Best Property Management Accounting Software for Landlords

You probably didn’t get into real estate investing to pore over spreadsheets late into the night. No, you became a landlord to build a profitable portfolio full of happy tenants and build wealth. To ensure that more cash goes in than out, closely tracking expenses, identifying opportunities, and finding small discrepancies before they escalate is crucial. You need property management accounting software.

These real-estate-specific tools are a surefire way to get your finances in order. With all your properties closely tracked and organized in one place, the financial details you need to keep an eye on are always a click away. Whether it’s surprise repairs or the yearly April 15th tax scramble, a powerful accounting tool can save you money on billable CPA hours.

If you’re ready to take control of your accounting situation without relying on spreadsheets and unorganized smartphone photo libraries filled with receipts, keep reading for the best accounting software for property management.

The Importance of Accounting Software for Property Management

Filtering your disparate accounting needs into a single location keeps you organized throughout the year.

Rather than piling expense receipts into a shoebox, manually tracking rent payments, and storing invoices haphazardly in a Google Drive, you can effortlessly automate these processes with integrated property management and accounting software.

When you connect property management software to your bookkeeping processes, rent payments and expenses automatically flow directly from your management dashboard into your books. Because every automated transaction is one fewer opportunity for human error, you’ll save real time and, more importantly, real money.

Let’s not waste time; here’s our list of the best property management accounting software.

Top 5 Accounting Software for Property Management Platforms

TurboTenant Accounting for Landlords

Here at TurboTenant, we’re experts at providing you, the DIY landlord, all the tools you need to run your rentals with peak efficiency. That’s why we know how important it is to find reliable accounting software, designed with exactly the features you need. That’s why we decided to acquire REI Hub.

REI Hub’s powerful landlord accounting software was built with you in mind, and by integrating it with TurboTenant, you save yourself the hassle of managing multiple programs just to operate your property. In terms of accounting functionality, you gain:

• Automate expense and rent payment tracking
• Bank reconciliation
• Report generation for individual units and entire portfolios
  • Standard financial reports
    • Balance sheets
    • Cash flow statements
    • P&L reports
  • Real estate metric reports
    • Net operating income
    • Cash-on-cash

While all those features are nice, unless they’re under one roof, managing them can get unwieldy. So, choose a real estate accounting solution that can also help you market your property, screen tenants, sign leases, and keep the books in order.

Pros:

• Cloud-based
• Mobile friendly
• Automates tedious tasks
• Robust property management-specific integrations
• Free tier has no tricks or trials
• Unlimited units at no extra charge
• Lower learning curve than other accounting software

Cons:

• Some features still moving to TurboTenant from REI Hub

Price:

• TurboTenant’s free tier is actually free
• Premium costs $149 a year
• TurboTenant Accounting features a sliding scale based on the number of units managed, starting at $15/month and maxing out at $85/month for 15+ units

QuickBooks for Property Management

QuickBooks has been around for a long time, and while it’s beloved by many, it may need some extra work to fit your needs perfectly. That’s because, by nature, it’s not truly a landlord bookkeeping software. But even so, QuickBooks offers many integrations and tools that could be helpful to landlords.

With QuickBooks, you can categorize a number of property management tasks, but you’ll have to filter through non-rental-specific naming conventions. For example, properties you manage will be called “Customers,” tenants are categorized as “Customer: jobs of properties,” and property owners are titled “Vendors.”

If you’re new to QuickBooks, this might seem a little confusing at first. Once you’re up and running, though, you can track transactions related to the following:

• Security deposits
• Rental income
• Expenses
• Receipt capture
• Invoice tracking
• Accountant access
• Payments to property owners and vendors, and more

Depending on your property management software provider, you can integrate QuickBooks to streamline your accounting processes. If your platform doesn’t integrate, though, you’ll have to complete these processes the old-fashioned way, either by referring to spreadsheets or combing through receipts, invoices, and other records.

In short, landlords can use QuickBooks for their rental property accounting, but they might find it limited compared to solutions built specifically for property management and landlords.

Pros:

• Clear support documentation
• Automated invoices and reminders
• Report generation that helps at tax time
• Comprehensive and relatively user-friendly once you learn the ropes
• Cloud-based and locally installed options
• Bank connections streamline expense tracking
• Good for large portfolios

Cons:

• Somewhat challenging learning curve
•  Possibly too comprehensive for small portfolios
• Limited customization options

Pricing (for QuickBooks Online):

• Simple Start: $30 per month
• Essentials: $60 per month
• Plus: $90 per month
• Advanced: $200 per month

Zoho Books for Rental Property Accounting

Zoho Books is a nuts-and-bolts landlord accounting software, with a suite of specialized integrations to help landlords manage their rental accounting.

For example, with the standard version of Zoho Books, you’ll have the ability to:

• Track income and expenses
• Reconcile bank statements
• Generate reports
• Create invoices

In general, Zoho Books itself isn’t specifically tailored to rental property management. However, you can pair Zoho Books with prebuilt Zoho Creator templates that are specifically designed for rental property accounting. Landlords also have access to the Zoho Marketplace, which features pre-built apps that may be useful.

Zoho Creator’s Property Management add-on lets you:

• Market properties
• Schedule rent reminders
• Centralize tenant information
• Manage maintenance
• View real-time dashboards showing vacant properties

Keep in mind that these add-ons may require some low-level coding skills, which might be beyond the skill set of many landlords. So while Zoho Books is a solid option, landlords looking for a turnkey solution might want to look elsewhere.

