Rental income worksheets in Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, and Numbers are popular for new landlords. Templates for tracking rental income and expenses make setup faster and easier, plus you can customize the fields if needed. However, worksheets and spreadsheets don’t integrate with other tools—like property management software or document storage—leaving you with an information silo.
Using multiple unintegrated systems may not seem like a big deal, but system silos pose problems even for a small-scale real estate investor with a few properties to manage. Today, we’ll discuss those problems and introduce a solution to eliminate the hassle of rental property tax worksheets.
Introduction of Errors
Many landlords start out relying on rental income worksheets because they’re familiar, affordable, and easy to use. However, some investors fail to consider how easy it is to introduce errors into a rental income and expenses template.
Whether you’re downloading CSV files, cutting and pasting data, or manually entering figures into your spreadsheet, your numbers still need verification. You may not know it, but cutting and pasting figures can overwrite formulas on your templates.
Consider this: Are you using a PDF of a rental property tax worksheet? Manual data entry, whether on hard copies, PDFs, or worksheets, is prone to transposed digits and skipped transactions.
And remember, account reconciliation is a key step in an accounting workflow. When you rely on spreadsheets, you need a manual system of checks and balances to ensure proper double-entry bookkeeping for your rental units.
Inefficient Use of Time
For landlords, a template- or spreadsheet-based accounting system requires a great deal of time. You lose time whenever you need to
- manually transfer data between programs,
- navigate to another system to find data,
- search for supporting documentation stored elsewhere, and
- duplicate a system to account for a new property.
With an inefficient workflow centered around rental income worksheets, you spend more time managing data, increasing the likelihood of errors.
Lack of Synchronization
Stand-alone accounting systems like rental income calculation worksheets also don’t allow you to sync your accounts. As a landlord, you need a current view of your portfolio’s income, expenses, and profitability, and that means you need real-time synchronization with bank accounts, credit cards, or payment platforms.
Without synchronization, the risk of errors and omissions during account reconciliation increases. Plus, you’ll spend more time gathering and recording data just to answer simple questions, like: Has your tenant paid rent? Is your rental making a profit? Did the payment to your contractor clear? You won’t know without manually updating your data.
In short, if you want real-time data and reporting, rental income worksheets probably aren’t a good fit for you.
Scaling and Manual Reporting
Real estate investors rely on reports and metrics to make informed property decisions. But when your accounting system is based on worksheets, you’ll have to build reports manually. If you’re an Excel whiz, linking formulas between tabs or multiple sheets may work well. But those complicated nested formulas require more time to write—and double-check.
If you decide to track your property’s transactions on rental income and expense worksheets, be prepared to spend time building even the most basic set of reports. Even with the three main financial reports—balance sheet, profit and loss, and cash flow—you’ll still miss out on performance and detailed financial reports.
Do you want to track expenses at multiple levels—by unit, property, and portfolio? If so, that means duplicating reports and updating the formulas for each unit and property. And without integrated accounts, real-time reporting isn’t an option. You’ll have to manually record your transactions to get piecemeal reporting for your business.
How many investment properties do you have? If one rental property needs multiple spreadsheets, then landlords with multiple properties require exponentially more worksheets and admin time. Scaling your business with spreadsheets comes with increased inefficiencies, becoming even more of a hassle.
Lack of Tax Prep Support
Part of the appeal of using rental income calculation worksheets is that they’re supposed to be easy and inexpensive. But starting with the so-called easy solution can end up costing you more in the end.
Did you know? Missing $100 in deductions ends up costing the average middle-income landlord an extra $25 in federal taxes.
Rental property tax worksheets don’t have built-in features to help you prepare for tax time. Without proper categorization and tracking, you could overlook deductible expenses—or make erroneous deductions—leading to higher tax liabilities or accuracy-related penalties. Your account reviews must be even more thorough to check for errors and omissions in your spreadsheets, all before completing your tax forms.
Then, when it’s time to share your files with your CPA, sending the worksheets as attachments or uploads should be easy. That will work if you only have a few spreadsheets. But, sharing multiple sheets is more complex; you need to manage which version you’ve sent to the CPA. Discovering an error in one sheet can affect multiple reports—meaning your CPA has to redo work. And the more time it takes your CPA to wade through the worksheets to do your taxes, the more your tax preparation fees will cost.
That’s why Schedule E rental income worksheets and templates can become expensive. It’s not the initial cost that’s high—it’s the extra time, mistakes, and resulting fees that add to the bill.
REI Hub: The Alternative to Rental Income Worksheets
Rental income worksheets may be popular, but they have pitfalls. If you’re looking for an affordable, fast, and easy way to track your investment property’s income and expenses, check out REI Hub. Our accounting platform is designed specifically for landlords and eliminates the hassle and headaches of relying on spreadsheets.
Accurately Track Income and Expenses
Are you looking for a Schedule E rental income worksheet? Look no further. Unlike all-purpose spreadsheet software, REI Hub’s platform is made for rental property accounting. The chart of accounts is preconfigured to align with the IRS Schedule E categories, so you don’t need to waste time on tedious setup steps in a worksheet.
