by step — bank statement, trust ledger, and the sum of every owner and tenant balance — plus the failure patterns that keep the three legs from tying out.
Guides · 2026-07-16
A 24-point checklist of what state real estate auditors request and verify in a property management trust account audit — compiled from state audit manuals and disciplinary records.
Compliance · 2026-07-16