Pros:

• Extremely customizable
• Integrates with a large number of products, including Google Workspace
• Mobile friendly
• Keeps audit trails
• Affordable
• Zoho Marketplace adds additional options

Cons:

• The learning curve might be daunting
• Requires effort to get up and running
• Limited property management features without integration
• Doesn’t scale as well as Xero and QuickBooks

Pricing:

• Free account
• Standard starts at $15 per month
• Professional starts at $40 per month
• Premium starts at $60 per month
• Elite starts at $120 per month
• Ultimate starts at $240 per month

FreshBooks for Landlord Accounting

Just like Zoho Books, FreshBooks is an online accounting platform that integrates with other software. You’ll get a number of features to help you operate your business more efficiently, with features like:

• Time and expense tracking
• Late payment reminders
• Automatic late fee application
• Recurring rent payment invoices
• Auto-billed rent payments
• Secure online payments
• Report generation

What’s lacking with FreshBooks is pre-built property management functionality that integrates directly with tools to help you acquire and manage leads. However, it does cover a number of tax-related needs to help you take the stress out of tax time, so you don’t have to scramble every April.

So, while FreshBooks does provide accounting functionality, if you want to combine all your property management needs, it might be challenging to customize the platform.

Pros:

• User friendly
• Affordable
• Great for smaller portfolios
• Easy to professionalize invoices
• Mobile app for on-the-go finance management

Cons:

• Not as scalable as some others
• Lacks complex accounting features compared to QuickBooks and Xero
• Limited customer support in the free plan

Pricing:

• Lite starts at $5.70 a month
• Plus starts at $9.90 a month
• Premium starts at $18.00 a month
• Select requires contacting FreshBooks

Xero for Real Estate Bookkeeping

Like FreshBooks and Zoho Books, Xero is purpose-built accounting software. One thing that stands out is that Xero is designed with accountants and bookkeepers in mind.

Xero’s suite of features is impressive, with some nice tools that can help landlords keep their books in order. It even directly integrates with Landlord Studio, which immediately adds the benefits of property management software and allows for the seamless flow of financial information from your properties into your dashboard.

Within the core Xero accounting product, features that stand out for landlords include:

• Cash flow management
• Secure document storage
• Contact management
• Expense tracking
• Bank synchronization
• Payment acceptance
• Report generation
• Mobile-friendly management
• Project tracking and more

When you integrate with Landlord Studio, you gain the following capabilities:

• Finding and screening tenants
• Property maintenance
• Online rent collection
• Mobile-friendly management and more

If you need a suite of compelling accounting features, consider Xero. When you combine it with Landlord Studio, you’ll have a solution that syncs data between services for a more automated workflow.

Pros:

• Cloud-based convenience
• User-friendly
• Automation features like bank reconciliations
• Strong integrations with other platforms
• Unlimited users on all plans
• Lower starting price than some competitors

Cons:

• Steeper learning curve for non-accountants
• Not industry-specific to property management
• Landlord Studio integration adds fees

Pricing:

• Early tier starts at $15 per month
• Growing tier starts at $42 per month
• Established tier starts at $78 per month

Keep in mind that integrating with Landlord Studio will require a separate fee. Landlords can manage their first three units in the Go tier for free, but some features are locked behind the paid tier, such as the ability to schedule showings and unlimited document storage.

If you upgrade to the Pro tier for $12 a month, you can manage three units and unlock services that Go doesn’t offer, like automated rent reminders. Neither tier currently offers e-signatures or lease agreements.

Key Features to Look for in Property Management Accounting Software

The best property management accounting software is one that puts the landlord first. Instead of paying a CPA thousands of dollars to track your incoming rent payments and send you forecasting reports, an easy-to-use, cost-effective solution can be your best friend, working alongside you to cut down on CPA bills.

User-Friendliness

User-friendly accounting software for property management ensures that people who may not be incredibly tech-savvy can reap all the benefits of automated accounting software without needing a master’s degree.

Task Automation and Property Management Integration

Manually tracking each rent payment and expense is not only painful, but it’s also sometimes overwhelming, especially if you manage a large number of units. The best property management accounting software imports data automatically from property management solutions, saving you time.

Reporting

Property management accounting software goes beyond basic accounting. By tracking finances per property, you’ll glean valuable insights for each unit. As a result, you can optimize rents and expenses, which are then directly reflected in P&L reports, simplifying Schedule E tax filings at year-end.

Security

Secure data storage is an absolute must for your financial information and tenant data. Look for tools that offer strong encryption and access controls to ensure only authorized users can view sensitive details.

Cost-Effectiveness

A comprehensive rental accounting tool is worth its weight in gold, but finding value isn’t only about securing a rock-bottom price. Automated rent and expense tracking reduces errors and streamlines accounting, saving time and minimizing mistakes, thereby maximizing your return on investment (ROI).

The days of saving stacks of receipts and filling out ledgers are long gone. And hiring a CPA can quickly become expensive. With the rise of property management accounting software, landlords can easily perform essential tasks, such as collecting rent and running reports. Depending on what you need means understanding what you do daily.

Accounting software like QuickBooks has long been a dominant force in the market, but since it’s not designed specifically for landlords, reconfiguring it for property management can be a hassle. And some of the other solutions that we’ve discussed require technical expertise or lack built-in property management functionalities.

For a user-friendly and comprehensive solution, consider TurboTenant. We offer a free tier with the option to pay only for what you need in terms of accounting. With it, you’ll gain automated expense tracking, insightful reporting, and effortless bank account syncing.

Try TurboTenant Accounting today for your property management accounting software. Start by signing up for a free account.

Disclaimer: This blog is for informational purposes only and is published by TurboTenant. It is not legal, financial, or tax advice. Laws and regulations for landlords vary by state and locality and may change over time. Always consult a qualified attorney, accountant, or local housing authority before making decisions related to your rental property. The publisher and authors assume no responsibility for actions taken based on the information provided.

Property Management Accounting Software FAQs