Property management accounts have one structural requirement that ordinary business accounts do not: at any moment it must be possible to say whose money is in which account. Rent belongs to an owner until fees are taken. Deposits belong to a tenant throughout. Fees are yours once earned. A structure that cannot answer that question at a given date is not a bookkeeping shortcoming, it is the thing regulators and auditors look at first.
Three kinds of money, not one
Client money held for owners, deposit money held for tenants, and the firm's own money. In most arrangements these need at least two bank accounts and always need separate ledgers. Fees move from client money to firm money by a deliberate transfer once earned, with a record of what was earned and when, never by leaving them in place and netting at period end.
The per-client ledger is the real record
The bank tells you the total. The per-owner and per-tenant ledgers tell you whose it is. Both must be maintained and both must be reconciled to each other and to the bank, which is the three-way reconciliation. An individual ledger that has gone negative means one client's money funded another's expense, which the overall balance will not show you.
Accrual, and what receivable means here
Rent invoiced and unpaid is a receivable of the owner, not income of the manager. Fees earned and not yet drawn are income of the manager and a liability against client money. Getting those two postings right is what makes the accounts readable, and it is where a general business bookkeeper without property experience most often goes wrong.
What the accounts have to produce
An owner statement that ties to the bank, a deposit register that ties to the deposit account, a fee income figure that ties to the management agreements, and the three-way reconciliation. Four outputs. If the structure produces them without manual assembly, it is right; if any one needs a spreadsheet to bridge it, that bridge is where errors will live.
Questions people ask about property management accounts
Can one bank account hold rent and deposits?
In several jurisdictions no, and where it is permitted the money must still be separately identified. Separate accounts are simpler to defend and easier to reconcile.
When is a management fee income?
When it is earned under the agreement, not when it is drawn. Drawing it is a transfer; earning it is the accounting event.
Who should reconcile?
Somebody other than the person who makes payments, at least at intervals. The separation of those two roles catches more than any software control does.