Get Rent Manager Real Estate Development Accounting Solutions With REA
Rent Manager was built for stabilized residential and commercial property management, where rent rolls and unit turns generate monthly activity to review. A development project produces almost nothing for two years, then produces everything at once, and whatever entity setup and GL mapping it inherited from a previous property template determines whether those draws, capitalized costs and retainage land correctly in the books.
Developers Accounting Inside Rent Manager
What Changes When You Run This Vertical On This Platform
Where it breaks
Draws and capitalized costs booked like rental income
Rent Manager's chart of accounts and GL structure are built around operating properties: rent charges, expense recoveries, unit-level profit and loss. When a development project is set up as a property in Rent Manager, often because it will eventually convert to one, construction draws get coded through the same AP and receipt workflows as rental income. Soft costs, carrying interest and taxes during construction get expensed against whatever GL mapping was configured for the entity, not evaluated cost by cost. Because a project under construction shows almost no monthly activity to review, these miscodes sit for a year or more before anyone reconciles the capitalization ledger against the draw schedule.
How REA handles it
Reconfigure the entity before the first draw
REA sets the development up as its own entity in Rent Manager, with a capitalization-specific chart of accounts rather than whatever operating property template was already in the system. Draws are mapped to a loan liability account, not income. Soft costs are tagged capitalize or expense at the point of entry, using Rent Manager's custom fields, so the decision is made once per cost instead of revisited at year end. Retainage held on subcontractor draws is tracked as an accrued liability inside Rent Manager itself, not left on a spreadsheet outside the system where nothing reconciles it automatically.
What we check in your Rent Manager instance
- GL mapping not inherited from an operating property
- Draws mapped to loan liability, not income
- Capitalize versus expense decision documented per cost
- Retainage accrued inside Rent Manager, not offline
- Carrying interest ties back to the draw schedule
- Custom fields from prior staff still make sense
The Full Scope of the Engagement
Two Pages Carry the Detail
This page covers what is specific to running Developers books in Rent Manager. The complete service scope, process, and pricing conversation live on the two pages below.
The vertical
Developers Accounting
Full scope, monthly process, property types, FAQs and the team on the account.
See the Developers pageThe platform
Rent Manager Bookkeeping
What Rent Manager does well, where its accounting breaks, and how REA works inside your own instance.
See the Rent Manager 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 Developers On Something Else?
Same Vertical, Different Platform
Frequently Asked Questions
Our development isn't leasing yet. Why does the Rent Manager setup matter this early?
Because the GL decisions made at setup, how draws are coded, whether soft costs default to expense or capitalization, compound silently for the two years before the project produces any activity to review. By the time the property leases up and produces a rent roll, correcting two years of miscoded capitalization means restating the asset basis, not adjusting a current period. Getting the entity structure right before the first draw is cheaper than unwinding it after closeout.
Can Rent Manager actually track retainage properly, or do we need a separate spreadsheet?
Rent Manager can hold retainage as an accrued liability tied to the subcontractor draw, but it does not do this by default. Most Rent Manager files we inherit from developers track retainage on a spreadsheet outside the system because nobody configured the accrual at setup. We build it into the chart of accounts so retainage is visible in the GL and reconciles against the draw schedule, instead of relying on a second document that has to be reconciled by hand at closeout.
We inherited a Rent Manager file from a previous bookkeeper. How do you know what to trust?
We don't assume it. Rent Manager retains years of historical data and custom configurations, and on a development file that usually means GL mappings, custom fields and workflows built by someone who is no longer around to explain them. Before we book anything new, we audit the existing setup: what property type templates were used, how draws and soft costs were historically coded, and where retainage and capitalized interest actually sit in the chart of accounts.
Ready for Accurate Developers Books in Rent Manager?
Schedule a call with our team to talk through your Rent Manager instance, what it is doing to your developers financials, and what REA would take on.