It's a smart move to look for specialized real estate accounting software to manage your rental property finances. Relying on spreadsheets is a huge time sink and leaves you open to errors, which is the last thing you want when trying to grow your portfolio.
Since general business accounting tools like QuickBooks often lack the specific features landlords need, specialized software is a much better fit. It automates tasks, improves accuracy, and gives you the clear financial picture you need to grow your passive income.
Key takeaways
- Look for a solution that automates bookkeeping, transaction categorization, and financial reporting—it's how the average investor saves 150 hours per year.
- The best tools offer features specifically tailored to landlords, like Schedule E tax report generation and consolidated ledgers.
- An all-in-one platform that combines bookkeeping with landlord banking and online rent collection dramatically simplifies your workflow and provides instant, precise transaction data.
Top accounting software to simplify rental bookkeeping
We've rounded up a list of the top platforms, keeping an eye out for how well they fit the needs of real estate investors like you.
1. Baselane
Trustpilot Rating: 4.6/5
Baselane is an all-in-one integrated banking platform with built-in rent collection and bookkeeping. It helps you simplify accounting by keeping your transactions organized and ensuring smooth tax preparation.
We built Baselane specifically for real estate investors and landlords, thus you get a tailored suite of features to automate rental cash flow and improve visibility into your finances.
Key features
- Automated AI bookkeeping: Transactions from all your connected accounts are automatically synced and categorized using over 120+ Schedule E categories, making tax time effortless.
- Online rent collection: Collect rent via ACH or card ($2 ACH fee only when not depositing directly to Baselane), set up auto-pay for tenants, and receive direct deposits within 2-5 business days.
- Integrated landlord banking: Open unlimited, free virtual accounts for each property, unit, and security deposit to keep your funds separate and organized. You can also earn a competitive high yield on deposits.
- Financial reporting: Auto-generate cash flow insights, Income Statements, and a complete downloadable tax package, including a Schedule E report, with the click of a button.
Baselane has been great for me. I was struggling to find a platform and approach for accounting and bookkeeping. I either had to pay someone or figure out all the advanced features of other software. Baselane helped bring together all of my activities in one (bookkeeping for short-term rental, long-term rental, rent collection, and banking) and has significantly improved things for me! ~ Dante Myers
Pricing
Baselane has two pricing plans.
- Baselane Core: $0. Full suite of tools and premium features with no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements
- Baselane Smart: $20/month billed annually. Unlock advanced auto-tagging rules, 2-day rent deposits, shared access, and more.
2. RentRedi
G2 Rating: 4.3/5
RentRedi is a cloud-based property management platform that offers basic features to track rental income and expenses. Its core focus leans more toward tenant communication and property management functions rather than deep accounting tools. It may lack the robust automated accounting and detailed financial reporting that landlords with larger portfolios need.
Key features
- Rules for expense tracking: Allows you to track expenses, but lacks automated categorization for a completely hands-off experience.
- Online applications & lease signing: Includes a digital platform for new tenant paperwork and e-signing leases.
- Collect rent online with auto-pay: Tenants can pay rent through the platform, with options for automatic, recurring payments.
Pricing
There is no free plan available. Paid plans start at $5/mo for rent collection only. If you need access to the tools to manage your rentals, their Grow plan starts at $29.95/mo.
3. Stessa
G2 Rating: 4/5
Stessa offers features for expense tracking, tax preparation, and single-entry bookkeeping. It’s a decent option for smaller operations, but if you have a large portfolio or need advanced property management features, you might find its functionality somewhat limited.
Key features
- Expense tracking: Automatically imports and tracks transactions by connecting your bank accounts.
- Performance visualization: Provides dashboards to visualize your property and portfolio performance.
- Tax preparation tools: Offers basic tools to help gather information for tax filing.
Pricing
Stessa offers a free plan for tracking up to 1 portfolio and basic accounting packages. You don’t get access to Schedule E category tagging or advanced transaction tracking. The advanced accounting features are locked behind their Manage and Pro tiers, ranging between $15 - $35 pr month.
4. Avail
G2 Rating: 4.1/5
Avail's core strength is as a property management platform for tasks like listing properties, screening tenants, and collecting rent. It has basic accounting features like transaction categorization and rent syncing, but it's generally not sufficient for complex accounting or in-depth financial reporting, which would require integration with separate software.
Key features
- Income and expense tracking: Simple functionality to keep a basic log of your financial transactions.
- Online applications & leasing: Allows you to manage the entire tenant application and leasing process digitally.
- Rent collection & auto-pay: Offers an easy way to collect rent online, with tenants having the option for automatic payments.
