Real Estate Bookkeeping Services for US Investors & Property Managers

In a Nutshell: Outsourced Real Estate Bookkeeping for the US

Startup Advisory keeps property-level books for US rental investors, short-term-rental hosts, fix-and-flip operators, syndicators and property-management companies – inside your own QuickBooks Online or Xero, reconciled every month and handed to your CPA tax-ready. A Chartered Accountant-led team in New Delhi does the work overnight your time, for a fixed monthly fee in US dollars instead of a US bookkeeper's salary.

Who it's for: US LLCs, partnerships and individuals holding 1–200 doors; Airbnb/VRBO hosts; flippers; syndications with outside investors; property managers running owner trust accounts.
What's included: monthly close, bank and card reconciliation, rent-roll-to-deposit matching, mortgage and escrow splits, CapEx vs repairs, security-deposit liabilities, 1099 vendor tracking, per-property P&L and cash flow, CPA-ready year-end package.
Software: QuickBooks Online and Xero as the ledger; Buildium, AppFolio, Stessa, REI Hub and Rent Manager data reconciled into it.
How it's priced: fixed monthly fee in US dollars, quoted in writing after a free books review; catch-up bookkeeping quoted as a fixed project; no long-term contract.
What we don't do: sign or e-file US tax returns – your CPA or EA does, from our package.
Provider: Startup Advisory, New Delhi, India – hello@startupadvisory.in · WhatsApp +91 93119 72982.

Reviewed by CA Neeraj Rohilla, FCA — Chartered Accountant, Startup Advisory, Saket, New Delhi. Last reviewed: June 2026.

Startup Advisory provides outsourced real estate bookkeeping services to investors, operators and property managers across the United States: property-level books in QuickBooks Online or Xero, a monthly close you can rely on, and a year-end package your CPA can file from without a clean-up bill. The work is reviewed by Chartered Accountants and priced as a fixed monthly fee in US dollars.

Where Rental Books Go Wrong – and Why It Costs You in March

Most rental-property books break in the same five places: rent that never reconciles to the bank deposit, a mortgage payment booked as one lump expense, a new roof expensed like a leaky faucet, a security deposit counted as income, and a contractor paid $3,400 across the year with no W-9 on file. None of it shows up until tax season, when your CPA sends a 40-question email and bills you for the clean-up. Bookkeeping built for restaurants or agencies does not catch these, because the person doing it has never read a closing statement.

Rent, late fees and application fees matched to the rent roll every month
Mortgage payments split into principal, interest and escrow – and escrow disbursements for taxes and insurance tracked
Capital improvements separated from repairs, with the fixed-asset register kept current
Security deposits held as liabilities – refunds and forfeitures booked correctly
Vendor payments tracked all year so 1099s are a report, not a scramble

What You Get Every Month

Clean books

Every bank, credit-card and loan account reconciled to the statement
Transactions coded to property, entity and class
Rent roll vs deposits, PM statements and platform payouts tied out
Closing statements for purchases, sales and refinances booked line by line

Reports you can act on

Profit & loss per property and consolidated
Cash flow after debt service, NOI and reserve balances
Balance sheet with loan balances agreed to lender statements
Owner statements and investor distribution schedules where relevant

Tax season without the scramble

Fixed-asset and depreciation schedules maintained all year
1099 vendor summary with W-9 status
Schedule E-ready or partnership-ready year-end package for your CPA
Direct answers to your CPA's questions, so you are not the go-between

Real Estate Accounting We Get Right (That Generic Bookkeepers Miss)

