Rental Business Accounting Software is a complete package for small to large rental businesses. This comprehensive software allows you to manage your business expenses and accounting, track equipment, create work orders, and record cost per use, sales and expenses over time. Rental Business Accounting Software provides the convenience of centralized information with modules for equipment, clients, employees, and invoicing, as well as work orders in one location aligning clients’ demands with available inventory. Rental based businesses have unique processes that require specific features from their software systems.
While doing your research on property management accounting software, you have probably come across a key term: cash basis accounting. Many people have never heard of this term, but they know that they need some type of rental business accounting software. But what is cash basis accounting? Is it the same thing as bookkeeping for rental properties? This post breaks down the difference between these two terms and gives an introduction to cash basis accounting.
Rental real estate investing, like any other small business, can be more complicated than some individuals expect. There are many facets of the business that you will want to stay on top of if you want to run it effectively and make sure that you are staying on the right side of the law.
Many property owners use Excel for their accounting needs, but don’t let the simplicity of this spread sheet lead you to believe that it is capable of completing the tasks required of a complete business management platform. Having a dedicated rental management software system will not only help you to manage all aspects of your real estate business, but it will also allow for an easier and more efficient rental property financial reporting.
What features should you look for in rental property management software?
It’s essential to keep in mind that not every rental property management tool is made equal (i.e., has the same features).
When deciding which software to choose, you should consider:
- What features a particular software has
- Of those, what features would be helpful to you
- And what features you need (i.e. the dealbreakers)
Depending on the software, you might only be getting the core features, while others offer additional features that can help you streamline and automate additional areas of your property management efforts.
Here are some features you should look for in good property management software:
1. Automatic rent payments and tenant portal
The #1 thing that rental property management software does for you is make it easier to collect rent and communicate with tenants.
The bottom line is most important, and having software that facilitates faster, reliable, and semi-automated rent payments is invaluable.
Many property management software solutions offer a complete tenant portal where you can collect rent and communicate directly with tenants.
Tenants can then handle rent and additional responsibilities through the portal, such as pet rent, parking fees, and even send in maintenance requests.
Talk about efficiency.
Rent– faster, more reliably, and with less work on your end? Perfect worlds do exist.
2. Manage maintenance orders
Juggling work orders between tenants and vendors can be a pain, following up with this person while putting in this order and replying to that vendor.
Another major area that online rental property management software helps with is streamlining your work order system.
With most property management tools, you can:
- Accept maintenance requests directly from tenants
- Create work orders and add attachments such as notes and images
- Assign that work order to a vendor
- Pay that vendor
- And communicate with tenants on that maintenance request for information and status updates
All your work orders in one place, with one central communication tool that helps you simplify and streamline the entire process.
3. Applicant screening and online applications
The best rental property management software doesn’t just help simplify and even semi-automate rent collection and maintenance orders, it also does the same to help you bring in new tenants.
Many property management tools offer features like:
- Online applications: Tenants can sign applications entirely online, and process their application fee. You can view the status of those applications with a few clicks.
- Applicant screening: To make the entire entry process even easier, many tools allow applicants to also request their own background check while submitting their application and process the payment.
4. Automatic vacancy listings
Need some help sooner in the pipeline too?
Vacant units are a missed opportunity and money that’s actively slipping through your fingers.
Fortunately, many rental management tools allow you to list vacant units on key property listing platforms automatically. No additional work is necessary.
That way, you have less downtime between tenants and can maximize cash flow.
Now that we’ve covered some of the key features in the average rental property management tool, let’s dive into the best software options available.
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.
Simplify your rental property reporting.
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.
Quickbooks
Quickbooks is accounting software used by businesses in all industries. It is a powerful accounting tool designed for businesses of all types to track and manage income and expenses.
As such, many landlords have turned to this platform to manage their rentals. Quickbooks can easily allow you to receive and track rent payments, pay contractors and property managers, and track fees and track property maintenance.
