We know that monitoring your expenses and keeping a close eye on your budget can be time-consuming and a bit daunting. With all of the work already piled up on your desk – on top of the open houses that need to be done – you might feel overwhelmed to sift through the purchases you have been making and really look at where your money is going.
But keeping track of your money is critical for the health of your real estate business, and even more so for your personal sanity. Many banks have already integrated personal budgeting sheets directly into their online banking platforms, but some of them don’t have the features that other, more robust financial apps are decorated with.
That is why we have compiled a short list of our favorite budgeting and finance apps to help you stay on top of your personal and business goals. These apps help you to monitor, save and then re-invest your money in the right areas to help your real estate business grow. Check them out below and take control of your financial future with a click of a button.
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MINT
Mint makes the top of the list when it comes to managing finances because it is one of the best-known budgeting apps. Mint comes with an array of features like many other budgeting apps, but what sets it apart is its no-nonsense user interface. It has all of the budget tools lined up front and center when you log in – with Mint, you can’t ignore taking care of your finances!
Mint categorizes transactions from your credit and debit cards and tracks them within a budget that you can customize to your needs. Get alerts when you go over budget to help you stay on top of your spending, or track your overall cash flow to help you get a better grasp on where your money is going.
Price: Totally Free!
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RecieptBank
RecieptBank takes it a little bit further and might be more useful for new entrepreneurs building up their real estate business. When starting to build a business, the line between personal and business expenses can get a little blurry. Receipt bank helps with that by allowing you to take pictures of your receipts with your phone’s camera to effortlessly keep track of all of your expenses.
What’s more, the app uses optical character recognition to pull vital information from your records such as supplier name, date, description, cost, and more! Then, it stores it in its data bank for you to look back at whenever you want. Better yet, it saves a digital copy of the receipt! You can do your own bookkeeping with ReceiptBank and save on getting an accountant to do the work for you.
Price: Free trial included, plans start at $15/month.
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Zoho Books
If your small real estate business is growing and you can already envision yourself managing a brokerage, Zoho Books might be the accounting software you need to help you reach new heights. The smart software allows you to manage your bank and credit card accounts, accept online payments, and track your invoices and expenses.
Zoho Books includes more organizational elements compared to other apps by allowing you to break up reports into specific projects as well as manage customers and suppliers. If you have different people helping you in your business, you can assign roles to various users (administrators, staff, and so on) and prepare financial reports.
Price: Free trial included, plans start at $9/month.
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Quicken
Quicken might be one of the more famous accounting software to manage your finances and keep track of your home and business expenses. On top of organizing all your financial information in one place, it identifies where you spend your money the most, offers reminders to pay your bills, and helps you set up a budget.
Set budget, retirement or debt reduction plans and Quicken helps you track your money to meet them. In addition, the program helps you find tax-deductible business expenses and includes direct exports to your TurboTax account. Quicken is for serious real estate professionals looking for a robust system that can handle the nitty and gritty of their finances – you can add on a property management software or services that handle tax preparation, merchant, and payroll services.
Price: 1-time purchase of $99.99 for Home & Business plan
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Property Fixer
A must-have for real estate agents, Property Fixer allows investors to calculate the potential profit for any short sale, rehab property, or foreclosure. In real estate, you always want to be on top of the best deals in your area – Property Fixer lets you do this through their property evaluation app.
All you have to do is upload images of a potential property, then proceed to input the address, size, description, price, holding costs, and improvement expense of the property. Then, the app works its magic and analyzes your potential profit! It’s easy and fun to do if you are obsessed with finding a good deal! Although this one might fall outside of the scope of budgeting your personal and business finances, it sure is useful to project the potential revenue of a future sale!
Price: Standard plan is free, regular plan starts at $19.99
These finance and budgeting apps are sure to help you run a more efficient real estate business! If you are looking for more mobile hacks to make your real-estate business an even more seamless process, check out New Venture Escrow solutions to go mobile with your escrow!
