Top 3 Benefits of Using Apps with QuickBooks Online

3 min readSep 18, 2023

One of the powers of QuickBooks Online is its ability to seamlessly connect with dozens of third-party apps. QuickBooks Online is a great overall tool for accounting and financial management, but it can fall short when it comes to operational management and report viewing capabilities, especially in commercial real estate businesses.

Explore the benefits

This is why using third-party apps in conjunction with QuickBooks Online can bolster transparency and financial success in your commercial real estate organization. Here are three benefits of using apps with QuickBooks Online that you might not have considered.

#1: Expanded Finance Management

The first benefit of using apps with QuickBooks Online is access to financial management tailored to commercial real estate businesses. For example, it can be difficult to manage global real estate finances through QuickBooks Online alone. Combining QuickBooks’ integration capabilities with QuickBooks Online with programs designed for CREs allows you to view your business on both global and granular levels.

Platforms, like STRATAFOLIO, connect with QuickBooks Online to streamline your financial management from a single source. With these platforms, you can create customized cash flow dashboards and easily track loan spending, which are two fundamental pieces of running a successful commercial real estate company. Here are a few ways that apps can provide your commercial real estate business with expanded finance management:

Rent Roll –Apps designed around CRE’s needs will allow you to track occupancy by unit, export rent roll reports to share with investors, and keep your business on track to reach its financial goals.
Unlimited Users — As your team begins to grow, you don’t have to worry about bottlenecks in your financial management when pairing apps with QuickBooks Online.

#2: Greater Operational Control

Operational control can make or break commercial real estate businesses. Pairing QuickBooks Online’s seamless integration with apps designed for CREs can help your organization properly control operations. CREs can’t easily track upcoming lease escalations, monitor COIs, or reconcile CAMs in QuickBooks Online.

Outsourcing these functions to third-party apps allows your business to maintain operational control, while still leveraging the other benefits QuickBooks Online has to offer. Here are a few more ways that apps can provide you with more operational control:

Tenant Portal — Apps for commercial real estate organizations not only provide your organization with expanded operational control, but your tenants can also benefit. Tenants can view their current and previous leases and pay rent from the portal, improving your cash flow while reducing your tenant management team’s burden.
ACH Payments — Instead of waiting weeks for a check to come in the mail, your commercial real estate company can partner with an app that facilitates ACH payments. This lowers your administrative burden and makes it easy for tenants to pay their rent.

#3: Improved Asset Management

QuickBooks Online doesn’t have extensive capabilities when it comes to asset management. From aggregating your total asset values and business components to uncovering the rentable square foot units, your CRE can utilize third-party apps to make more informed business deductions surrounding asset management.

Comprehensive apps allow you to reduce manual and time-intensive processes and instead track your assets in a single location. You can quickly find out what your global rents are or what units are becoming vacant, infusing versatility, flexibility, and a proactive approach to asset management throughout your business. Here are a few other ways that asset management apps, like STRATAFOLIO, can take your accounting system to the next level:

File Management — Eliminate the need to sift through dozens of drives, paper files, and other storage types. You have access to a central location with all files, including details on who uploaded them and when.
Picture Management — It can be difficult to organize images associated with assets. Apps that connect with QuickBooks Online can track and display all of your asset photos.
Asset Drill Down — With an intuitive search engine, you can find the asset you need in seconds. This is essential for commercial real estate businesses with dozens of properties.

Summary

QuickBooks Online is an attractive option for countless commercial real estate businesses because of its wide variety of app connections. Pairing this software with apps tailored to CREs expands your financial management, results in greater operational control, and improves your asset management.

At STRATAFOLIO, we can provide you with these benefits and more. Our software seamlessly communicates with QuickBooks Online, allowing you to leverage the resources specific to CREs and the general capabilities of QBO. Reach out to a team member to schedule a consultation to learn more.