The management of rental property or small businesses are different than for other types of business. Software for rental property landlords and rental business owners does not have to be as complex or expensive as other types of software, but it must remain efficient. Accounting software for small Rental Business should be versatile, easy to understand and learn, and improve the management process.
You might be wondering if you actually need to use any kind of software for managing your rental income. I think almost all small business people would agree that keeping track of finances is a much better option than trying to rely on memory alone. If you want to keep your business profitable and organized, the answer is accounting software for small rental business
If you have a small rental property business, then one of the best things you can do is to get yourself some good accounting software. If you’re spending a bunch of time manually entering numbers, searching for clients and tenants, etc. – even if the business is only part-time – it’s worthwhile to consider getting a good accounting program to make your life easier.
So you’re a landlord, and you want to get a handle on your rental income and expenses. Maybe you’ve been using a simple spreadsheet, and it’s starting to get really messy. Let’s talk about accounting software for small rental business.
Why use rental property accounting software?
Rental property accounting software simplifies your life as a real estate investor. Routine bookkeeping takes just a few minutes each month, tracking receipts and paying bills is much less of a chore, and generating tax-ready financial statements at the end of the year can be done with just the push of a button.
There’s a lot of accounting software on the market today, from services with a monthly billing or annual membership fee to some pretty amazing accounting software that is absolutely free.
AppFolio
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.
Rentec 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.
Buildium
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.
Rent Manager
Rent Manager is a dedicated rental property management software with a robust set of features. They have good accessibility, with a cloud-based, desktop, mobile app version and good customization settings.
Their feature set makes them a good fit for beginners and more advanced users, but they gate certain features behind higher pay tiers and don’t offer transparent pricing plans.
Features include:
- Custom reporting
- Automated rent payments
- Custom training and data migration
- Automatic bank reconciliation
- A large number of integrations
Rent Manager Pricing
Rent Manager offers pricing options for each version of its software, including a cloud-based and desktop version based on per-unit pricing.
However, they don’t list their pricing publicly, so you’ll need to contact Rent Manager to get more information.
Hemlane
Hemlane is designed for rental property management and offers unique features such as being able to match you with local agents. If you’re uniquely concerned with placement, Hemlane is worth considering for its leasing tools.
However, it’s one of the most expensive options on this list, so you’re paying more for those extra features.
Features include:
- Good leasing tools such as tenant screening
- Other useful local support features
- Work order management
- Online rent payments
Hemlane pricing
Hemlane’s pricing starts somewhat affordable but quickly escalates at a $2 per unit pricing model.
Their Basic plan starts at $30 per month with $2 per unit additional after the first. That means if you manage even 20 units, Hemlane will be $70 per month.
Their premium-tier Complete plan starts at $60 per month but costs $32 per property after the first.
Hemlane’s enterprise pricing model comes partly due to its unique on-location support features, which other rental property software solutions don’t offer.
Chances are, these might not be useful to you. However, to those that find such local support invaluable or necessary, Hemlane is worth considering.
Hemlane offers a 30-day free trial, so you can try it out for free.
Stessa
Stessa is a digital platform for property investors to manage, monitor, and communicate the performance of real estate assets. Created by real estate investors, Stessa allows users to easily keep track of property performance, finances, and the paper trail that comes with real estate investing—in one central place.
Stessa will track income, expenses, and provide investors with dozens of critical investing metrics and tax-ready documentation.
Beyond the fact that it’s free, Stessa also offers a number of innovative solutions for landlords who want a tool that moves beyond simple accounting inputs and outputs. For instance, Stessa recently added real-time receipt scanning with automatic tax-ready real estate categorization to the Stessa mobile apps for iOS and Android.
All receipts and invoices that are scanned with the Stessa app are also available on the online platform and vice-versa, so you always have a complete picture of your property expenses. Stessa’s machine learning and OCR technologies parse all the details and then organizes the information. All transaction details are stored in the cloud with the industry’s best security, so everything is always accessible and available during tax time or for audit purposes.
Further, Stessa has a document storage feature that allows landlords and investors to capture all of their critical financial and accounting documents in one centralized database.
Other cool features from the Stessa accounting software app includes rental reports and a mortgage portal for those looking to explore their financing options.
What 5 key Rental Property Management Software features should I look for?
Applications and tenant information
*Tenant portals enable online rent payment, maintenance request submissions and even community forums for events or public notices to improve communication. *Customizable lease forms and easy document distribution help standardize the leasing process and make sure all required documentation is completed and archived. *Resident screening lets you evaluate applicants’ credit history, criminal activity, rent history and income by initiating these checks from within your software. *Store vital tenant information, such as resident contact information, late fee reminders and work order history.
Rent roll and payments
*Online rent payments eliminate the hassle of paper checks and trips to the bank. *Utility metering calculates and bills for tenant consumption of metered utilities so you don’t have to check and record manually. *Automatic alerts inform landlords and tenants of delinquent rent payments.
Vacancy management
*Automated vacancy postings allow new properties to be listed faster and more easily, reducing the time it takes to fill vacant units. *Automated notifications inform you about upcoming lease expirations. *Vacancy planning provides proactive identification of vacancies and under-utilized locations. *Space tracking helps manage the configuration of available space for move-ins and move-outs.
Maintenance record keeping
*Maintenance request alerts ensure all maintenance issues are taken care of promptly. *The ability to prioritize issues, work assignments, requests and other objectives that require immediate attention helps increase efficiency. *Maintenance staff management allows you to easily delegate tasks. *Service contract storage lets you easily reference records.
Financial accounting and reporting.
*General ledger, income statements, balance sheets and accounts payable and receivable help you keep tabs on revenue, expenses and the overall financial health of your portfolio. *Payroll management allows you to calculate withholdings for state and local income taxes. *Tracking budgets against actuals allows you to view current revenue and forecast future cash flow.
Conclusion
When it comes to finding the best accounting software for your small rental business, there are a few key factors to take into consideration. Obviously, you’ll want a solution that’s easy-to-use and doesn’t require extensive training. You also want something that’s compatible with the type of rental property you own (e.g., single family, multi-family, commercial) or manage. And finally, it should integrate well with third-party solutions such as property management software solutions so you can easily track the performance of your portfolio and the financial health of your business in one place.
For small and big businesses alike, accounting software has become necessary. It helps streamline the operational processes of managing your company’s finances and simplifies your day to day work. Moreover, it makes sure that no accounting nitty-gritty gets slipped through the cracks. But for smaller companies like realtors, this extra work can be a real pain in the neck.