Pricing
Avail offers a free Unlimited plan with basic accounting, rent collection, and vacancy advertising. Like many accounting software, Avail offers a paid plan and charges per unit. Their Unlimited Plus account starts at $9/mo per unit.
5. Buildium
Trustpilot Rating: 4.2/5
Buildium is a comprehensive property management solution that includes a full range of accounting tools designed for rental businesses. It’s a powerful platform, but it’s often considered more suitable for larger portfolios due to its complexity and tiered pricing structure.
Key features
- Recurring transactions: Allows you to manage and track transactions that happen on a regular schedule.
- Tax preparation & 1099 e-filing: Helps streamline the process for end-of-year tax reporting, including e-filing for 1099s.
- Tenant communication: Provides a portal and tools to manage communication with your tenants.
Pricing
Buildium offers a 14-day free trial and no free plan. Their pricing is not public as they only offer custom plans based on the demo and your portfolio.
6. AppFolio
Trustpilot Rating: 3/5
AppFolio is another robust property management platform with a strong focus on accounting, data analytics, and tenant management. It provides features like customizable financial reports and automated electronic payments. However, its pricing and complexity are geared toward larger portfolios, making it significantly more expensive for smaller landlords.
Key features
- AI-generated smart bill entry: Uses artificial intelligence to help process and categorize invoices.
- Automated electronic payments: Simplifies the payment process for both receiving rent and paying vendors.
- Data and analytics: Provides in-depth data and reports for portfolio performance metrics.
Pricing
Appfolio offer 3 tiers for property managers—Core, Plus, and Max–each of which comes with a custom price tag. Advanced budgeting, accounting, and data analysis is offered at high-tier plans only, starting from their Plus account.
7. Rentec Direct
G2 Rating: 4.5/5
Rentec Direct is primarily a property management tool offering general bookkeeping functionality for rental property accounting. While it includes features for 1099 e-filing and customizable invoicing, those who need advanced features like detailed financial reporting or real-time data analysis may need to look elsewhere.
Key features
- 1099 e-filing support: Assists with generating and submitting 1099 forms for contractors and vendors.
- Customizable invoicing: Allows for the creation of recurring invoices for charges beyond just rent.
- Financial reports: Provides basic reports to track property performance.
Pricing
Rentec Direct offers a 14-day free trial but no free plan. Paid plans start at $50 per month for 1 unit for Rentec Pro (for landlords and investors) and Rentec PM (for property managers). Prices increase with the number of units you manage, making Rentec Direct an expensive option for large-scale investors.
8. DoorLoop
Trustpilot Rating: 4.5/5
DoorLoop is another all-in-one software that offers user-friendly features for property management, including simple bookkeeping and expense tagging. While it covers the basics, it lacks advanced financial features like automated tax packages and deep real-time financial insights.
Key features
- Expense categorization & tagging: Enables the sorting and tagging of property expenses for organization.
- Custom portfolios: Allows for the creation of separate accounting structures for multi-property management.
- Custom reports: Offers the ability to generate specific reports tailored to your needs.
Pricing
DoorLoop pricing plans are comparatively higher, starting at $99/mo, going up to $239/mo for only 1 unit.
9. Hemlane
G2 Rating: 4.8/5
Hemlane is a rental property management platform that is currently rolling out accounting features like bank account syncing and financial reporting, which are still in their beta stage. It does not offer a full suite of financial tools and is missing the robust reporting needed for serious investment management.
Key features
- Financial reporting: Provides basic reporting (currently in beta).
- Late fee automation: Automatically applies and manages late fees according to your lease terms.
- Bank account syncing: Allows you to connect bank accounts to track transactions (currently in beta).
Pricing
Hemlane offers a free plan, but doesn’t offer any rent collection or accounting feature on this plan. Basic accounting features come at a starting price of $36.50/mo. You get a 14-day free trial for all of their plans.
10. TurboTenant
Trustpilot Rating: 4.5/5
TurboTenant is primarily a property management platform. It offers some basic accounting features like financial report generation and rent payment syncing, but for advanced functionality like automated transaction syncing and detailed expense tracking, you need to integrate it with third-party accounting software. It also lacks key financial metrics such as cash-on-cash return calculations.
Key features
- Synced accounts: Syncs rent payments, expenses, and bank accounts (often requires integration with another tool).
- One-click tax packets: Simplifies tax prep by compiling necessary documents for filing.
- Lease tracking: Helps monitor and track the status of your leases and agreements.
