Best accounting software to track rental property income/expenses

[Alex Cons]

Hey BP, 

Tax season is right around the corner and another year went by that I did not track my bills! I would like to find a software that I could start using that will help me track my real estate income and expenses. 

I self manage my own units and I want to set up good tracking habits early on with a few rental units so that I can scale in the future. I would like a software that I could also use on my smart phone and under $15 a month. 

Any suggestions that are real estate friendly?

[Jack Young]

Ive been told by a number of investors to use quickbooks so I subscribed myself and I'll see how much better it is. 

[Basit Siddiqi]

@Alex Cons

You can buy the quickbooks desktop version for about $200-$300 depending on the version which will last for about 3 years. The quickbooks desktop version allows you to create a different file for each rental property.
The Quickbooks online version is also good but they charge you a small monthly fee for each rental property. it might come out to more than $15 a month if you have multiple properties.

I also hear some investors liking to use Xero.

[Dan V.]

Quickbooks online version is a good option and can be customized to fit in real estate industry. It's a cloud-based software so you can access anywhere with internet connection. It also has an app that you can download on your phone. For multiple properties, it is recommended to subscribe to Plus version you can keep track of each property, it will cost more than $15 though. You test drive it for 30 days to get a feel if it fits your need. 

There are few other options out there but I never used them, to be honest. 

[Jack Young]

@Alex Cons

One thing that attracted me to QuickBooks was the ability to use other apps that will sync the info with QuickBooks as you use the apps. For example, I was told you can use a property managment app to run your properties and another app to track your mileage and they would add the related info for you. Huge time saver and far easier way to organize I thought, but what they didn't tell me were the apps for this, they just said it can be done for what I'm doing so if anyone knows of these apps I would love to hear of them. I searched around and couldn't find anything for it and now feel a little let down, but I did get QuickBooks on a boxing day sale and pay $12/mo so I guess I really just have to learn how to use it. 

What I have been doing in the past was a lot of spreadsheets, I like spreadsheets because as long as you can make it, it does exactly what you want and there are a ton of tutorials to help you. The big bonus to this now is everything is online so updating, adding, summarizing and so much more can come from anywhere for anything and its easy. I can send everything off PDF straight to the bank or anyone else, I can store all the important documents as well for easy reference.

[Mike Shores]

Quickbooks is the best but if you are looking for an inexpensive alternate than do check out Freshbooks. 

[Tim Schroeder]

I've been looking at this too.

Xero is great but if you want the new Expenses feature (and you probably do) then it's $60/mo. Ouch. 

I did not care for the Freshbooks GUI. It tries too hard to be friendly.

I liked Wave because it's free and I'm cheap, but it doesn't support categories needed for tracking multiple properties.

I guess it's going to be Quickbooks for me

[Yannik Cudjoe-Virgil]

Hey - Stessa is a pretty clean dashboard

[Daniel Hyman]

@Yannik Cudjoe-Virgil

Does Stessa have the ability to generate a balance sheet? I didn't see that feature in my initial glance at the product.

[Aladdin M.]

I am kind of lovin' on RentalHero (rentalhero.io) because it is super simple and comes with some nice automation features.  If enabled, every night the system can download your credit card expenses which then you can categorize much like Mint does.  You can set up repetitious rental income and assign expenses to the respective properties.

Many other softwares do this, but force you to pay the premium price for bells, whistles, and unused features.

This one comes at under $10/month.   Very affordable especially for someone like me who is just starting out.

[Gita Faust]

All software has a learning curve. You need to start with your goal in mind. Putting a system in place is very crucial from the beginning, even if you are starting out in the business.

Few decision factors would be software price, functionality and integrated apps as you grow. But if you go with QuickBooks:

• QuickBooks Online Plus will cost you $270 for the first year 
• QuickBooks Premier around $345 for three years ( install the construction version where you can view Balance Sheet by Property)

Whichever software you use to make sure you make a backup. 

[Julie Haveman]

I just signed up for rental hero. It is very reasonably priced and will make tax time so much easier. You can also store your receipts there.

[Gregory N.]

Another ringing endorsement for Rental Hero.  It is very user friendly and the design is intuitive.  No clunky Excel windows based spreadsheets.    $119/yr regardless of number of properties.  Loving it so far

[John Brittain]

Rental hero is good. I think I may leave Quicken rental property manager. 

[Chris Habets]

I only have one rental currently (duplex) that I manage myself, but I'm an Excel Guru and honestly can't see myself changing over. I've built the sheet so that each expense is categorized, it shows my cashflow expectations, my receipts are saved as photos with a simple code for easy reference, a nice summary page... I make a new sheet per rental when I expand, and at tax time I just sort and copy paste.

[Philippe Busque]

Anybody with more than 30 units using rental hero? First time I hear of it and it does seem really good, can you scale up with it thought? 

[Sarah Schneider]

It’s more than your budget but I like Buildium, $85 USD per month but it stores all my receipts, generates statements for each property (I have 4 properties) and if I ever want to take on management of other investors properties I can stay with this platform. It also allows tenants to pay their rent online, and since we went cashless last year that’s a big plus for us. There are so many more options than when I was researching the best platforms 3 yrs ago...

[John Brittain]

I have 65 properties at Rentalhero, seems faster to use than Quicken rental property. 

[Richard Beechy]

Are you looking for a good solid Rental Accounting software that is easy to use, affordable, cloud based, and unlimited properties? I was tracking all my rentals in excel, it worked but it was time consuming as heck! A friend recommended I check out Rental Hero so I signed up for a trial and within less than 2 hours I had all 8 of my properties loaded and everything was entered YTD. One of the best decisions I have made for sure. Check it out at https://www.rentalhero.io

[Rigo V.]

Just purchased rental hero subscription and its fantastic. Their customer service is top notch!

[Arthur P.]

Originally posted by @Tim Schroeder:

I've been looking at this too.

I liked Wave because it's free and I'm cheap, but it doesn't support categories needed for tracking multiple properties.

Hi @Tim Schroeder I was also considering Wave cuz I'm cheap, too. Can you provide an example of how Wave doesn't support the needed Categories?

[Albert Cohen]

Rentalhero is a great program for Keeping track of rental units.  it allows you to keep track of multiple units and you can link to multiple bank accounts.  It’s easy to allocate income and expenses and it gives you your profit and loss.  I highly  recommend it.

[Antonio Cousin]

I use Rental Hero.  I've been using them since 2018 and so far so good.  I just renewed for another year.  I was using Quicken, but didn't care for the interface.  Rental Hero is way easier to use and so simple even someone not familiar with technology could figure out.  I have seven doors and two separate bank accounts linked.  Really easy to set up too.

[Walter East]

Ive looked at a few apps and software to see what worked for me and also user friendly. I am just starting the rental process and needed something that was efficient and accurate as this is a source of secondary income for me. Rental Hero passed the test on all levels. I use the online software as well as the mobile app which makes a perfect combination. I like to paper track my transactions and receipts which is very easy with the mobile app..as simple as taking a pic and saving it to the paired transaction.  I also like the financial overview showing me all income and expenses and recurring transactions can be automated. Highly recommend this app and software!!

[Rey Orinion]

I’ve used Rental Hero for free trial version before but did not subscribe right away to test other Rental App out there.  Almost a year later, I went back and subscribed for good to Rental Hero because it’s the easiest app to use for my needs and it’s the only one that makes sense for me to manage my small portfolio of ten properties.  

[Kevin McGuire]

@Dan V. This is what I use, QuickBooks Online Plus. I am not accountant and was able to figure it out. Curious: do you use Locations or Classes for each property?