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QuickBooks bookkeeping for real estate agencies

An agency's commission and property management fees usually reach its business account as transfers out of the trust account, often with several fees in each transfer. We record those transfers in QuickBooks by fee type and keep the agency's own bank accounts, cards and loans reconciled alongside them.

Get a QuickBooks bookkeeping quoteAbout this service
  • By Book Keeping Pros
  • Sources checked 15 Oct 2026

What we record in the agency's QuickBooks

This covers the agency's own money only. What reaches it from trust is recorded from your trust accounting system's own reports.

  • Each transfer from the trust account into the business account split into sales commission, management fees, letting fees and any other agency fees, using the report your trust accounting system produces for that transfer
  • A transfer that doesn't agree with its report listed for you to raise with whoever runs the trust ledger, rather than adjusted to fit
  • Classes for each branch, if your QuickBooks plan includes class tracking, so income and costs can be compared branch by branch
  • Agents' receipts for open home supplies, parking and printing snapped on their phones through the QuickBooks mobile app and linked in the For review tab to the agency card payments they explain
  • Repayments on a loan used to buy a rent roll recorded from the lender's statements following your accountant's instructions, with the statement's breakdown kept with each entry
  • Open Banking feeds for the agency's business bank account and cards, where your bank offers them, so transactions flow into QuickBooks ready to record
  • Every business account and agency card reconciled against its statement each month, with anything that doesn't agree explained, for example a payment still to clear

Not included

Trust accounting is regulated, so it sits outside this service. The trust account and the records kept for it stay in the trust accounting system your agency uses, with its own audit. In QuickBooks we keep the agency's general accounts.

Businesses in Real Estate Services (ANZSIC class 6720)

Actively trading businesses across Australia
45,909 businessesAustralian Bureau of Statistics, Counts of Australian Businesses, June 2025, checked 15 October 2026
Of those, classified as non-employing
27,359 businessesAustralian Bureau of Statistics, Counts of Australian Businesses, June 2025, checked 15 October 2026
Of those, with 1 to 4 employees
12,910 businessesAustralian Bureau of Statistics, Counts of Australian Businesses, June 2025, checked 15 October 2026

Businesses by main state or territory

These counts are for the ANZSIC class Real Estate Services, which includes property valuation, auctioning and management services as well as real estate agencies, so they describe a wider group than agencies alone.

  1. New South Wales17,018 businesses
  2. Queensland12,106 businesses
  3. Victoria10,466 businesses
  4. Western Australia3,063 businesses
  5. South Australia2,044 businesses
  6. Australian Capital Territory636 businesses
  7. Tasmania361 businesses
  8. Northern Territory215 businesses
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, June 2025. Counts of Australian Businesses, data cube 2: Businesses by main state by industry class by employment size ranges (8165DC02.xlsx). Checked 15 Oct 2026.

Businesses by number of employees

  1. Non-employing27,359 businesses
  2. 1 to 4 employees12,910 businesses
  3. 5 to 19 employees4,843 businesses
  4. 20 to 199 employees777 businesses
  5. 200 or more employees20 businesses
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, June 2025. Counts of Australian Businesses, data cube 2: Businesses by main state by industry class by employment size ranges (8165DC02.xlsx). Checked 15 Oct 2026.

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What agency principals ask about QuickBooks

Is the trust account reconciled as part of this?
No. Trust reconciliations are done in the agency's trust software and covered by its audit. We reconcile the agency's own bank accounts and cards in QuickBooks, and record what arrives in them from trust.
Our fees come out of trust in a lump. How do you record them?
We take the report your trust accounting system produces for that transfer and record each part, such as sales commission or management fees, under its own income account. If the transfer and the report don't agree, we list it for you instead of changing the figures. When commission counts as income is a question for your accountant, and we follow their answer.
We have several branches. Can QuickBooks report on each of them?
Yes, as long as your plan includes class tracking. Each transaction is given its branch's class, and a profit and loss run by class shows how each branch is doing. Without classes, this class-based breakdown is unavailable; we can agree another reporting approach with your accountant.
How do our agents get their receipts to you?
Each agent can snap a receipt with the QuickBooks mobile app, or forward it by email to QuickBooks. We then open the For review tab and link each receipt to the card payment it explains, creating a new expense only after checking that no matching bill or expense is already recorded.
We borrowed to buy a rent roll. Do you keep the loan up to date?
Yes. Each repayment is recorded from the lender's statement following your accountant's instructions, and the loan account is reconciled against the statement each month. Your accountant also decides how the rent roll itself is shown in the accounts.

Sources

  1. Counts of Australian Businesses, data cube 2: Businesses by main state by industry class by employment size ranges (8165DC02.xlsx)

    Australian Bureau of Statistics. Actively trading businesses at 30 June 2025, released 16 December 2025. Checked 15 October 2026.

    Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Counts of Australian Businesses, including Entries and Exits, June 2021 to June 2025, licensed under CC BY 4.0 Licence: CC BY 4.0.

  2. Correspondence, GCCSA 2021 to GCCSA 2026 (CG_GCCSA_2021_GCCSA_2026.csv)

    Australian Bureau of Statistics. ASGS Edition 4, July 2026 to June 2031, released 22 July 2026. Checked 15 October 2026.

    Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) Edition 4, licensed under CC BY 4.0 Licence: CC BY 4.0.

  3. Connect a new bank account to Open Banking in QuickBooks Online (Australia)

    Intuit Australia Pty Ltd. Current at 16 October 2026, released 16 October 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

    QuickBooks is a trademark of Intuit Inc. Licence: Intuit Australia legal terms (facts quoted with attribution, no endorsement implied).

  4. Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Online (Australia)

    Intuit Australia Pty Ltd. Current at 16 October 2026, released 16 October 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

    QuickBooks is a trademark of Intuit Inc. Licence: Intuit Australia legal terms (facts quoted with attribution, no endorsement implied).

  5. Get started with class tracking in QuickBooks Online (Australia)

    Intuit Australia Pty Ltd. Current at 16 October 2026, released 16 October 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

    QuickBooks is a trademark of Intuit Inc. Licence: Intuit Australia legal terms (facts quoted with attribution, no endorsement implied).

  6. Upload your receipts to QuickBooks (Australia)

    Intuit Australia Pty Ltd. Current at 16 October 2026, released 16 October 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

    QuickBooks is a trademark of Intuit Inc. Licence: Intuit Australia legal terms (facts quoted with attribution, no endorsement implied).