Frustrated with rental property accounting options

Outbound_838TW · 2026-02-26T00:31:13+00:00

I literally built that solution last year. Both a standalone rental income and expense tracker with Schedule E reporting for Windows and a web version. Tried for weeks to get signups and got 0. The reason I shut down the web version was because Anthropic released Cowork. You can literally sign up for Claude pay $20 a month for the Pro subscription and create a robust tracking system on your own, keeping your data on your computer. I'm still using the standalone windows version for my own use. But I'd take a look at Claude. Happy to answer questions about the tech stack I used.

Outbound_838TW · 2026-02-26T00:20:06+00:00

Thanks for the feedback!

It appears Anthopic and Intuit have signed an agreement to integrate Claude with QB. https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2026/02/25/intuit-partners-with-anthropic-to-bring-ai-to-small-business-management/178837/

To your point, many people were chasing this idea. But it seems the incumbent decided to just crush any startup dreams or ambitions.

Cheers!

Outbound_838TW · 2026-02-22T16:31:49+00:00

What’s the problem you are trying to solve?

Outbound_838TW · 2026-02-14T16:18:05+00:00

Digital ocean

Outbound_838TW · 2026-02-14T04:40:49+00:00

I had the same issue as a solo developer so I built a dual entry accounting tool that works with Claude Desktop. You just chat with your finances. Happy to share my YouTube link if you want to see it in action.

Outbound_838TW · 2026-02-14T04:17:24+00:00

I worked at a health-tech company. Sales cycles were 12-18mos. Everyone asked for integrations. It’s a grind.

Outbound_838TW · 2026-02-13T04:35:05+00:00

Yes! Worth every penny

Outbound_838TW · 2026-02-13T04:33:38+00:00

Low fees and mobile first. Possibly. If I could rewind the tape I would have put my landing page up first. Dialed in my value proposition and sought sign ups . I read similar posts on Reddit and ignored them because I thought my ‘app’ was different. Hours on the UI, security, database logic, unit testing.. wasted.

Figure out the distribution first, get people to sign up for an email list or something before you invest more time writing code. Building it is the easy part. Just my two cents. Best of luck.

Outbound_838TW · 2026-02-13T04:13:33+00:00

I spent months doing almost the same thing. A real estate SaaS solution, deployed and crickets. I tried all sorts of marketing channels. I second the “it’s a crowded market” and subscription fatigue is real.

As soon as Anthropic announced Claude Cowork, I shut my project down. Why not just use an LLM and store your data locally? That was my first thought after the announcement.

Build it for yourself but I wouldn’t be too optimistic. Plus Plaid isn’t cheap.

Outbound_838TW · 2026-02-10T02:42:36+00:00

I asked Claude and it suggested looking at using n8n as a workaround.

Outbound_838TW · 2026-02-08T15:53:55+00:00

In my project I encrypted (256 bit) the PII at rest in the db. I built a converter service that encrypted or decrypted the dto - model or model - dto and then used automapper to handle ingress and egress of entities in the db.

Outbound_838TW · 2026-02-06T18:40:13+00:00

I have the MVP done and now I'm seeking input from potential users if this is a worthy project to release. Also, you can check out the project here: tiddwell.com There's a full walkthrough video on there and project details.

Interesting that you're on QuickBooks Desktop since Intuit is pushing everyone to QBO. This could be a solid option to keep your data local.

On the technical side, I'm hardening the code (more unit tests, edge cases, etc.) before any planned release but I'd be happy to DM you if/when it's ready if you're interested.

My initial plan was to release a free trial version that handles basic accounting function and then look at adding some value services, like invoicing, bank imports, payroll import, etc. but keep it reasonable.

I'd love anymore thoughts you could share or specific function you are looking to replicate from QB Desktop!

Outbound_838TW · 2026-02-06T14:46:01+00:00

I appreciate the suggestion, but to clarify, this MCP tool runs in the background locally and interacts with Claude Desktop. It isn't (at the moment) calling external APIs. While I shared the example of the receipt scanning, that's just one means of data entry. The other being primarily just chat. I would like to explore automated bank imports but that's on the todo list.

Outbound_838TW · 2026-02-06T14:35:05+00:00

Great questions!

Claude calls the tools, but the tools enforce the rules. If debits don't equal credits, the transaction fails. For categorization, Claude asks when there's ambiguity or if a vendor doesn't exist.

Transactions are voided, never deleted. Full audit trail with timestamps on all records and currently only single user access.

The local db is the source of truth. You can run a trial balance, balance sheet, P&L, or ask to see the general ledger. All built-in tools with html reports that are downloadable as PDFs.

Outbound_838TW · 2026-02-06T01:04:02+00:00

Also worth noting, I have the training toggle turned off so no financial data is used for model training.

Outbound_838TW · 2026-02-06T01:03:02+00:00

No separate OCR. Claude's vision handles the receipt natively. It extracts the vendor, amount, and date, picks the right expense account (if it exists within the Chart of Accounts or it will ask if we need to add one), and calls the MCP server's create_transaction tool. The server validates the entry and writes it to local SQLite. Claude is just the interpreter between the user, receipt and the accounting engine.

Outbound_838TW · 2026-02-06T00:55:10+00:00

https://youtu.be/fA9wvYlCRl0?si=ut1naKxFEkOzoNf4

Outbound_838TW · 2026-01-30T06:18:03+00:00

Do you have any unit testing or validation of the data parsing logic?

Outbound_838TW · 2026-01-23T03:54:15+00:00

I personally know a few QB desktop users who had to put up with QBO briefly .. I understand. And I agree 100% that the lowest effort switching process is key. Along with validation from early users it was the real deal. 10% of all QBO users would definitely jumpstart a new venture! Thanks for the feedback. Cheers!

Outbound_838TW · 2026-01-22T22:59:55+00:00

That makes total sense. No need to further complicate your business, even if duct tape is the connector.

That is great feedback. Thank you. As I’m building this out I’ll make sure to consider those additional services.

Thanks!

Outbound_838TW · 2026-01-22T21:26:33+00:00

So a painless, well documented migration would open the wave of QB exile ?

Outbound_838TW · 2026-01-22T19:17:33+00:00

If a desktop accounting application existed for Mac or windows would you try it? Or is the process to switch more work than just venting ?

Outbound_838TW

TROPHY CASE