Working as a Rental Property Manager or Business Manager requires some specific accounting knowledge and experience. You know that you need software to manage your business successfully, to keep your records in order and easily accessible, but you’re not sure what kind of rental business software will suit your needs.
Accounting software for rental businesses. This is the only software you will need from day one of your business and it does not get more intuitive than this. Whether you are a landlord or a property manager and need to track income, expenses and balance sheet for each property, this program can help.
Paying your taxes is a nasty business, if you don’t want to pay taxes, then try to work with no money. That sounds great, but I know that it is completely impossible. It is a fact of life that we must pay taxes and the best way to handle it is to use rental software for rental business account.
Bookkeeping has never been this easy! The best rental property bookkeeping software will keep all your business transactions in a single place, offering you a better view of your finances and helping you to reduce overheads. For example, our property management software includes a built-in calculator and report generator that allows you to quickly view your business finances and generate monthly balance sheets, income statements and schedules of bank deposits. With our bookkeeping software for rental properties you get an automatic backup system that enables users to make revisions at any time without losing any important data. This means you can experiment freely without having to worry about losing key data. It’s ideal for novice or experienced professionals who want a simple solution which works efficiently.
What Is Accounting Software for Rental Properties?
Accounting software for rental properties captures day-to-day income and expenses while enabling users to run insightful reports to help them scale their business. The software saves landlords hours, if not days hunting for receipts to assemble their tax returns at the end of the year. It also saves them from potentially paying many fee hours to bookkeepers and accountants; while these professionals may still be necessary to have on your team, accounting software can make their jobs easier, and thus the invoices they send you lower.
BEST OVERALLAppFolio
Our choice for best overall, AppFolio, comes with basic and advanced features, making it accessible to landlords who do their own accounting and to beginner and advanced accountants and bookkeepers alike.Pros
- Pay only for the features you need and use
- Has all the advanced accounting features a landlord needs
- Includes a mobile app
Cons
- Has a minimum monthly fee
- Not fit for a small number of properties
- Limited live help after purchase
AppFolio has developed software with a suite of features a landlord would need to operate and grow their business remotely. It comes with Core and Plus plans to match the budget and complexity needs of varying users, earning our rating as the best overall accounting software for landlords.
If you fill out their online form, an AppFolio salesperson will guide you through a free demo so you can evaluate the features important to you. There is an onboarding fee of at least $400 and then a minimum $250- $1,500 monthly fee (depending on which plan you choose). They also have services you can choose to utilize for a fee. Fees increase based on how many units you have in a Core or Plus plan:
- Residential: $1.40 to $3 per unit monthly
- Commercial: $1.50 to $3 per unit monthly
- HOAs: $0.80 per unit monthly
AppFolio is a better fit for mid to large-sized property landlords with at least 200 units.
The Core tier comes with AppFolio’s customizable reports, online payments and maintenance, marketing tools, lease management, and communication functions. With the Plus tier, you also get a variety of strategic performance insights to scale your portfolio. You’ll also have access to services like website creation, lead generation, tenant screening, insurance, online payments, a maintenance call center, utility management, debt collections, and automated accounts payable. These will all be billed to your account after you have utilized the service. In addition to these native features, AppFolio has partnered with more than 80 internet listing service providers to enhance your reach with powerful marketing integrations.
The Plus tier stands out for accounting because the advanced performance insights and revenue management take the strong bookkeeping tools to the next level of business growth.
The software has very high-reliability ratings with a responsive customer support team. But there are a few customer complaints about wanting more access to a live person to talk through support issues.
BEST FOR MULTIPLE USERSRentec Direct
Not only has Rentec Direct created an easy way to add account users and set different permission levels, but they also allow you to add new user accounts for free, making it our top choice for rental property accounting software if you need multiple users.Pros
- Has mobile apps for integrated communication
- Premium features for property managers and landlords
- Multi-user access to one account with unique usernames and passwords
Cons
- A limited number of integrations
Best for multiple users, Rentec Direct allows the primary account holder to create and control multi-user accounts that others can access with a unique username, password, and permission level at no additional cost.
Another major advantage of Rentec Direct is that there is a free package with the basic features available for up to 10 properties. More advanced packages cost $35 to $40 per month, with the pricing based on the number of units you’re managing. Additional features are available as add-ons, ranging from $7 to $15 per service.
Rentec Direct comes with features that include general ledger accounting and financial reporting with QuickBooks synchronization. This streamlines the whole tenant rent payment process to one step that takes around 30 seconds. Users also get an automated process for tracking work orders, ACH, and credit card payment processing.
In addition to the accounting features, Rentec Direct also includes other property management features like online portals for tenants and owners, a free custom website and hosting to promote your company and properties online, online rental applications, electronic signatures with DocuSign, electronic 1099 filing, syndication of vacancy listings, utility billing integration, and tenant background screening for credit, criminal, and eviction records.
It currently integrates with QuickBooks Online Advanced and DocuSign.
The support staff has excellent reviews from customers on third-party review sites like Software Advice.
