Top 6 Common Mistakes Real Estate Professionals Make With Their Bookkeeping
Beth Longo, Bookkeeper for businesses in the Trades
Owner at TradePro Bookkeeping & Consulting - Helping small businesses in the Trades take the guesswork out of their finances
Whether you’re self-employed or have a PREC, proper record-keeping is essential to running your business efficiently, effectively, and compliantly.
Proper bookkeeping is more than just recording expenses for tax time. It allows you to have a full understanding of your business, which allows you to make informed decisions when it comes to:
Unfortunately, running a Real Estate business is an incredibly time-consuming process.? Between prospecting, meeting with clients, showing houses, and keeping up with paperwork, the financial side of the business can fall to the wayside.?
We’ve compiled a list of common mistakes Real Estate Professionals make with their bookkeeping, in an effort to make it easier and get ahead of any financial troubles.
Not separating Business and Personal expenses
All too often, we see Realtors mixing their personal and business spending from the same accounts and credit cards. Regardless of your professional situation, you should absolutely open up a separate bank account to have your commissions deposited into (plus a second tax savings account - see below), and a separate credit card.
This business bank account should be used strictly for business expenses - no “emergency” personal spending. This will make your bookkeeping significantly easier for you or your bookkeeper to maintain, which saves you time and money. It’s a no-brainer.
Plus, in the case of an audit, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) will have much less scrutiny if they’re looking at pristine records and can tell that personal spending is kept entirely separate from business.
Over-using the Meals & Entertainment expense category
Sorry, I know this is a touchy one. We’ve heard every reason in the book for why your trip to Starbucks or Timmie’s is a business expense, but the bottom line is: if you’re not meeting with a client in that drive-through line, you’re probably out-of-luck in the case of an audit.
Unfortunately, just because you’re running around all day doesn’t mean you can expense the burger you had for lunch.
However, you can absolutely write off (at 50%) the meal you paid for by taking your clients out for dinner, meeting with prospective clients, or business associates.? You just need to be able to reasonably justify that the meal or form of entertainment was incurred for the purposes of earning income.? You should keep record of the person being entertained, and any pertinent information to further prove your expense.
Not putting aside HST for the CRA
It’s easy to receive a large commission deposit and get excited about all the money you’ve received. Unfortunately, unless your brokerage is withholding tax for you (very few do this), a portion of this money is not yours. You are responsible for collecting and remitting sales tax (HST in Ontario), and the money is never yours to keep.
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The easiest way to do this is to open a savings account that is linked to your business account. Don’t worry, Savings accounts are usually free.? As soon as you get a commission cheque deposited, proactively move 13% of that money into the savings account and leave it until it’s time to file HST.
Not properly tracking mileage
Real Estate Professionals are constantly driving all over the place, and you’re able to write off so many expenses related to your car and driving. However, none of these expenses are valid if you haven’t kept a mileage log.? It is not enough to make an estimate of your business driving percentage.
The CRA requires you to track ALL of your driving (know how much total driving you do in a year), and keep a log of the driving done for business. Your log must include:
You only have to maintain a full log for one year to establish a base for your usage.? Then after one year, you can use a three-month log to forecast usage for the rest of the year, as long as the usage is within a 10% range of the first full year.?
Of course, this doesn’t need to be a paper log. We’re in the 21st century - there are apps that make it super easy.
Not using an accounting software
For some, it’s tempting to want to track their expenses on an Excel spreadsheet, but this leaves so much room for error, and doesn’t provide any intel on your business.?
With modern accounting software, you can link your business accounts, upload copies of receipts and bills (hello pristine record-keeping which the CRA LOVES), run reports to see how your business is comparing year-over-year/month-over-month, easily track HST to maximize your credits, run payroll for yourself or any employees, and so much more.
For the minimal cost of the software, it’s almost guaranteed you will save that much or more by implementing a system, and using it to its full advantage.
Trying to do it all themselves
Outsourcing your bookkeeping can seem like an unnecessary expense, but did you really get into Real Estate to fiddle with receipts and finances? Not likely.
In the same way you’d never recommend for someone to buy or sell a house without an agent who cares, don’t try to run your business without the help of someone who loves numbers and lives for reports.?
You probably already outsource your advertising, your photography, your staging (and if you don’t…you should).? Why not add a bookkeeper to the list? Then you can focus on what makes you money - getting out in front of clients.