Situation	How we book it	Why it matters
Buying or selling a property	Closing statement entered line by line: purchase price allocated between land and building, closing costs capitalised or expensed as the rules require, prorated taxes and rents, loan proceeds and payoffs	The building basis drives depreciation for decades; a lump-sum entry gets it wrong from day one
Depreciation	Fixed-asset register by property with in-service dates; buildings, land improvements and later capital improvements kept on separate schedules, using the recovery periods and methods your CPA applies	Your CPA gets a schedule, not a shoebox; cost-segregation and bonus-depreciation decisions start from clean data
Repairs vs capital improvements	Each invoice classified as repair or improvement, with small-dollar items that may qualify for the de minimis safe harbor flagged for your CPA's election	Wrong classification either overstates income or invites an audit adjustment
Security deposits	Held as a liability per tenant; trust-account activity reconciled separately where your state requires a separate account; forfeitures recognised only when applied	Deposits booked as income inflate tax and break state trust-accounting rules for property managers
Mortgages and escrow	Each payment split into principal, interest and escrow from the lender statement; escrow disbursements for property tax and insurance booked when paid	Interest is deductible, principal is not; a single "mortgage expense" line misstates both profit and equity
Contractors and vendors	Vendor master with W-9 status; cumulative payments tracked against the federal 1099-NEC / 1099-MISC reporting threshold and any lower state threshold, so the January filing list is ready before your CPA asks	January filings become a report you print, not a chase for tax IDs
Short-term rentals (Airbnb, VRBO)	Platform payouts reconciled gross-to-net: host fees, cleaning fees, occupancy taxes collected and remitted, refunds and resolution-centre adjustments	Net-payout bookkeeping understates revenue and hides platform fees you may be able to deduct
Fix-and-flip projects	Project costs accumulated as inventory/work-in-progress by property; holding costs, hard-money interest and draws tracked to the deal; profit recognised on sale	Expensing rehab costs as you go makes a profitable year look like a loss and the sale year look like a windfall
Syndications and LLCs with partners	Partner capital accounts rolled forward for contributions, distributions and preferred returns; investor reporting pack; K-1 workpapers for your CPA	Investors ask for capital-account statements; lenders and buyers ask for clean entity-level books
Property-management companies	Operating company books kept separate from client trust funds; owner statements, management fees, maintenance pass-throughs and owner distributions reconciled to the PM platform	Commingling is the most common finding in state broker-trust audits

How It Works

1. 20-minute scoping call – doors, entities, software, how far behind the books are, and what your CPA needs at year-end. You get a fixed fee in writing the same day.
2. Secure access – you invite us as an accountant user in QuickBooks or Xero and connect read-only bank feeds. We never hold your banking credentials.
3. Setup or catch-up – a real-estate chart of accounts with property classes, a fixed-asset register, and any backlog rebuilt and reconciled to a clean opening position.
4. Monthly cadence – transactions coded within two business days of the feed, books closed and reports delivered by the 10th business day of the following month, reviewed by a Chartered Accountant before release.
5. Year-end handover – the CPA-ready package goes to your tax preparer in January, and we answer their questions directly.

Software We Work In

Ledger: QuickBooks Online (Plus/Advanced for class and location tracking), Xero
Property management data: Buildium, AppFolio, Rent Manager, Stessa, REI Hub, TenantCloud
Bills and receipts: Bill.com, Melio, Dext, Hubdoc
Documents: encrypted client portal or your Google Drive / Dropbox folder

Security & Access – What We Do and Don't Do

Accountant-user invites only – you keep admin rights and can revoke access in one click
Read-only bank feeds connected by you; we never see or store online-banking passwords
Two-factor authentication on every login, access limited to the named team on your file
Signed confidentiality agreement before any data is shared; no funds ever move through us
We do not sign tax returns, hold client money, or replace your property-management software

Fees – Fixed Monthly, in US Dollars

Every engagement is a fixed monthly fee set by the number of properties, entities and transaction volume, confirmed in writing after a free books review and before any work starts. Comparable US firms typically charge several hundred to over a thousand dollars a month for the same scope; our cost base is in India, and the standard is not thinner for it – every file is reviewed by a Chartered Accountant before it is closed. Engagements run month to month with 30 days' notice. Catch-up bookkeeping is quoted as a fixed project per month of backlog once we have seen the accounts. Request a free books review or email hello@startupadvisory.in for a fee for your portfolio.

