What is a chart of accounts?

A chart of accounts is a list of all the financial accounts used by a property management business. It organizes revenues, expenses, assets, and liabilities, helping you keep track of financial transactions and understand your business’s financial health.

Why is a chart of accounts important for property management?

A well-organized chart of accounts helps property managers categorize and record financial transactions accurately. This practice simplifies financial reporting, aids in budgeting, and allows for better financial analysis, making it easier to manage properties efficiently.

How do I start setting up a chart of accounts?

Begin by listing all the accounts you need, grouped into categories such as income, expenses, assets, and liabilities. Be specific and detailed, including accounts for rent, maintenance costs, utilities, and property taxes. Use accounting software such as Buildium, if possible, to streamline the process.

What are the five main types of accounts in a property management chart of accounts?

The five main account types are Assets (what the business owns, like bank accounts), Liabilities (what is owed, like security deposits), Equity (the net worth of the business), Income (revenue from rent and fees), and Expenses (costs of operation, such as repairs and utilities).

Property Management Chart of Accounts Guide & Template

Setting up and maintaining a property management chart of accounts is one of the most important accounting practices in your business. It helps you track every transaction for each property in your portfolio, so you always know how each one is performing.

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Chart of Accounts

Want clearer, cleaner books? What about a more useful view into your properties or just easier accounting in general?

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This article walks through how to set up a chart of accounts for your rental properties, plus the best practices that keep it accurate, with help from Taylor Brugna, Partner at The Real Estate CPA. You can even download our free resource above to get started.

In this article we’ll cover:

What a property management chart of accounts is and the five account categories it uses
How to set one up with a numbering system that leaves room to grow
Choosing between a spreadsheet, QuickBooks, or property management software
Best practices that keep your chart of accounts accurate

What Is a Property Management Chart of Accounts?

A property management chart of accounts is a structured list of every financial account you use to record transactions for the properties you manage, organized into categories. Those categories give you and your owners a clear view of the data behind each property’s performance.

Every transaction falls under one of five overarching categories: assets, liabilities, expenses, income, or equity. Each property gets its own coding system within your chart of accounts.

“Having a clear, concise chart of accounts is crucial for your clients to understand how their rental properties are performing,” says Brugna. “It can guide future investments and help both you and your clients make important financial decisions.”

Assets

Definition: Items of value that the business owns or controls, that you can expect to give your company financial benefit in the future. This includes properties that may be eligible for tax advantages such as the bonus depreciation deduction, which the One Big Beautiful Bill Act made a permanent 100% deduction for qualifying property acquired after January 19, 2025.
Example Categories: Checking accounts, savings accounts, and accumulated depreciation of each property

Liabilities

Definition: Amounts owed to other parties, such as loans for property acquisition, outstanding bills, or security deposits held for tenants
Example Categories: refundable security deposits, credit card balances, and taxes/insurance owed on properties.

Income

Definition: The money your business earns from operations and other activities. These categories show your sources of revenue, and recording them correctly matters for accurate tax reporting.
Example Categories: Management fees, onboarding fees, leasing fees, late payment fees, maintenance markups.

Note: the IRS states that advance rent payments, such as for a lease’s final year, must be included in your rental income in the year they are received.

Expenses

Definition: The money flowing out of your business, including the costs associated with your operations and management activities. This can include vehicle expenses, for which the IRS sets a standard mileage rate. Categorizing these expenses correctly matters for accurate tax reporting.
Example Categories: overhead, payroll, insurance and licensing, contractor fees, service fees, legal fees

Equity

Definition: The money that you have invested in your business after deducting what’s owed to other parties (liabilities and expenses)
Example Categories: net income, retained earnings, and any contributions or distributions made for your properties

The codes can get granular, but that’s a good thing. By giving each transaction a specific code, you can track where every penny goes and which properties are profitable.

Key account examples:

Assets: Checking accounts, savings accounts, accumulated property depreciation
Liabilities: Security deposits, credit card balances, taxes and insurance payable
Equity: Net income, retained earnings, property contributions and distributions

Why Do You Need a Chart of Accounts for Your Property Management Company?

A property management chart of accounts is the backbone of all the financial reports and forecasting you do for both your company and your properties. It allows you to:

Report the financial health of rental properties to owners
Determine rent and fee increases
Forecast marketing, staffing, and other budgets
Report accurate financials for taxes

How to Set Up a Chart of Accounts for Your Property Management Portfolio

You set up a property management chart of accounts as a hierarchy of entries, much like a parent-child structure. The highest-level entries are the five categories above, and each of your transactions groups underneath them as a “child.”

Step 1: Assign Parent Category Codes

Many experts recommend numbering line items in ranges of 1,000. For example, assets get the high-level number 1000, and all assets are coded between 1000 and 1999. According to Brugna, a typical numbering system is organized as follows:

Parent Category	Code Range
Assets	1000-1999
Liabilities	2000-2999
Shareholder’s Equity	3000-3999
Revenue	4000-4999
Expenses	5000-5999

Key point: Numbering in ranges of 1,000 leaves room to add new accounts under each category without reworking your system later.

Step 2: Assign Child Category Codes

Under that, you can assign different types of income their own numbers. For example, 1100 might be rent, while 1200 could be HVAC maintenance fees.

Step 3: Assign Property Codes

Finally, you’ll need a way to identify which income comes from which property, while leaving room to add future properties.

To do that, assign each property a number in the 1s place of your accounts. So, your property at 123 Elm St. would be assigned 1101 for rent and 1201 for HVAC fees. For other accounts, it would still be assigned a one in the 1s place.

