Bookkeeping for Small Multifamily Operators · New Jersey

Your bookkeeper should know what a security deposit is.

Green Oak does monthly bookkeeping for landlords with 5–50 units. Every property gets its own P&L. Every LLC gets its own clean set of books. Your tax preparer gets a Schedule E-ready package in January — not a shoebox in March.

Book a Free 20-Minute Call

No commitment. We look at your books and tell you exactly where they stand.

QuickBooks Online Per-property reporting NJ deposit compliance
427 Maple St · 6 units MONTHLY P&L · JUNE
Rental income9,450
Repairs & maintenance(1,180)
Capital improvements(2,400)
Insurance & taxes(1,655)
Utilities & other(740)
Net operating income5,875
Repairs and CapEx tracked separately — the way your tax preparer needs them.

This is what your books look like with Green Oak. For every property, every month.

Sound Familiar

Generic bookkeepers don't understand real estate. You've probably learned that the hard way.

Talk to operators with 5–50 units and the same three complaints come up again and again.

"My bookkeeper lumps all four buildings into one P&L. I have no idea which property is actually making money."

No per-property reporting

"Rent from the LLC hits my personal account, personal card pays for repairs. My CPA charges me every March to untangle it."

Commingled entities

"A new roof got booked as a repair. I found out what that cost me after the return was filed."

CapEx coded wrong

Two ways to run the books on a small portfolio

Where you are now

  • Doing your own books at 11 PM after fixing a tenant's disposal
  • One blended P&L across every building — profitable units subsidizing losers, invisibly
  • Deposits, rents, and personal money moving through the same accounts
  • Repairs and capital improvements coded wherever they landed
  • March: a shoebox, a stressed CPA, and a cleanup bill before the return even starts

Where our clients are

  • Books done monthly by someone who knows rental real estate
  • A P&L for every property — you know each building's NOI by the 15th
  • Every LLC in its own clean set of books, no commingling
  • Repairs vs. CapEx tracked correctly all year, not fixed at tax time
  • January: your tax preparer gets a complete Schedule E-ready package and says thank you
The Process

How it works

STEP 1

See if we're a fit

A free 20-minute call. You walk us through the portfolio; we tell you honestly whether we're right for your situation — even if the answer is not yet.

STEP 2

Know exactly where you stand

We securely connect to your software and accounts, read-only first, full access on your timeline. Then you get a plain-English read on what's clean, what's not, and what it takes to fix.

STEP 3

We set up and catch up

We structure the books by property and entity and clear the backlog. One-time catch-up work is quoted before anything starts.

STEP 4

You get clean books, every month

We deliver on a set date each month: reconciled accounts and per-property financials. At year end, a complete package for your tax preparer.

Inside Your Software

We work inside the tools you already use.

No exports. No switching platforms. No "we'll figure it out." We log into your system and do the work where it lives. If you already run your properties on one of these, we're ready on day one.

QuickBooks Online
Property- & class-based books
Stessa
Rental portfolio tracking
Baselane
Landlord banking & books
Buildium
Property management
Avail / Apartments.com
Rent & expense records
Rent Manager / AppFolio
Larger-portfolio platforms

Inside QuickBooks Online, we

The platform most 5–50 unit operators run on. Here's the work we do inside it.

Reconcile operating, deposit, and reserve accounts
Structure the books by property and by entity
Split repairs from capital improvements, correctly
Track NJ security deposits by tenant and property
Deliver per-property P&Ls every month
Back-books cleanup on migrated or behind portfolios

Don't see your software? Tell us on the call — we probably support it.

Transparent Pricing

Simple monthly plans. No hourly billing, no surprises.

A full-time bookkeeper costs $50,000 a year. A CPA cleaning up twelve months of mess costs thousands every March. This costs less than one unit's rent.

