What accounting software are you using for a small rental portfolio?

Question

Hey everyone, I have a couple of rental homes and I’m adding a few more over time.

These are not very expensive properties, so I’m trying to avoid paying a lot every month just for accounting software.

I mainly want something simple where I can track income and expenses by property, keep things organized for taxes, and ideally handle different properties or LLCs without needing a separate expensive subscription for each one.

What are you guys using today?

QuickBooks, Stessa, Baselane, spreadsheets, or something else?

Would especially love to hear from people managing a smaller portfolio who are trying to keep costs low.

Divin Kanyama · Answer

@Sundeep Babbar, For a small portfolio, I’d keep it simple. A good spreadsheet or low-cost rental-focused tool is usually enough if you consistently track income and expenses by property.

The most important thing is separating each property clearly, using tax-friendly categories, saving receipts, and reconciling monthly instead of scrambling at year-end.

QuickBooks can work, but it may be more than you need early on. I wouldn’t pay for expensive software unless it clearly saves time or reduces mistakes.

Sundeep Babbar · Answer

Eduardo, this is exactly the issue I’m running into. I want to be able to see the property-level P&L, but still have the books roll correctly into the legal entity and eventually the balance sheet. The rental tools seem to stop at property income/expense tracking, while traditional accounting software handles the entity side but gets expensive once you have multiple LLCs. I’m trying to find the middle ground.

Jim, agreed. I think that’s where I am now. A spreadsheet was fine when I had one or two properties, but once you mix personally owned properties, LLCs and partnerships, it starts getting messy quickly. I’m less worried about rent collection and more about charging expenses and losses to right property. STR tax depreciation is so different than a flip project

Jim Johnson · Answer

For a small portfolio, I'd match the tool to how much accounting complexity you actually have.

• Spreadsheet: Cheapest and flexible, but you're doing everything manually
• Stessa/Baselane: Worth looking at if the priority is rental-specific income and expense tracking without building everything yourself
• QuickBooks: More robust, especially once multiple LLCs or more complicated bookkeeping enter the picture, but it may be more than you need right now

With only a couple of rentals, I'd care less about having the most powerful software and more about whether I can easily see each property's income, expenses and cash flow and get clean records at tax time. Once the portfolio and LLC structure grow, that's when I'd be more willing to pay for the additional accounting capability.

Eduardo Cavasotti · Answer

Sundeep, the tool matters less than the grain of the records. Track every rent deposit, repair, receipt, loan payment, and owner contribution by property first, then roll those properties into the right LLC for taxes. If the system makes you choose between clean property books and clean entity books, you will hate it by the time you add the third or fourth rental.

Mackaylee Beach · Answer

INNAGO has proven to be an excellent platform for my daily activities. It is user-friendly and supports everything from marketing properties to managing monthly rent and handling work orders.