Diane is very competent and dependable. She has been working in the bookkeeping, finance, and records area for many years and does great work. Her services are recommended.
Call (417) 323-2629 or have me call you.
I’m Diane Jones, a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor. I’ve kept books for more than thirty years, over twenty of them as the accounting manager for one company. Property managers kept coming to me from bookkeepers who’d never seen a trust ledger. Management companies are the clients I most want to work with. I work from the Springfield, Missouri area, with property managers anywhere in the United States, over Zoom and in QuickBooks Online, and in person around Springfield when that helps.
Trust accounting and your corporate books, kept separate
Commingling is the most common mess I find in a property manager’s file. Rent comes in, repairs go out, the management fee stays wherever it landed, and by December nobody can say how much of the bank balance belongs to the owners. Your management agreements say owner money isn’t yours until you’ve earned it.
Owner funds live in their own bank account with a liability account for each owner, so money you’re holding always shows up as money you owe. Management fees, leasing fees, and markups post to your corporate books as income when you earn them, and not before. Every month I reconcile both sides. The owner liability accounts should total the trust bank balance to the penny. When they don’t, I find out why.
Owner statements your owners can read
An owner statement should say what came in, what went out, and where the rest went, without a phone call. I set your books up so the monthly owner packet comes straight out of QuickBooks Online instead of a midnight spreadsheet.
- Rent collected per property, matched to actual bank deposits
- Expenses paid on the owner’s behalf, categorized and documented
- The management fee calculation shown plainly, per your agreement
- A distribution that matches the transfer that hit the owner’s bank
When the statements match the bank every month, owners quit calling to ask. It all runs as part of my monthly bookkeeping service, on the same schedule every month.
Rent rolls and per-property tracking
QuickBooks Online has two tools most property managers never get set up right: classes and locations. I use them so every property carries its own profit and loss, down to the door if you want it that fine. Your rent roll reconciles against the actual deposits. You’ll see the fourplex paying for itself and the little house eating money.
I wrote up a rental property chart of accounts if you want to see how I structure these, and you’re welcome to borrow it. If you hold rentals of your own alongside the management business, the same setup carries over. I cover that on my real estate bookkeeping page.
Missouri security deposits
A security deposit is a liability from the day it hits your account. It’s never income, no matter how long it sits. Missouri generally gives landlords 30 days after a tenant moves out to return the deposit or send an itemized statement of what was kept. Other states set their own deadlines and itemization rules, and the bookkeeping works the same either way. Your attorney or CPA tells you how the rules apply. My part is the records.
That means one liability account for deposits held, tracked by tenant and property. When a tenant moves out, you can see the exact amount you’re holding, what you’re keeping and why, and what check to cut. No digging through two years of bank statements.
Working with your PM software
If you run AppFolio, Buildium, or Rent Manager, keep running it. Those systems handle leases, maintenance tickets, and tenant portals, and I’m not trying to pry them out of your hands. My job is the accounting behind them. I reconcile your software’s exports into QuickBooks Online and tie the deposits to the bank feed. The trust ledger ties to the trust account, and the corporate P&L shows the fees you actually earned.
If part of what you manage is nightly rentals, that side has its own quirks, from platform payouts to the Branson tourism tax. I cover those on my short-term rental bookkeeping page.
How pricing works
Monthly bookkeeping is a flat monthly fee, quoted in writing after a free review of your file. For a management company, the quote comes from your door count, how many bank and trust accounts I reconcile, and how many transactions move in an average month. If the file needs a cleanup before monthly service can start, that gets its own fixed project quote. The pricing page walks through what moves the number, and you get the price in writing before I touch anything.
Reviews
5 out of 5 stars
5 out of 5 stars
What people say about working with me
Accurate, detailed and personable; three of many qualities that Diane brings to the table every single day. There is no one I would trust more than Diane with my bookkeeping.
Questions
Questions I hear a lot
Do you replace my property management software?
No. AppFolio, Buildium, and Rent Manager are good at what they do. Keep whichever one runs your day. I work from the exports those systems produce and reconcile the books against what your software reports.
Can you do books per property?
Yes. I use QuickBooks Online classes and locations so every property has its own profit and loss. You’ll see which properties make money and which ones don’t, and your owners get clean numbers for their buildings alone.
How do you price property management bookkeeping?
It comes from your door count, how many bank and trust accounts I reconcile, and how many transactions move in an average month. Send me three to six months of statements and after a free call you get a flat monthly fee in writing, before any work starts. The pricing page explains what moves the number.
Do you handle 1099s for my vendors?
Yes. I track your plumbers, roofers, lawn crews, and other vendors all year, then prepare and e-file the 1099s in January. That one is an add-on service, billed per form, rather than part of the monthly fee. No last-minute scramble for W-9s. The owners’ 1099-MISCs come out of the same trust books, and my 1099 guide for property managers covers both.
Do you do my taxes?
Your CPA files the return. What they get is a reconciled, tax-ready file with the trust side and the corporate side already separated, and I’ll send it to them directly if you’d rather I did. If you don’t have a CPA, I work alongside several firms and I’ll introduce you. My year-end checklist for property managers walks through what they need.
Do you work with management companies outside Missouri?
Yes. I work with property managers anywhere in the United States. The books live in QuickBooks Online, we meet over Zoom or by phone, and in person is easy if you’re around Springfield.
A Form 990 on extension is due November 16, 2026. Your CPA needs reconciled, fund-level books to finish it, and that’s the part I do.
Filed an extension for 2025? Those returns are due October 15, 2026. Your CPA needs a reconciled 2025 file before then, and the sooner I see it the more room we both have.
1099s for your subs and vendors are due February 1, 2027, and they’re built from a full year of entered payments. If 2026 is behind, the last weeks of the year are the time to catch it up.
1099s for your subs and vendors are due February 1, 2027, the same day your payroll provider sends W-2s. If the 2026 books aren’t entered yet, that’s the first thing I’d fix.
S corporation and partnership returns are due March 15, 2027. Your CPA needs a reconciled 2026 file to file on time.
Individual returns are due April 15, 2027. A reconciled 2026 file is what your CPA needs to file, or to file the extension with real numbers.
Talk to me
Every month, you’ll see what belongs to your owners and what’s yours.
I’ll keep the trust and operating books separate and make sure your owner statements tie to the bank. You’ll have the price in writing before I start.
A Form 990 on extension is due November 16, 2026. Your CPA needs reconciled, fund-level books to finish it, and that’s the part I do.
Filed an extension for 2025? Those returns are due October 15, 2026. Your CPA needs a reconciled 2025 file before then, and the sooner I see it the more room we both have.
1099s for your subs and vendors are due February 1, 2027, and they’re built from a full year of entered payments. If 2026 is behind, the last weeks of the year are the time to catch it up.
1099s for your subs and vendors are due February 1, 2027, the same day your payroll provider sends W-2s. If the 2026 books aren’t entered yet, that’s the first thing I’d fix.
S corporation and partnership returns are due March 15, 2027. Your CPA needs a reconciled 2026 file to file on time.
Individual returns are due April 15, 2027. A reconciled 2026 file is what your CPA needs to file, or to file the extension with real numbers.
I’ll call you back within 15 to 20 minutes during the day.