Offshore CA Team vs Local Bookkeeper vs Doing It Yourself

Feature	Startup Advisory (CA-led, India)	Local US bookkeeper	Spreadsheet / software only
Monthly cost	Fixed USD fee, quoted in writing after a free books review	Several hundred to over a thousand dollars for the same scope	Software fee plus your evenings
Real-estate specifics (basis, escrow, deposits, CapEx)	Built into the chart of accounts and monthly review	Depends on the individual	Only if you know the rules
Review before books close	Chartered Accountant sign-off every month	Usually none	None
Turnaround	Overnight – sent at your close of business, done by your morning	Same time zone, same working hours	When you get to it
Scaling from 5 to 50 doors	Change plan; team scales	Re-hire or renegotiate	Breaks
Year-end handover to CPA	Complete package; we answer CPA queries	Varies	You are the go-between

Who Does the Work

Startup Advisory is a Chartered Accountant-led firm in New Delhi, India, founded in 2023. Chartered Accountants of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) qualify through a three-level examination and three years of articled training – a track comparable to the CPA – and the firm's partners have run bookkeeping, audit-support and CFO engagements for companies in India and for founders abroad. Your engagement is staffed by a dedicated accountant for day-to-day coding and reconciliation, reviewed monthly by CA Neeraj Rohilla, FCA or CA Kunal Mehta, FCA before the books close.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Bookkeeping is not a licensed activity in the United States, so the work can be done from anywhere as long as it is done inside your US accounting system and to the standard your CPA expects. We work in your own QuickBooks Online or Xero file, you keep ownership and admin rights, and your US CPA or EA prepares and signs the tax return from the year-end package we produce.

QuickBooks Online (Plus or Advanced, so that class and location tracking give you per-property reports) and Xero (with tracking categories). If you run a property-management platform such as Buildium, AppFolio, Stessa, REI Hub or Rent Manager, we reconcile its rent roll, owner statements and trust-account activity into the general ledger rather than replacing it.

No. We do not sign or e-file US federal or state returns. We deliver a CPA-ready year-end package: reconciled trial balance, per-property profit and loss, fixed-asset and depreciation schedules, security-deposit and escrow reconciliations, partner capital roll-forwards for LLCs and syndications, and a 1099 vendor summary. Your CPA or EA files from that package, which is what keeps their bill down.

We never hold your online-banking login. You invite us as an accountant user in QuickBooks or Xero, connect read-only bank feeds yourself, and share statements or closing documents through an encrypted client portal. Access is role-based, two-factor protected, limited to the named team members on your engagement, and covered by a signed confidentiality agreement.

Every transaction is tagged to a specific property or entity, so you get a profit and loss, cash-flow and balance-sheet view per door as well as consolidated. Rent, late fees and deposits are matched to the rent roll; mortgage payments are split into principal, interest and escrow; capital improvements are separated from repairs; security deposits sit as liabilities, not income; and vendor payments are tracked for 1099 reporting.

Yes. Catch-up and clean-up is quoted as a fixed project based on the number of accounts, properties and months involved. We rebuild the ledger from bank and card statements, closing statements and the rent roll, reconcile every month, and hand you a clean opening position before the monthly service starts.

The team works from New Delhi, which is 9.5 hours ahead of US Eastern time. Work you send at the end of your day is done by the next US morning. We keep a live response window during US Eastern mornings and answer every message within one business day.

You receive a monthly invoice in US dollars and pay by card or bank transfer. Engagements run month to month with 30 days' notice. Catch-up projects are billed as a fixed fee agreed before work starts.

Fees are fixed monthly amounts in US dollars, set by the number of properties, entities and transaction volume, and confirmed in writing after a free books review before any work starts. Comparable US firms typically charge several hundred to over a thousand dollars a month for the same scope; our cost base is in India, and every file is still reviewed by a Chartered Accountant before it is closed.

Ready for Books Your CPA Stops Complaining About?

Email: hello@startupadvisory.in
WhatsApp: +91 93119 72982
Get My Free Books Review

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