To keep line items straight, make sure each has a clear and brief summary.

Property Management Chart of Accounts Examples

Let’s take a look at how the above example would look on a spreadsheet.

At the highest level, your chart of accounts will look something like this:

Under those high-level categories, you would then fill in each line-item description:

Finally, transactions for each property would be recorded using codes based on the descriptions you already set up:

Built in a simple spreadsheet, a chart of accounts can take some time to set up. You’ll have to track down every transaction that goes through your property management firm, create a coding system that works best for your company, and then set up the sheets. Still, putting in the time to create a consistent method that makes adding new transactions easy is worth it.

If the idea of updating a spreadsheet is unappealing, there are, of course, software solutions that automate accounting processes and keep your books much more secure than a spreadsheet ever would.

QuickBooks for a Property Management Chart of Accounts

QuickBooks probably comes to mind for your own business’ financials. It includes templates that work for most businesses. If you’re using a property management software solution with an open API, you can integrate QuickBooks directly into that tool.

However, QuickBooks isn’t purpose-built for property managers, so you may end up spending more time setting up a chart of accounts and accounting system that doesn’t capture all the intricacies of your leasing, vendor management, and other operations accurately or reliably.

Keep in mind, too, that QuickBooks auto-populates their charts of accounts and works best for your internal company financials rather than accounting for the properties you manage. You may have to spend some time tweaking it to meet the needs of a property management company.

Our comparison of QuickBooks and Buildium breaks down where each option works best.

Using Buildium for a Property Management Chart of Accounts

For the accounting on your owners’ properties, a strong property management solution has accounting tools built right in, with templates already configured for those needs. Buildium comes with a standard chart of accounts for rental properties, plus the option to edit an existing general ledger account.

Using Buildium, you can set up accounting to record every transaction at the unit level. This is especially helpful for larger properties that contain multiple units. There are a few important benefits to this level of detail in your chart of accounts:

You’ll be able to monitor the financial health of every lease within each of your properties.
Transactions tied to specific units show up on different types of payments, such as rent deposit checks, printed checks, and EFT payments.
Buildium shows a more granular breakdown of management fees by unit.
You can create and share individual reports or report batches, including Income Statements, Rental Owner Statements, and General Ledger Consolidation Reports, all with unit-level details.

Want to see these features in action? You can schedule a guided demo to see how Buildium handles accounting for the properties you manage.

Property Management Chart of Accounts Best Practices

Once you get your chart of accounts up and running, set up a training session with stakeholders, explaining the coding system. Teach them to adhere to the following best practices, as well.

#1: Designate One Person to Update the Property Management Chart of Accounts

A property management chart of accounts is definitely a cooks-in-the-kitchen situation. Too many people accessing the file will only cause mistakes and chaos. By too many, we mean more than one.

#2: Update Frequently and Consistently

Get your team on a regular schedule of reporting transactions to you or the person responsible for the property management chart of accounts. Give them a deadline to get all of their transactions in. That way, there’s time to update and reconcile by the end of the month.

#3: Stick to Your Coding System

Of course, you will have to add new line items for new transactions, but each new item should be sorted into existing categories that follow the coding system you set up.

“Consistency in categorizing will help your property owners identify trends, areas of success, and where to improve,” says Brugna. “For example, monitoring repairs and maintenance costs month over month will give you a clear breakdown of expenses and show you how renovation budgets are tracking.”

#4: Record Absolutely Everything

Don’t keep anything off the books, or even in a separate chart of accounts. Record every single transaction in the same place. The IRS also expects businesses to keep complete financial records that support what you report. Taxes, compliance, property forecasting, and investment decisions all depend on a complete picture of your properties’ finances.

#5: Keep the Miscellaneous Items to a Minimum

If you’ve ever moved, you know you always end up with that one box of miscellaneous stuff you don’t know what to do with. When you unpack it, you’re left with a mess of random things to deal with.

The same goes for your property management chart of accounts. While you may have some miscellaneous income or expenses, you shouldn’t use that category as a catch-all for transactions you just don’t want to deal with at the moment. You’ll end up with a mess that will be tough to reconcile at the end of the month, quarter, or year.

Set Up and Maintain Your Chart of Accounts with Ease

A chart of accounts is a tool every property management business needs. Whether you keep a spreadsheet, use a general program such as QuickBooks, or choose specialized accounting tools from a property management software solution, pick the method and the system that works best for you and stick to it.

Want more insights to deepen your understanding of the Chart of Accounts? Check out our step-by-step resource, Setting Up an Effective Chart of Accounts. It even includes a template to help you get started.

To learn more about Buildium’s accounting tools, sign up for a 14-day free trial, no credit card required, or schedule a demo.

Frequently Asked Questions About Property Management Chart of Accounts

Is There a Free Property Management Chart of Accounts Template?

Yes. The step-by-step resource linked above, Setting Up an Effective Chart of Accounts, includes a template to help you get started.

How Is a Property Management Chart of Accounts Different from a General Business One?

It’s built for property-specific accounts such as rental income, security deposits, and per-property tracking, which general business accounting doesn’t require.

Can I Customize My Chart of Accounts in Property Management Software?

Yes. Platforms such as Buildium come with a standard, industry-specific chart of accounts, and you can add, edit, or deactivate accounts so the structure matches how you operate and report to owners.

Can I Use QuickBooks for a Property Management Chart of Accounts?

You can, though QuickBooks works best for your internal company financials and takes some tweaking to fit the properties you manage.