We understand that you’re (probably) not a CPA. That’s why we have templates to help you accurately record transactions like loan payments and security deposits. And when you’re not sure how to record a transaction, we have resource articles and an extensive knowledge base with step-by-step instructions and tutorials to help you. Plus, our five-star US-based customer support is available by phone or email—for free.
“This software has made managing my 4 STR’s easy. No more spreadsheets to maintain. Bank and CC interface, depreciation schedules and accounting at every level. Daily transaction feed with built-in expense accounts that correlate with Schedule E. Thorough reports, and everything I could need to create an accurate tax packet at years end, and it does that too! A++”
—Anthony Pellegrini, short-term rental owner
Save Time with Linked Accounts
Making your operations more efficient helps you maintain a competitive edge in a changing rental market. One way landlords can save time is by using REI Hub’s bank feeds feature. Our integrations with Plaid and Yodlee mean your REI Hub account connects securely to your financial institutions. This efficient and powerful tool eliminates manual data entry, saves time, and reduces errors.
Ready to become even more efficient? REI Hub has partner integrations with TurboTenant and RentRedi. With linked property management and bookkeeping systems, you can quickly update your portfolio, automatically book rent payments, and allocate transactions to the correct unit and property.
Our platform also includes document storage, so you can safely store critical documents like leases, warranties, and receipts in the cloud—without the hassle and expense of another storage system. Need to record information on the go? We have an app and mileage logs to help you stay organized, even when you’re not at your desk.
“I love this new subscription. I used to waste hours of my time building spreadsheets—this had at least halved the time I spend bookkeeping.”
—Jon Treers
Monitor Your Rentals with Real-Time Reports
Reports are crucial for making informed decisions about your rental properties. That’s why REI Hub offers comprehensive financial reporting. No more worrying about updating spreadsheet fields and formulas—the financial and performance reports you need are available when you need them.
- Balance sheet
- Cap rate
- Cash flows by property
- Cash on cash
- Expenses by vendor
- Mileage by property
- Net income
- Net operating income
- Owner statement
- Portfolio value by property
- Rent roll
- Security deposits held
- And more!
Our reports are also property-centric, so you can run them on the unit, property, or portfolio level without the hassle of duplicating worksheets.
Prep for Tax Season with Confidence
REI Hub has you covered for tax season, too. Our Tax Review report lets you double-check your portfolio data and find commonly missed deductions.
Are you worried about 1099s and fixed assets? Use our Expenses by Vendor report to identify your vendors who meet the threshold requirements for 1099 forms. And, our Fixed Asset Schedule gives you a breakdown of all your assets, balances, and depreciation so that you can take advantage of this crucial non-cash deduction.
Then, when your books are ready, our Schedule E report organizes rental income and deductible expenses by property. And it’s formatted to match the IRS Schedule E requirements for tax filing, so you can confidently complete your tax forms.
Do you work with an accountant? Instead of sending your CPA a wave of worksheets, give them access to your REI Hub account. They can adjust journal entries and pull the reports they need at their convenience.
Say Goodbye to Spreadsheets and Hello to REI Hub
Real estate investors may start with rental income worksheets; we know spreadsheets are popular. But they’re just not the best option for rental property owners.
REI Hub includes your essential accounting features and property management integrations at a reasonable price, giving landlords everything they need without the aggravation of updating worksheets.
“REI Hub is worth its weight in gold and has been an absolute lifesaver! After struggling with the complexity of QB, and the time wasted for the tediousness of a spreadsheet I decided to give the trial version a shot, and after a few hours of learning the system I immediately signed up for it. Managing accounting for my five short-term rental properties has never been easier for me. It’s saved me an incredible amount of time and made the whole process so much more manageable. I give REI Hub a five-star rating without hesitation. I’m so happy I tried REI Hub and would recommend to any REI investor.”
—Brian Koch, short-term rental property owner
Take your rental property’s account books to the next level with REI Hub. Sign up for a free trial today!
Rental Income Worksheet FAQs
Why track rental property income?
Landlords must track rental income and expenses to determine whether their rentals are profitable, how much income they need to report to the IRS, and their operating expenses. Tracking income and expenses helps landlords manage their properties, cash flow, and budget.
How do I calculate rental income?
You can calculate your rental property income for taxes by tracking your income and expenses. With REI Hub’s accounting software for landlords, you can record and monitor your property’s transactions, run financial and performance reports, and confidently prepare for tax time.
What’s the best way to track rental property income?
The best way to track rental property income is to use accounting software like REI Hub, which is specifically designed for real estate investors. By using specialized software for landlords, you can avoid wasting time on tedious setup steps for generic accounting software and rental income calculation worksheets.
What if I don’t report my rental income?
Failure to report income or underreported income can result in audits, back taxes, penalties, fines, and criminal charges. Even unintentional errors or omissions can trigger IRS accuracy-related penalties.