Essentials

$295 /mo

5–15 units · single entity

  • Monthly categorization & reconciliation (2 accounts)
  • Per-property income & expense tracking
  • Monthly P&L and Balance Sheet
  • Repairs vs. CapEx coded correctly
  • Books closed by the 15th
  • Email support
Book a Free Call
Most operators start here

Standard

$425 /mo

16–30 units · up to 3 entities

  • Everything in Essentials
  • Up to 4 accounts reconciled
  • Separate books per LLC — no commingling
  • P&L for every property, every month
  • NJ security deposit tracking
  • Year-end Schedule E-ready package for your tax preparer
  • Books closed by the 12th · monthly check-in call
Book a Free Call

Plus

$650 /mo

31–50 units · multiple entities

  • Everything in Standard
  • Up to 6 accounts reconciled
  • Inter-entity transfers tracked and documented
  • Accounts payable tracking — you approve and pay
  • Written monthly summary of what the numbers show
  • Books closed by the 10th · monthly review call
Book a Free Call

Behind on your books? Catch-up and cleanup is a one-time project, quoted after a quick review — typically $300–$900 depending on how many months and how many properties. QuickBooks Online subscription billed to you directly.

New Jersey Specific

Your security deposits have their own law. We track them like it.

New Jersey requires landlord security deposits to be held in separate interest-bearing accounts, with annual notice to tenants. Most generic bookkeepers have never heard of this. We track deposit balances by tenant and by property, so the records are there when you — or a tenant's attorney — need them.

N.J.S.A. 46:8-19 et seq. — Rent Security Deposit Act Deposits held in NJ money market funds or interest-bearing accounts at state or federally chartered institutions · annual interest notice to tenants · deposit records maintained per tenant, per property.
Who You're Working With

A bookkeeper who speaks rental real estate.

Marcus Raman, founder of Green Oak
Marcus RamanFounder · New Jersey

Green Oak is run by Marcus Raman, a New Jersey-based financial operations professional with a corporate accounting background. Not a call center, not a rotating cast of offshore preparers — the person on the discovery call is the person doing your books.

The firm works exclusively with small residential operators, which means the books are structured around how rental real estate actually works: by property, by entity, with repairs and capital improvements treated the way the tax code treats them.

  • QuickBooks Online — property- and class-based books
  • Per-property and per-entity reporting as standard practice
  • NJ Rent Security Deposit Act tracking (N.J.S.A. 46:8-19)
  • Year-end packages built for Schedule E preparation
  • Works alongside your CPA or tax preparer — never replaces them
Common Questions

Before you ask

I already use Stessa / Baselane / a spreadsheet. Why pay for this?

Those tools record transactions; they don't do bookkeeping. Someone still has to categorize correctly, split repairs from capital improvements, keep entities separate, and reconcile every account every month. If your software is half set up and three months behind, you have the tool but not the books. We deliver the finished books.

My CPA handles my books at tax time. Isn't that enough?

Your CPA looks backward once a year — and most charge cleanup fees to reconstruct twelve months of records before they can even start the return. With monthly books, your CPA gets a clean package in January, the return costs less to prepare, and you know how each property performed all year, not just in April. We work alongside your CPA, not instead of them.

Is $425 a month worth it on a small portfolio?

That's the honest question to ask. Consider what the current approach costs: CPA cleanup fees, misclassified capital improvements, deductions missed because receipts vanished, and your evenings. One misclassified roof can cost more in a single tax year than a year of bookkeeping. If your portfolio is under five units, we'll tell you on the call if you don't need us yet.

My books are a mess and I'm months behind. Can you still take me?

Yes — most clients start exactly there. Catch-up is a one-time project we quote up front after looking at your accounts, typically $300–$900. We clean up the backlog first, then move to normal monthly service.

Do you do my taxes?

No. Green Oak is a bookkeeping firm, not a tax preparer or CPA firm. What we do is make tax season painless: your preparer receives complete, reconciled, Schedule E-ready records in January. Preparers consistently do better, faster work from clean books.

What software do you use? Do I have to switch?

We work in QuickBooks Online, structured by property and entity. If you're on something else, setup and migration is a one-time project starting at $295, and you keep full access to your own books at all times. They're your books — you're never locked in.

Find out where your books actually stand.

A free 20-minute call. You tell us about the portfolio, we look at the setup, and you leave knowing exactly what's clean, what's not, and what it would take to fix — whether you hire us or not.

Book a Free 20-Minute Call

Prefer the phone? (201) 503-3323  ·  marcus@greenoakfinance.com