AppFolio Property Management Accounting Specialist

About Us We own and operate a growing portfolio of commercial and industrial properties, along with related real estate entities. We currently use QuickBooks and have internal bookkeeping support in place, but we are considering transitioning to AppFolio for accounting and property management. We are looking for a USA-based, part-time CPA with strong AppFolio experience who can help us migrate from QuickBooks to AppFolio, oversee accounting accuracy, keep our books tax-ready, assist with monthly reporting, and provide higher-level financial and compliance support. A background in real estate, lending, loan officer work, loan package preparation, lender reporting, or financial data gathering would be a major plus. This is a good fit for someone who enjoys working with entrepreneurial real estate operators and wants a consistent, ongoing, part-time role. Role Summary This is not a basic bookkeeping role. We already have internal bookkeeping support, and we are looking for someone who can review, guide, adjust, organize, and improve our accounting and reporting processes. You will help us: -Transition accounting and property management data from QuickBooks to AppFolio. -Keep multiple real estate entities clean, compliant, and tax-ready. -Provide light controller-level oversight of internal bookkeeping. -Prepare or support quarterly reporting, tax planning, and annual tax filings. -Help gather, organize, and present financial data for lenders, owners, and tax purposes. Key Responsibilities 1. AppFolio / QuickBooks Transition Support Help evaluate and manage the transition from QuickBooks to AppFolio, including: -Reviewing our current QuickBooks setup, chart of accounts, entities, loans, properties, vendors, tenants, and reporting structure. -Advising on the best way to structure AppFolio for our real estate portfolio. -Assisting with data migration from QuickBooks to AppFolio. -Helping clean up historical data before or during the migration. -Setting up consistent coding rules, property/entity tracking, and reporting categories. -Ensuring AppFolio is configured to support accounting, property management, owner reporting, and tax preparation. -Training or guiding internal staff on AppFolio processes and best practices. 2. Compliance, Tax, and Entity Support Review internal books monthly or quarterly to ensure they are accurate, consistent, and tax-ready. Responsibilities include: Reviewing coding accuracy and consistency across entities. -Confirming proper treatment of capital expenditures versus operating expenses. -Reviewing loan, interest, amortization, escrow, reserve, and distribution entries. -Preparing and/or reviewing tax filings for multiple real estate entities, including LLCs and partnerships. -Assisting with the owner’s personal return, including K-1s from related entities. -Preparing extensions, catch-up filings, or amended filings if needed. -Maintaining a shared tax and compliance calendar. -Tracking return due dates, estimated tax payments, annual reports, entity renewals, and other key deadlines. -Proactively requesting missing information before deadlines. -Responding to basic tax notices or correspondence and advising on next steps. 3. Light Controller / Accounting Oversight Provide controller-level review and guidance without handling all day-to-day bookkeeping. Responsibilities include: -Reviewing monthly or quarterly profit and loss statements and balance sheets by entity and property. -Proposing and posting adjusting journal entries, including depreciation, accruals, reclasses, loan entries, and cleanup items. -Identifying unusual items, inconsistencies, or potential accounting issues. -Explaining financial issues clearly in plain English. -Helping clean up legacy accounting issues from prior bookkeeping or CPA work. -Creating simple SOPs and coding guidance for the internal bookkeeper. -Improving close processes so monthly and quarterly reporting becomes smoother and faster. 4. Owner and Management Reporting Prepare clear, practical reporting that gives ownership confidence in the numbers. This may include: -Monthly or quarterly financial summaries. -Property-level and entity-level reporting. -Simple explanations of what changed, what looks unusual, and what needs attention. -Recommendations for cleanup, process improvements, tax planning, or reporting changes. -Regular review calls with ownership or management to walk through results. -Support for quarterly reporting packages. The goal is to give ownership a clear view of performance without requiring them to dig through accounting details. 5. Loan, Lender, and Data Gathering Support A background in lending, loan officer work, loan preparation, or lender reporting is highly preferred. Helpful experience includes: -Preparing financial statements for lender requests. -Gathering and organizing documents for refinancing, acquisitions, renewals, or loan compliance. -Preparing or reviewing rent rolls, operating statements, balance sheets, debt schedules, and property financials. -Supporting DSCR calculations and lender reporting requirements. -Maintaining loan and interest schedules. -Tracking amortization, escrow, reserves, and maturity dates. -Helping organize financial data for banks, lenders, CPAs, attorneys, and ownership. What Success Looks Like Success in this role means: -QuickBooks data is successfully cleaned up and transitioned into AppFolio. -AppFolio is set up in a way that supports accurate accounting, property management, tax preparation, and reporting. -Books are clean, consistent, and tax-ready across all entities. -Returns, extensions, estimated payments, and compliance items are handled on time. -Ownership has a simple, reliable view of property and entity performance. -Internal bookkeeping has clear rules, reducing back-and-forth and rework. -Quarterly reporting is organized, timely, and easy to understand. -Lender and tax reporting requests are handled efficiently and professionally. Qualifications Required: Active CPA license. Based in the United States. Strong hands-on experience with AppFolio. Experience with QuickBooks, especially reviewing or migrating client-prepared books. 5+ years of experience in public accounting, real estate accounting, outsourced controller work, or a similar role. Strong understanding of small business and real estate entities. Experience with LLCs, partnerships, K-1s, and multi-entity accounting. Ability to review, adjust, and guide rather than simply perform data entry. Excellent written and verbal communication. Highly organized and proactive with deadlines, follow-ups, and missing information. Strongly Preferred Real estate investor/operator accounting experience. Commercial or industrial property accounting experience. AppFolio migration or implementation experience. Background as a loan officer, loan processor, lender reporting specialist, or someone who has prepared financial packages for lenders. Experience with debt schedules, DSCR calculations, refinances, lender requests, and property-level financial reporting. Experience creating SOPs, workflows, and accounting processes for small teams. Time Commitment Estimated time commitment: Startup / cleanup / migration phase: Approximately 20+ hours per month for the first 2–3 months, depending on the scope of the QuickBooks cleanup and AppFolio transition. Ongoing steady state: Approximately 10–20 hours per month. We are looking for someone interested in an ongoing working relationship, not just a one-time tax preparation engagement. Compensation Compensation can be structured hourly or as a monthly retainer, depending on experience, scope, and preference. Please include: Your typical hourly rate or monthly retainer range. Your experience with AppFolio. Your experience migrating from QuickBooks to AppFolio. Your CPA background and real estate accounting experience. Any experience with loan preparation, lender reporting, DSCR calculations, or financial data gathering. A brief description of how you typically structure part-time controller or CPA engagements. Ideal Candidate The ideal candidate is a CPA who understands real estate accounting, knows AppFolio well, can help us transition from QuickBooks, and can act as a reliable financial partner to ownership. We are looking for someone who is detail-oriented, proactive, organized, and able to explain accounting and tax matters clearly. You should be comfortable working with internal bookkeeping, reviewing the numbers, identifying problems, recommending fixes, and helping us build a cleaner, more efficient financial process as our portfolio grows.