REA.co Real Estate Accounting & Tax

Expert Monthly Buildium Bookkeeping Services

Buildium is built for firms that run rentals and HOAs from the same instance, which is exactly what makes the accounting harder to trust. A chart of accounts and bank rec workflow set up for convenience across both portfolios doesn't automatically keep rental trust money and association reserve money answering to the right rules. That gap only shows up where a firm actually runs both books together.

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Property Management Accounting Inside Buildium

What Changes When You Run This Vertical On This Platform

Where it breaks

Rental trust and HOA reserves share one ledger

Buildium runs rental trust accounting and HOA reserve accounting from the same instance, often the same chart of accounts and the same reconciliation cadence. Rental trust funds answer to broker trust statutes: security deposits held per unit, owner draws limited to what that property actually collected. HOA reserve funds answer to different rules: contributions are board restricted and can't be used to cover an operating shortfall. Buildium doesn't force a wall between the two. A reserve transfer coded like an operating assessment, or an owner draw sized like an HOA distribution, posts cleanly and sits unnoticed until an audit or a cash shortage exposes which statute actually applied.

How REA handles it

Separate bank accounts and reconciliations by fund type

REA sets up dedicated bank accounts inside Buildium for rental trust balances and HOA reserve balances, even when one management company runs both. A reserve contribution can't post to an operating assessment code, and a security deposit can't be reachable by an owner draw, because the chart of accounts is built to keep them apart from the start. Each month REA reconciles trust liability to bank balance by property, and reserve balance to its own restricted bank sub-account, separately. Any entry that moves money across fund types gets flagged and needs a matching transfer approved by the board or the owner before it posts.

What we check in your Buildium instance

  • Trust liability balance matches bank balance per property
  • Reserve balance matches its restricted bank sub-account
  • No journal entries cross reserve and operating codes
  • Owner draws capped to that property's collections
  • Security deposits held separate from the operating account
  • Management fees booked only after rent actually collected

The Full Scope of the Engagement

Two Pages Carry the Detail

This page covers what is specific to running Property Management books in Buildium. The complete service scope, process, and pricing conversation live on the two pages below.

The vertical

Property Management Accounting

Full scope, monthly process, property types, FAQs and the team on the account.

See the Property Management page

The platform

Buildium Bookkeeping

What Buildium does well, where its accounting breaks, and how REA works inside your own instance.

See the Buildium page
  1. 01

    Trust Accounting

    Tenant, owner, and security deposit money kept separate, tied out, and ready for a state audit at any time.

  2. 02

    Bank Reconciliation Services

    Every operating, trust, and escrow account reconciled on a fixed schedule, with the variances chased down rather than carried forward.

  3. 03

    Accounts Payable & Receivable

    Vendor invoices coded and paid, tenant receipts applied, management fees taken, and owner distributions cut on time.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

Check Out What Our Clients Have To Say About Us

Property Managers, Investors & Owner Operators

Client story

Day-to-day financial operations

REA and team have been nothing but excellent helping our firm with its day to day financial needs. Their expertise, professionalism, and timeliness have made our lives so much easier. We foresee a long relationship with REA and team.

BCBrian CookOwner Operator

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.

KSKelly StanawayProperty Manager

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.

TSTrevor SmithProperty Manager

230+

Property Accountants

30M+

Commercial Sq. Ft.

Up to 50%

Saved vs In-House

Every month

On-Time Close

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Running Property Management On Something Else?

Same Vertical, Different Platform

Frequently Asked Questions

We manage rentals and HOAs in the same Buildium account. Is that a problem by itself?

Not by itself. Buildium is built to run both from one instance, and plenty of firms do it well. The risk isn't the combination, it's that Buildium doesn't automatically separate the rules each fund type has to follow: rental trust money answers to broker trust statutes, HOA reserves answer to reserve funding rules. If nobody builds that separation into the chart of accounts and the bank accounts, the two can blend without anyone noticing until an audit.

How do you stop HOA reserve funds from covering an operating shortfall in Buildium?

We give each association its own restricted bank sub-account inside Buildium for reserves, separate from its operating account, and code the chart of accounts so a reserve transfer can't post as an operating expense or vice versa. Every month we reconcile the reserve balance against that restricted account on its own, not blended into the association's general cash position, so a shortfall in operating funds shows up as exactly that, not as a draw against reserves nobody approved.

Can you tell from Buildium's reports if a management fee was taken before it was earned?

Yes, but only by checking it directly, Buildium won't flag it on its own. We tie each management fee to the rent collection it's drawn from, so a fee only posts after that property's rent has actually cleared, not on the date it was invoiced or expected. If a fee posts ahead of a collection, it shows up in the reconciliation as a mismatch between what the property collected and what the operating company took, and we catch it there.

Ready for Accurate Property Management Books in Buildium?

Schedule a call with our team to talk through your Buildium instance, what it is doing to your property management financials, and what REA would take on.