setting up account/workflow for rental business

[mike marcott]

Greetings,

Trying to get started on the "right foot".   

Background:

- 3 different rental properites 

- computer consulting business

- personal accounts

Currently using a custom excel spreadsheet to track monthly income / expenses across each rental property to provide reports for :

• taxes (Schedule E)
• bank (P/L , Net Worth, Rent Rolls)
• my own informational purpose (P/L monthly, annually per property)

 I use personal credits cards to pay for various computer things and rental things, then pay using business funds (also collect rewards).  This isn't tracked easily, meaning I have to sift through statements , various apps to clasify at the end of the month into the spreasheet.  Thinking this can be automated by CSV imports somewhat.

Goal 

- replicate the above with hledger, get off MSFT, support FOSS.

Question / sticking point

- best account structure for business accounts to be setup - I've looked at sm joyful workflow 2025 and am leaning towards that structure.

-  process (entry examples) to transfer money from personal accounts to pay for business expenses.

- any suggestions based on your experience?

Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post.

Mike

[Simon Michael]

> any suggestions based on your experience?

Just my usual right now: break it down into smaller steps, and improve incrementally, guided by your real-world needs. Eg you could start with the personal finances. Or you could draft some accounts and journal entries for each of those areas in separate files, and figure out how (if) to combine them later. As things get more concrete it becomes easier to figure out / help with specific entries etc.