BEST FOR LARGE PROPERTY PORTFOLIOSBuildium
Buildium’s Growth and Premium plans support up to 5,000 properties, earning the top spot for users with large property portfolios.
Pros
- Built by property managers for property managers
- Automatic rent collection through a tenant portal
- Online ticket support
- A lot of training materials offered
Cons
- Expensive pricing plans
- Some customer support complaints
- Not a fit for single property managers
Buildium, our review’s best property management accounting software for large property portfolios, has expansive accounting features supporting up to 5,000 units in their Growth and Premium plans.
Buildium offers three plans; Essential, Growth, and Premium. The cost of each plan depends on the number of units you manage. Essential starts at $50 a month and offers features for up to 150 units. Growth offers more features, the ability to service up to 5,000 units, and starts at $160 a month. Premium also allows you to have up to 5,000 units and offers features like Business Analytics and Insights and Buildium Rewards. Premium starts at $460 per month. Buildium also offers a 10% discount for anyone who signs up for annual billing.
In the cloud, users can record and view all fees, payments, deposits, and refunds, manage accounts payable through built-in calculators that show how much you owe to companies and vendors, reconcile bank accounts automatically, generate a variety of financial reports, and automatically generate and e-file a Form 1099.
Besides the accounting features, Buildium also offers a lot of advanced features with easy-to-understand tutorials.
Buildium integrates with several outside software platforms, including TransUnion, RevSpring, MSI, Nelco, Happy Inspector, PayNearMe, and more. This solid list of integrations, the recognition it has received from G2 and Capterra, and its active updates to resolve issues make it a reliable platform.
Buildium has a high rating across different review websites, serving as a testament to the reliable service they provide.
DoorLoop
DoorLoop is a dedicated, full-service rental property management software tool that offers everything you need to streamline and optimize your rental property management or investing business.
Designed to be highly intuitive and easy to use, DoorLoop includes a full suite of features designed by property managers for property managers.
Including:
- Everything you need for your property accounting, including custom reports and a variety of payment methods, and including ACH and credit cards
- Manage work orders remotely, even assign vendors to a job, edit a work order, and communicate directly with tenants from within the software
- Built-in CRM and tenant portal that allows you to collect rent, offer renters insurance, and accept applications
- An owner portal that gives access to reports and even allows you to print checks
- Marketing features that allow you to list properties and even do tenant screening within the software
- And much more
Save yourself time and hassle by centralizing your processes with easy documentation, automation, work order management, and robust accounting features.
DoorLoop Pricing
DoorLoop’s full-service rental property accounting software is 50% off your first two months. Plus, there are no training or support fees whatsoever. Prices start as low as $49/month for your first 20 units.
AppFolio Property Management
Websitewww.appfolio.comPrice from$280/mo
Best accounting software for landlords with the best features
AppFolio Property Management gives users the ultimate experience in automation and streamlining rental property and property management tasks with its wide selection of features that will save a tremendous amount of time and improve the accuracy of the financial picture.
Ease of use:
With its easy setup and onboarding process, AppFolio introduces you right away to its vast array of features. The software is intuitive and user-friendly with its customizable performance dashboard and clean screen presentation. The dashboard and task menu are both easy to navigate.
Features:
Here is where AppFolio outshines its competitors. AppFolio exudes an extra flair and air of professionalism with its comprehensive selection and presentation of features. There is a feature for just about every task you would want to execute.
There are many features offered that most other software packages don’t include. While a few of the other software platforms may include some of these, AppFolio’s features are executed more efficiently. These features include:
- Task scheduling and tracking
- Role-based permissions
- Reporting
- Event calendar
- Email marketing
- Data migration
- Call center management
- Appointment management
- Repair estimates
- Mobile alerts
- Membership management portal
- Event scheduling and tracking
Customer support:
Their customer support consists of training, help resources, and a customer support team where customer issues are handled fairly quickly. Their biggest strength under customer support is that the developers listen and act on customer suggestions and requests if feasible, so their software is constantly evolving and makes them a very progressive software company.
Price:
If it hadn’t been for the price, AppFolio would have been rated best overall, but their price is more than the others we reviewed. Their price starts at $280 per month. If you decide to go with AppFolio, it’s a good idea to take advantage of their free trial period to make sure the software is worth the price.
What Does Accounting Software Cost?
Most programs charge between $1 and $2 per unit under management. Some may charge you a monthly minimum fee, usually in the $200 to $250 range, even if you don’t have enough properties to warrant that high fee. A few companies charge a substantial setup cost, usually in the $400 range, but others don’t.
Conclusion
The accounting software for rental business is used to track income and expenses in your rental business. You can easily enter new cash receipts and payments, track your receivables and payables, see the budget vs actual reports. This system also works great if you are looking for a solution to calculate property taxes, find maintenance charges and more!
If you own a rental business, at some point you will need to get an accounting software for rental business. The best accounting software for rental business helps you track financial information about your properties. Information about rent collected and expenses can be analyzed with the help of such online accounting software for rental business. This information helps managers in making critical financial decision. Accounting software for rental business is important to help you run your small business efficiently and profitably.