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Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about BrikBooks and real estate bookkeeping.

General

What is BrikBooks?

BrikBooks is a performance bookkeeping service built exclusively for real estate investors. We provide property-level P&Ls for landlords, COGS tracking and project accounting for house flippers, and job costing with draw schedule management for custom home builders. We deliver clean, tax-ready books every month.

Many of our clients wear multiple hats. We’ll build a custom plan that covers both your rental portfolio and your flips. Book a discovery call and we’ll put together a combined quote.
We work with three types of real estate professionals: landlords and rental property investors (1 to 50+ units), house flippers and BRRRR investors, and custom home builders. If you invest in real estate and need clean books, we’re built for you.
We’re headquartered in Rochester Hills, Michigan, but we serve clients in all 50 states. Everything is done virtually — we connect to your bank accounts and accounting software remotely.
No. BrikBooks handles bookkeeping, not tax preparation. However, we deliver your books 100% tax-ready — categorized exactly how the IRS and your CPA need them. We also work directly with your CPA at tax time to ensure a smooth handoff. Most clients report their CPA fees drop significantly because the books are so clean.

Pricing & Billing

How much does BrikBooks cost?
Flat monthly pricing based on your portfolio size and complexity. Landlords with 1-10 properties typically pay $400-800/month. Flippers doing 3-10 flips/year pay $500-1,200/month. Builders doing 3-10 homes/year pay $1,000-2,000/month. No hourly billing, no surprise fees.
No. There are no setup fees, onboarding fees, or hidden charges. If you have a significant backlog (6+ months of unreconciled books), we’ll quote a one-time cleanup project before monthly service begins.
No. Every plan is month-to-month. You can pause or cancel anytime with 30 days notice. We keep clients because the work is good, not because of a contract.
Many of our clients wear multiple hats. We’ll build a custom plan that covers your rental portfolio, your flips, or both. Book a discovery call and we’ll put together a combined quote.
Yes. Clients who pay annually receive a 10% discount. Ask about this on your discovery call.

For Landlords

What does "property-level P&L" mean?
It means every dollar of income and expense is tracked by individual property — not lumped together in one account. You’ll see exactly what 123 Oak Street earns vs. what 456 Elm Avenue costs. This lets you make smarter decisions about rents, maintenance, and which properties to keep or sell.
Every transaction is categorized into the exact IRS Schedule E line items throughout the year — not scrambled together at tax time. When your CPA needs your Schedule E data, it’s already done. Every month.
Yes. We track every contractor payment across all your properties throughout the year and prepare your 1099s automatically. No more spreadsheet chaos or missed filings.
Yes. We generate professional income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow reports formatted for lenders. Multiple clients have used our reports to secure refinancing or new acquisition financing.
That’s what we’re here for. We’ll do a backlog cleanup first — typically 2-3 weeks depending on how far behind things are — then transition you into our monthly service. We’ve cleaned up books that were years behind.
We work with QuickBooks Online as our primary platform, with class tracking for property-level reporting. We also integrate with Buildium, AppFolio, Stessa, and most major property management tools.

For Flippers

How do you track COGS for flips?
We track all costs that constitute Cost of Goods Sold — acquisition price, rehab costs, permits, closing costs, and holding costs — using the appropriate inventory accounting method. This ensures your profit calculation is accurate and your tax return is defensible.
If the IRS classifies you as a “dealer,” your profits are taxed as ordinary income plus self-employment tax — which can be 15-20% more than capital gains rates. We structure your books to support whichever position makes sense for your situation and coordinate with your CPA on the tax strategy.
Yes. BRRRR deals transition from flip accounting to rental accounting, and we handle that seamlessly. The cost basis carries over correctly, and we set up property-level tracking for the rental phase.
Every receipt, contractor payment, and material purchase is assigned to the correct project. Even if you’re running 5 flips simultaneously with 15 different contractors, every dollar goes to the right job. No cost bleed between projects.
That’s exactly what we do. We deliver a project-based P&L for every flip showing your acquisition cost, total rehab spend, holding costs, selling costs, and true net profit. No more guessing

For Builders

What is job costing and why do I need it?
Job costing means tracking every dollar of cost against a specific build — labor, materials, subcontractors, permits, everything. Without it, you don’t know your actual margin on any individual home. With it, you can see exactly which jobs are profitable and where cost overruns happen.
Yes. We track construction draw payments against milestones so you always know what’s been billed, what’s been received, and what’s outstanding. No more manual spreadsheet tracking or missed draws
Work-in-Progress reports show the financial status of every active build — whether you’re overbilled or underbilled relative to the work completed. Banks often require WIP reports for construction lines of credit. Your lender will love getting these from us.

Yes. When a homeowner upgrades finishes, adds a room, or changes the scope, we track the change order, update the job cost, and ensure it’s billed correctly. No more upgrades falling through the cracks.

Absolutely. We set up separate job tracking for each type. Spec homes and custom builds have different accounting treatment, and we handle both correctly.
Yes. We can do both percentage-of-completion and completed-contract methods depending on what your CPA recommends for your tax situation. We’ll set up whichever approach is right for you.

Getting Started

How quickly can I get started?
Most clients are fully onboarded within 5-7 business days. If you have a backlog of unreconciled books, cleanup typically takes 2-4 weeks depending on volume. We start with a free 15-minute discovery call.
Read-only access to your bank accounts and credit cards, login to your current accounting software (if any), and any property/project lists you have. We handle the rest.
That’s completely fine — and more common than you’d think. We’ll set up QuickBooks Online for you, connect your accounts, and build your chart of accounts from scratch. We actually prefer a clean start over inheriting a messy system.
It’s a free, no-pressure 15-minute conversation. We’ll learn about your portfolio, discuss your pain points, and explain exactly what clean books would look like for your situation. You’ll get a custom quote with no obligation.