Pricing
TurboTenant offers a free plan with basic accounting tools, but features like custom tenant screening, integrated banking, and waived ACH fees require upgrading to the Pro plan at $9.92/mo or the Premium plan at $12.42/mo.
11. Azibo
Trustpilot Rating: 3.9/5
Azibo is DIY property management software that includes a few accounting functionalities, such as automatic transaction imports and categorization. It offers a real estate-specific chart of accounts. However, keep an eye out for potential fees; while it advertises its accounting as free, adding accountant access can cost extra.
Key features
- Real estate-specific chart of accounts: Provides a standardized set of financial categories tailored to rental property accounting.
- Transaction categorization: Categorizes imported bank and credit card transactions.
- Automated rent collection: Allows for easy collection of rent payments through the platform.
Pricing
Azibo’s core accounting features are available for free. But, collaborating with your accountant can cost $8.25/mo plus a separate collaborator fee of $99/seat per year.
12. TenantCloud
Trustpilot Rating: 4.1/5
TenantCloud is a property management platform that offers tools for income and expense tracking and basic account reconciliation. The platform restricts the number of entities and bank accounts you can add to most plans. For complex financial analysis or advanced reporting, you'll need to use and manually integrate with separate accounting software.
Key features
- Owner portal: Gives owners access to track financial performance and reports.
- Accountant collaboration: Provides tools to share information with your accountant.
- Tax prep tools: Offers basic tools to help gather necessary tax-related information.
Pricing
TenantCloud offers a 14-day free trial. Subscriptions are tiered into four plans: Starter, Growth, Pro, and Business, starting from $18/mo to $60+/mo, depending on your portfolio size.
Baselane vs. other accounting software
When choosing an accounting tool, an integrated platform built specifically for real estate investors can make all the difference, providing a superior level of automation and insight.
Automate your accounting and maximize returns with Baselane
Finding the right accounting software for your rental properties is a critical step in streamlining financial management, reducing errors, and getting the real-time data you need to make informed investment decisions.
If you're looking for an all-in-one platform that was purpose-built to help you gain financial clarity and control without the hassle of monthly fees, Baselane is the ideal choice.
We combine:
- Built-in banking with unlimited virtual accounts.
- Automated bookkeeping that tags everything to a property and Schedule E category.
- Instant tax and financial reporting to simplify tax season and track your cash flow.
Ready to swap manual spreadsheets and expensive software for a single, powerful platform? Get started with Baselane for free today.
FAQs
What is the best software to keep track of rental properties?
Baselane is a top choice for keeping track of rental properties. It offers a comprehensive suite of tools for accounting, banking, and rent collection, all in one place.
How do I keep track of my rental property expenses?
You can use accounting software designed for landlords, like Baselane, to easily track your rental property expenses. These tools automate many tasks, such as categorizing transactions and generating reports.
Is property management accounting hard?
Property management accounting can be complex, especially as your portfolio grows. However, the right accounting software can simplify the process and reduce the risk of errors.
Who should get accounting software?
Any landlord, regardless of the size of their portfolio, can benefit from accounting software. It can help you stay organized, save time, and make better financial decisions.
Can QuickBooks be used for landlords?
While QuickBooks can be used for accounting tasks, it's a general accounting tool that’s not specifically designed for landlords. It doesn’t have landlord-specific features like Schedule E-based categorization or automated rent collection and it requires manual entry for multiple properties. Accounting software for rental businesses like Baselane is a better choice.
Is QuickBooks good for collecting rent?
QuickBooks is useful for tracking rent payments, but it's not the most efficient way to collect rent. You'll need to manually enter tenant information and track payments, which can be time-consuming.
What’s the difference between accounting software and bookkeeping?
Accounting software is a tool that helps you record, analyze, and report financial transactions. Bookkeeping is the process of recording financial transactions. Rental property accounting software for small landlords provides features uniquely tailored to property management tasks, including real estate tax-based transaction categorization, separate landlord tax deductions for multiple properties, and Schedule E reports.
What accounting software do other Airbnb hosts use?
Many Airbnb hosts use rental accounting software like Baselane to manage vacation rental properties. Baselane offers features specifically designed for short-term rentals, such as automated tax calculations, receipt capture, unit-level transaction tagging, and streamlined reporting, to help with Airbnb accounting.
What is the best accounting software for property management?
The best accounting software for property management depends on your specific needs and budget. However, Baselane is a popular choice for many landlords due to its comprehensive features and user-friendly interface.
What is the best accounting software for real estate investing?
Baselane is the best accounting software for real estate investing because it offers a wide range of features, including automated bookkeeping with integrated banking and rent collection (plus more), all in one platform.
