Q: I have a small vacation rental property. Should I create an Item List of the individual Rental Units?

A: In QuickBooks, an item is anything that your company buys, sells, or resells in the course of doing business. Items help you fill out forms quickly as it prefills a description and can prefill rates. In QuickBooks, items can be categorized as the following:

• Service: services you charge for or purchase, in this case, Rent

Items handle the behind the scenes accounting. By linking an account to each item, the amounts will automatically post to the appropriate accounts. Create a Service Item type “Rent” and link it an Income Account Rental Income. Open Lists on the Menu Bar and select Item List. Create a new service item. Type Rental Income in the Account field and press the Tab key.

The following window appears. Set up a new income account for rental income. Save & Close all of the windows.

When invoicing tenants, select Rent as the Item. Rent received will automatically post to the Rental Income account.