Bookkeeping with excel

[Travis Lewing]

Hello Bigger Pockets!

I just closed on my first rental property and need to begin tracking expenses.  I only have the one duplex at the moment so it should be fairly simple at this point.  Any tips on an easy to use excel format to track this stuff?  Should i do a running tally on one sheet or break the sheets into months to track rent in and expenses out for the property?

Any help is welcome, and TIA.

[John Underwood]

I have multiple properties and use excel to track income and expenses for my CPA.

I put all receipts in a folder and put them all in my tax spreadsheet in January 

I have a rent roll spreadsheet that I track rental income, dates rent paid, lease dates, occupants, hvac filter size, trash days. Magistrate info for evictions, date I acquired property. Purchase price, etc.

At the end of the year I can fill out rental income from the rent roll spreadsheet  on my tax spreadsheet.

This makes accounting pretty simple for me.

Make your tax spreadsheet add up sections on one spot to look like the fields on a schedule E to make it even easier come tax time.