That said, because Quickbooks is a more general accounting software suite, it lacks many of the industry-specific features that landlords may require like investing metrics.
Appfolio
Appfolio, and Buildium below, are both full suite property management software. Appfolio is therefore a powerful tool for landlords and property managers to keep track of tenants, properties, payments, word orders, and more.
Appfolio does have accounting features, such as deposits, online payments, automated late fees, and more.
Buildium
Buildium is similar to Appfolio, in that it is more of a full-fledged property management platform than one specifically designed for accounting. Buildium does offer some accounting features such as company financials, payment tracking, accounts payable, and more. And, you get all these accounting tools with Buildium’s core membership, it’s not an upgrade.
Buildium also includes some in-app calculators and an e-filing tool when it comes to tax time. To compare both Appfolio and Buildium, here is a comprehensive analysis of both software suites.
DoorLoop
Want an all-in-one rental property management solution with:
- All the features we mentioned above (and more)
- Stellar–and responsive– customer service
- Designed with ease-of-use in mind
- And at a price that easily fits your budget?
Then DoorLoop is the pick.
DoorLoop is designed by property managers, for property managers, so it was crafted with many of the common pain points of other property management software (slow and clunky UI, lousy customer service) in mind.
Whether you deal strictly in rental properties or have a mixed portfolio, DoorLoop can handle any type of property.
DoorLoop features
- Manage your entire property accounting in one place: Including automatic rent payments, custom reports, bank reconciliations, multiple payment methods, and integrations with popular accounting software such as QuickBooks.
- Convenient tenant portal: Collect rent, communicate with tenants, even allow tenants to submit maintenance requests themselves directly from within the app.
- Streamlined work order management: After tenants submit their maintenance request from within the app, create the work order, attach notes and images, assign it to a vendor, pay that vendor, and communicate with the tenant.
- Owner portal: Print checks, run reports, and more.
- Marketing and screening made easy: Automatically list vacant units on top sites, screen tenants, and run background checks, all within the app.
- And much more
DoorLoop pricing
The most significant variance within the property management software space is easily price. Some are affordable, while some are way outside the average budget. A few offer free trials, most don’t.
Fortunately, DoorLoop has you covered on both ends.
Not only can you try DoorLoop for 50% off your first two months. After that, DoorLoop pricing starts at just $49 per month billed annually for up to 20 properties.
Rentroom
Rentroom is a complete property management solution that boasts good accounting features and an intuitive interface.
The software also boasts some unique community features, making it a decent option for condos, multi-family, and HOA properties.
Rentroom’s accounting reports are limited, though, so if that’s a key feature for you, this might not be the best option.
Rentroom features
- Online rent collection and payment reminders
- Other basic accounting features such as cash reconciliation
- Tenant portal
- Maintenance management
Rentroom Pricing
Rentroom offers a free trial to try out the software before investing. However, they don’t list their pricing publicly, so you’ll need to contact them directly to find out more.
How do you do bookkeeping for a rental property?
Property managers and landlords have unique accounting needs, particularly when managing the financials of their properties.
Some of those unique bookkeeping practices include:
- Setting up individual accounts for each property
- Implementing a system to collect and track rent payments
- As well as income and expenses
- Not to mention, fees such as parking and HOA
- And managing two separate accounts simultaneously (ideally): one for your property management services (paying for maintenance, collecting rent payments) and one for the property management business itself (paying payroll, utilities)
A notable property management software can help you with much more than you may expect.
Conclusion
Some rental management software options are rather affordable, but oftentimes the more expensive options have more integrated features. Can you trust a management accounting system that is relatively cheap? Or do you need to run your rental business accounting with the best rental property management software? Which option provides the best value for your money when it comes to rental management accounting services?
As a business owner in the rental field, you need software designed for your industry. Our software has been designed with your needs in mind. Not only does it handle all aspects of financial management, it is simple to learn and easy to use.