Drew White That's just a sample I set up to show you an idea of how you could do it. I am an independent contractor and work for myself though (just not in real estate). I print things out from YNAB for my accountant every year and he never has a problem with it. As long as I can back up what I'm showing him (through bank records, receipts, etc) if I were ever to be audited, it's all good.

I've toyed around this topic on my own - I actually arrived at Nicole's second method, but track rents by inputing a negative value into the 'rent' sub category at the when the rent clears (not before, because this would artificially fund your 'to be budgeted' before the money is there). This allows me to budget that money the next month when it clears and 'zeros' the sub category. Rents are simple to track then, as you can roll up multiple units into one category as below (small triplex below). I have my sub categories below for example, but everyone has their preference. I also make little note in expenses that I'll use for tax prep, like "contribution" "distribution" or "professional dues" which REALLY speeds up tax time :) 

Violet Boat I know this thread is getting older, but I'm very curious about the negative value method. If I understand right, this solves needing to categorize rental income as "To Be Budgeted" and instead being able to assign it directly to the category for the rent for that unit -- but I'm wondering if there are drawbacks to this? How do you then work with that rental income, since it gives you $0.00 in the "Available" column, which isn't technically true?

...Or maybe I'm missing something! 😂 Thanks for sharing this idea! I'm so intrigued! 

Silver Clarinet I would add an Accounts Receivable (AR) account as a Tracking (off-budget) account type. Make scheduled transactions in that account for each property to INFLOW the expected rent. (It's an asset as you are owed this money.) Put the property identifier in the memo field for reference. Any fees would be similarly recorded. When someone pays, record this in the normal on-budget account as a transfer from the tracking account (again, with the property identifier in the memo field).

In the AR account, when a property is paid up / current, you can clear all transactions related to that property and reconcile to a $0 balance. This allows you to hide those properties, leaving the overdue / partial payment properties showing. If you want to focus on a particular property, just search for its identifier in the memo field. Again, make sure you always put the relevant identifier on every transaction (outflows and inflows).

Silver Clarinet said:
Looks like I need to do a monthly scheduled transaction in their individual checking account

This sounds dangerous. Do you have separate checking accounts that are on-budget for each property? You really don't want to record an inflow that hasn't happened yet in an on-budget account. Doing so means you wouldn't actually have all the cash that your budget says you do. Categories filled with Monopoly money is a ticking time bomb.

Silver Clarinet Reading your post again, it appears you're making a separate budget for each property? Is that correct? If so, that would require a separate bank account for each property, since a given real-world account should only be in a single budget. I really don't think separate budgets for each property is a good idea.

The single budget is for the "business" and has the business account(s) on-budget.

dakinemaui I am a Realtor and we are never allowed to comingle funds, therefore every property, even owned by the same landlord has it's own checking already and also in YNAB it's own Budget so this might be my golden answer. I still have to play with the system because I am not grasping how to transfer from a tracking fund to an actual checking account. 

Silver Clarinet And I just realized that I am 'Silver Clarinet' :) Brain overload. I wanted to add that when you do a recurring transaction or one that is ahead of schedule it is 'greyed out' and is not counted in the budget. Still see what you are saying so I will keep playing. All thoughts and suggestions are gratefully appreciated. 

Silver Clarinet Juggling 22 budgets still seems awkward. Plus, it's not like you're planning/saving for expenses for each property, right? I would still suggest a single budget whose budget accounts are those of the business. The categories are planning the expenses for the business itself.

The individual property accounts could each be tracking accounts in that budget if you like. (The single account and memo identifier approach I described earlier is just a scalable way to implement what are effectively "accounts within an account".)

Silver Clarinet If you define "report" as a list of transactions, no problem with either the consolidated tracking account or the multiple per-property tracking accounts. You may wish to export the transactions to a CSV format from which you can generate any statement you can define outside of YNAB.