Question

SMALL Estate and Trust Management for non-accountant

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
April 3, 2024
2 replies
0 views

My mother has been Trustee for 1 Estate and 2 Trusts for many, many years. These are old entities which still have income from various properties and multiple beneficiaries. She is in failing health and unable to continue and I am taking over. She (as all the trustees before) maintained EVERYTHING in old ledgers and checkbooks. The idea of doing all this manually gives me hives. I'm not an accountant but would like to move these to an accounting software. Is Quickbooks a reasonable solution to manage these small, not complex entities?

There are no assets to manage, there are just some mineral taxes to pay along with normal expenses, incoming payments from mining and gas companies (very small checks now versus years ago) and distributions to beneficiaries once or twice per year.

Any advice appreciated.

QuickBooks Online

S

Sherrie_F

Hello there, @SeaBorneSumo.

Yes. QuickBooks can be a reasonable solution for managing small estates and trusts.

QuickBooks offers various versions, including QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop. QuickBooks Online (QBO) might be more convenient as it allows you to access your accounts from anywhere with an internet connection.

There are a lot of plans to choose from that can help you distinguish what suits best for your business. These plans include Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advance. Moreover, QuickBooks can also record transactions for Income received and expenses. These are their features:

Income
Expenses
Invoice payments
Receipt capture
Tax deductions
General reports
Receipt capture
Mileage tracking
Estimates
Contractors
Cash flow
Sales and sales tax

However, you can also seek assistance from your accountant if you need further guidance in choosing the best plan. If you don't have one, you can use our Find-an-Accountant tool to look for an expert near you.

Furthermore, here's an article that you can browse for you to be able to record capital investments to track money going into your business: Record an owner's contribution or capital investment.

Keep me posted if you still have further queries about managing your entities. I'll be just one post away. Have a good one.

R

RusticRetreat

I would like to follow this thread. I moved my assets into a trust and am no longer the owner. I am a manager of the trust. While filling out the section of "Who works at this business?" there are 5 choices and none of them apply to my situation. I am no longer the owner. We don't have employees. We aren't contractors. We are not a few partners and owners nor are we planning to hire in the future.

For legal reasons what should I put or should I leave this blank?

S

ShangY

I appreciate you reaching out to the Community, @RusticRetreat.

To provide you better assistance, could you please let me know which section of QuickBooks you are currently in?

Also, I would like to know what kind of transactions you are trying to create. If possible, it would be great if you could provide a screenshot of your current QuickBooks view, as it would help me in providing an accurate solution. Any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Looking forward to your response. Have a good one.

4

4Gal

@SeaBorneSumo

Consider to use QB Desktop to manage multi files. You can still purchase QB Desktop 2024 Pro Plus for single user = $650 vs 3 QBO accounts.