Marti DenUyl - Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor

Repairs and maintenance are one of the easiest deductions for real estate investors, and also one of the easiest to lose because the receipt got left on the truck dashboard in July and by December it's gone.

It's not a discipline problem. It's just that repairs happen in the moment, usually when you're standing in a driveway with a contractor, and paperwork is the last thing on your mind.

A simple habit can fix this: snap a photo of the receipt the second you get it, before it leaves your hand.

One thing worth knowing though, receipts sometimes show partial card numbers, so skip the regular Camera Roll for these. A receipt app like the one built into QuickBooks keeps it out of your personal photos entirely and routes it straight where it needs to go.

Mid-year is a good time to review your numbers instead of tucking them in a drawer and hoping for the best.

There's one report in QuickBooks that most business owners forget even exists, and late July happens to be a good time to run it. Swipe through and I'll show you why.

Many business owners pour everything into the business and put themselves last. And while that kind of dedication is admirable, it's also a setup for burnout if there's no plan behind it.

Paying yourself consistently and intentionally isn't a reward for success. It's actually part of what makes success sustainable in the first place.

Here's a quick exercise worth doing this week.

Go through your recurring expenses and ask yourself when you last thought about whether each one is actually serving the business right now, not when you signed up for it, but right now.

Businesses change. What you needed two years ago might not be what you need today. And some of those costs have a way of just quietly renewing every month without ever getting a second look.

It doesn't have to be a big audit. Even a 20 minute review can surface something worth reconsidering.

One of the more eye-opening things you can do in QuickBooks is pull an expense comparison by period.

It sounds simple, and it is, but a lot of business owners skip it because everything seems fine on the surface. Then they run the Profit and Loss Comparison report and realize one category has quietly crept up over the last few months in a way that didn't register until they actually looked at it side by side. Dig a little deeper with the Expenses by Vendor Summary and sometimes you can pinpoint exactly where it's coming from.

It's not always a big number. Sometimes it's just a subscription that renewed at a higher rate, or a vendor cost that's been inching up. Small stuff that adds up faster than you'd expect.

If you haven't compared this month's expenses to a few months back lately, it's worth five minutes in QBO this week.

Enjoy the weekend!! 😎🏖💃