Property Management & Real Estate Bookkeeping
Tenant deposits, owner funds, and commission income don't belong in the same bucket as operating revenue. We keep them separate and current — not sorted out once a year at tax time."
Owner Money and Operating Money Are Not the Same Money.
A property manager holds tenant deposits and owner funds that don't belong to the business, alongside operating revenue that does. A real estate agent earns commission income with no withholding and no employer covering the gaps. Both need books that keep those categories separate and current — not sorted out once a year when it's time to file.
Trust funds aren't revenue
Security deposits and owner draws sit in trust, not in the P&L. Mixing them — even briefly, even by accident — is the single most common and most serious bookkeeping error in property management.
Every property has its own ledger
Rent collected, expenses paid, and the owner's net all have to be tracked per property, not blended into one company-wide number that tells nobody anything useful.
Commission income has no safety net
An agent's commission arrives with nothing withheld — no taxes set aside, no employer match. Without a system, the gap between a good month and a tax bill is easy to miss until it's due.
We're not a real estate brokerage and we don't hold or control trust funds. We reconcile the records — rent rolls, security deposit ledgers, owner disbursements, and commission income — built from real experience with a property management client and an individual real estate agent, not from a generic template.
Built on the same back office we run for every client: QuickBooks ProAdvisor Elite, BBB accredited since 2023, weekly bookkeeping rather than a once-a-year reconstruction.
What We Handle
Your property management software or MLS runs the operational side. This is everything that happens once rent, deposits, and commissions have to be sorted into the right ledger.
Rent roll reconciled to deposits
Per property, per unit, every monthRent collected matched against what actually hit the bank, by property and by unit, so a late payment or a short deposit is visible the month it happens instead of surfacing at year-end reconciliation.
Security deposit trust ledger, tracked by tenant
Kept separate from operating funds — alwaysTenant deposits reconciled against the trust bank account by tenant, kept structurally separate from operating revenue. We don't hold or control the trust account — that stays with the broker or property manager — we reconcile the ledger against it.
Owner disbursements, calculated correctly
Rent minus expenses minus fee, by ownerOwner draws calculated per property — rent collected, less approved expenses, less management fee — and disbursement statements that an owner can actually reconcile against their own records.
CAM and expense recovery
For commercial and mixed-use portfoliosCommon area maintenance charges allocated and reconciled against actual shared expenses, so recovery billing reflects what was actually spent rather than an estimate nobody's checked in a year.
Commission income for individual agents
1099 income, tracked with no employer safety netCommission income recorded by transaction, brokerage splits and fees tracked separately from gross commission, and a portion set aside against the estimated tax bill that comes with 1099 income and no withholding.
Vendor AP and 1099 tracking
Contractors, vendors, and owner-paid subcontractorsVendor invoices tracked and paid on terms, with 1099 status tracked through the year rather than reconstructed in January. See accounts payable & receivable.
What we don't do: we are not a real estate brokerage and we don't hold, control, or have signing authority over any trust account. Trust funds stay with the licensed broker or property manager, exactly as required. What we do is reconcile the ledgers and records that sit alongside that trust account.
Four Patterns We See Constantly
None of these are exotic. They're what happens when trust funds, owner money, and operating revenue get tracked in one blended set of books instead of three separate ones.
A Deposit Isn't Revenue Until It's Forfeited. Until Then, It's Somebody Else's Money.
When a tenant deposit gets booked into the operating account instead of a separate trust ledger, the business looks like it has cash it doesn't actually own — and untangling it later is far harder than tracking it correctly from day one.
Twelve Properties, Twelve Owners, One Spreadsheet Recalculated Every Month.
Rent minus expenses minus fee is simple math for one property. Run it manually across a growing portfolio, every month, and small errors compound into owner statements that don't match what actually happened.
Nobody Withholds Anything From a Commission Check.
A strong closing month feels like a strong month, full stop — until the estimated tax payment comes due and a chunk of it was never set aside. That's a bookkeeping gap, not a bad year.
If Nobody Reconciles CAM to Actual Spend, Somebody's Overpaying — and It's Usually Not Caught Until a Tenant Asks.
Common area charges billed against a stale estimate instead of actual expenses either shortchange the owner or overcharge tenants, and either direction is a problem once someone finally checks the math.
What's Included
This runs as part of a full back office rather than as a menu of billable extras — because trust ledgers, owner statements, and commission tracking all touch the same books and shouldn't be priced separately.
