Expert Appfolio Construction Bookkeeping For Companies & Contractors
AppFolio was built for portfolios of rental units, not jobs with cost codes and a contract value. A construction company running its books there is asking a leasing and trust accounting platform to also produce percentage-of-completion numbers, and the platform has no native place to put a WIP schedule, retainage, or change order status. Every job-cost figure it reports has to be built by hand, every period, or it silently reverts to cash basis.
Construction Accounting Inside AppFolio
What Changes When You Run This Vertical On This Platform
Where it breaks
Job cost and WIP live outside the ledger
AppFolio has no job cost module and no over/underbilling schedule. A property record can hold rent and expenses for a single job, but nothing forces percent complete to reconcile against percent billed. Bookkeepers post vendor bills to a job's cost codes and owner draws as billings, and the GL balance looks like profit. It is not. Without a WIP calculation run against the actual schedule of values, that number is cash collected minus cash spent. It surfaces at tax time or bank covenant review, when the CPA asks for a WIP schedule that was never built and a full year has to be reconstructed job by job.
How REA handles it
REA builds the WIP schedule inside AppFolio
REA works inside the client's own AppFolio instance with accountant access, not a side spreadsheet nobody reconciles to the ledger. Each job gets its own retainage payable and retainage receivable accounts instead of a balance buried in AP or AR. Every period, REA runs a WIP schedule against the actual schedule of values, books the over or underbilling adjustment directly to the GL, and holds change order costs in a suspense account until the change order is approved, so job cost never runs ahead of contract value. Equipment purchases get flagged for capitalization before they post to a job's cost code.
What we check in your AppFolio instance
- WIP schedule reconciled to schedule of values
- Retainage payable and receivable tracked by job
- Change order costs held until approval documented
- Equipment purchases coded to fixed assets, not jobs
- Property chart of accounts set up consistently
- Bank feed postings matched to each job's draws
The Full Scope of the Engagement
Two Pages Carry the Detail
This page covers what is specific to running Construction books in AppFolio. The complete service scope, process, and pricing conversation live on the two pages below.
The vertical
Construction Accounting
Full scope, monthly process, property types, FAQs and the team on the account.
See the Construction pageThe platform
AppFolio Bookkeeping
What AppFolio does well, where its accounting breaks, and how REA works inside your own instance.
See the AppFolio page- 01
Trust Accounting
Tenant, owner, and security deposit money kept separate, tied out, and ready for a state audit at any time.
- 02
Bank Reconciliation Services
Every operating, trust, and escrow account reconciled on a fixed schedule, with the variances chased down rather than carried forward.
- 03
Accounts Payable & Receivable
Vendor invoices coded and paid, tenant receipts applied, management fees taken, and owner distributions cut on time.
- 04
Bookkeeping Cleanup & Catch-Up
Months or years of unreconciled books diagnosed, corrected, and brought current so the numbers you report are numbers you trust.
- 05
CAM Reconciliation
Common area maintenance pools built from the lease terms, reconciled against actuals, and billed or credited with a defensible tenant statement.
Experts In All Property Types
Residential, commercial and everything in between. The asset class changes what the books have to prove, and our teams are staffed accordingly.
- Single-Family
- Multifamily
- Student Housing
- Affordable Housing
- Community AssociationsSee the page
- CommercialSee the page
Check Out What Our Clients Have To Say About Us
Property Managers, Investors & Owner Operators
Onboarding and responsiveness
Real Estate Accounting truly is a special company. They helped as if they were a part of our company, with the concern and caution as an employee would have, but even more. They quickly ascertained our needs and developed an effective team to help with our accounting needs. They were extremely responsive and always accurate. I would recommend their services to anyone who needs help with their property management accounting.
Smaller portfolio, still looked after
Adam the owner took a personal interest in my situation and was willing to work with me to see if his company was a good fit. I may be too small for them but I would highly recommend them to anyone considering a bookkeeper for their property management business.
Came from a bookkeeper who did not know real estate
Following a series of erroneous financials from my previous bookkeeper, who lacked expertise in real estate, it's been truly remarkable to receive not only accurate financials on a consistent basis but also proactive advice without prompting. The REA team is a game-changer in real estate accounting!
230+
Property Accountants
30M+
Commercial Sq. Ft.
Up to 50%
Saved vs In-House
Every month
On-Time Close
Running Construction On Something Else?
Same Vertical, Different Platform
- BuildiumConstruction bookkeeping in Buildium
- EntrataConstruction bookkeeping in Entrata
- QuickBooksConstruction bookkeeping in QuickBooks
- Rent ManagerConstruction bookkeeping in Rent Manager
- YardiConstruction bookkeeping in Yardi
- MRIConstruction bookkeeping in MRI
- RealPageConstruction bookkeeping in RealPage
Frequently Asked Questions
We use AppFolio for our rental properties and now we're building some of them ourselves. Can it handle job costing for construction the way our old accounting system did?
Not natively. AppFolio can track income and expenses against a property record, but it has no job cost module, no schedule of values, and no built-in percentage-of-completion calculation. Cost codes have to be built into the chart of accounts by hand, and the WIP schedule that turns those costs into an accurate profit number has to be run outside the system each period. REA sets that structure up inside your existing AppFolio instance and runs the WIP schedule as part of the close.
How does retainage work in AppFolio? We're holding back 10 percent on subcontractor pay apps and I don't know where that shows up.
By default, it doesn't show up anywhere useful. If retainage isn't broken out, it sits inside the AP balance as an unpaid bill, indistinguishable from a bill you're just slow to pay, and retainage you're owed sits inside AR the same way. REA sets up separate retainage payable and retainage receivable accounts for each job and reconciles the balance to the retained percentage in the contract, so the amount held back is visible and matches what the subcontractor or owner actually expects.
Our bookkeeper reconciles AppFolio every month and the numbers still don't match what our project managers think each job is worth. Why?
Because reconciliation and job costing are two different jobs. Reconciling AppFolio to the bank confirms the cash moved correctly, it says nothing about whether a job is over or underbilled relative to how much work is actually done. Project managers are estimating percent complete in the field, the ledger is recording cash and AP activity, and nothing connects the two unless someone runs that comparison on purpose. REA runs it every period and books the adjustment, so the GL and the field estimate stay in agreement.
Ready for Accurate Construction Books in AppFolio?
Schedule a call with our team to talk through your AppFolio instance, what it is doing to your construction financials, and what REA would take on.