Every week
The work that keeps the books current.- Rent collected reconciled to deposits, by property
- Security deposit trust ledger reconciled, by tenant
- Vendor invoices tracked and paid on terms
- Commission income recorded by closed transaction
- Brokerage splits and fees tracked separately from gross
Every month
What you actually see.- Owner disbursement statements, by property
- CAM recovery reconciled against actual expenses
- Trust ledger balance versus trust bank balance
- Estimated tax set-aside tracking for commission income
- 1099 tracking for vendors and contractors, current all year
See your back office for the full department this runs inside of, or clean-up bookkeeping if the books are already behind and need to be brought current first.
Property Managers, Agents, and Everything In Between
The pattern is the same everywhere trust funds, owner money, or 1099 commission income have to be tracked separately from ordinary operating revenue.
Property management companies
Multi-property portfolios where rent, deposits, owner draws, and vendor payments all have to stay correctly separated, property by property.
Individual real estate agents
Commission income with no withholding, brokerage splits, and marketing and mileage expenses that need to be tracked all year, not reconstructed at tax time.
Small landlords & multi-unit owners
A handful of properties still need per-property tracking and correctly separated deposit funds — the scale is smaller but the discipline is the same.
Mixed portfolios
Property managers who are also licensed agents, or agents who hold rental property themselves — both income types tracked correctly in the same set of books. See multi-entity bookkeeping.
Property Management & Real Estate Bookkeeping — Answered
The questions we actually get from property managers and agents.
What does a bookkeeper actually do for a property management company?
Reconciles the rent roll against actual deposits by property, reconciles the security deposit trust ledger by tenant against the trust bank account, calculates owner disbursements after expenses and management fees, reconciles CAM recovery against actual shared expenses, and manages vendor accounts payable and 1099 tracking.
It doesn't include holding or controlling trust funds — that stays with the licensed broker or property manager. We reconcile the ledger; we don't hold the account.
Do you hold or have signing authority over trust accounts?
No. Bulverde Business Solutions is not a real estate brokerage and is not TREC-licensed. Tenant security deposits and owner trust funds are legally required to be held and controlled by the licensed broker or property manager, not by us. We reconcile the trust ledger against the broker's own trust account bank records — a records function, not a custodial one.
How do you track owner disbursements across multiple properties?
Each property is tracked as its own ledger: rent collected, expenses paid against that property, and the management fee, netting to an owner disbursement calculated the same way every month. Owners receive a statement that reconciles against what actually happened at their property, not a blended company-wide number.
What's different about bookkeeping for a real estate agent versus a property manager?
An agent's core issue is 1099 commission income with no tax withholding — recording commission by transaction, tracking brokerage splits and marketing or mileage expenses, and setting aside estimated tax throughout the year. A property manager's core issue is trust-fund separation across a portfolio of properties. We handle both, and some clients need both at once.
Do you handle CAM reconciliation for commercial properties?
Yes. Common area maintenance charges are reconciled against actual shared expenses rather than left on a stale estimate, so recovery billing reflects what was actually spent.
Can you help a real estate agent set aside money for estimated taxes?
Yes. We track commission income as it's earned and calculate a set-aside amount based on your estimated tax situation, so the number due each quarter isn't a surprise. We don't file the estimated payments or prepare the return — that's a CPA function — but we keep the number visible and current.
Are you a CPA firm or a real estate brokerage?
Neither. Bulverde Business Solutions is a bookkeeping and financial operations firm. We are not a CPA firm and don't prepare tax returns, and we are not a real estate brokerage and don't hold or control trust funds. We keep the books and reconcile the ledgers; your CPA files, and your broker holds the trust account.
Do you work with multi-property or multi-entity portfolios?
Yes. Multiple properties or entities need books that consolidate into one picture without losing which property produced what. See multi-entity bookkeeping for how that's structured.
What We Are, and What We Are Not
Bulverde Business Solutions is a bookkeeping and financial operations firm based in Bulverde, Texas.
We are not a real estate brokerage and not TREC-licensed. We do not hold, control, or have signing authority over any trust account. Tenant security deposits and owner trust funds remain with the licensed broker or property manager at all times; we reconcile the ledger against those records.
We are also not a CPA firm. We do not prepare tax returns, file estimated payments, render tax opinions, or perform any audit, review, attest, or assurance engagement.
What we do is bookkeeping: reconciling rent rolls, security deposit ledgers, owner disbursements, CAM recovery, and commission income into books a property manager or agent can actually make decisions from — and reporting on it monthly.
Ready to See Your Real Numbers, By Property?
Start a conversation. We'll look at how your books currently separate trust funds, owner disbursements, and commission income, and tell you plainly what's working and what isn't.
(830) 666-0417 · Bulverde, Texas · Not a CPA firm. Not a real estate brokerage. We don't hold trust funds.
