Top Accounting Software For Rental Properties

In this blog post, we are going to discuss in detail all the Top Accounting Software For Rental Properties And How To Select The Best Tool To Manage Your Rentals. Keeping a record of daily items, tracking receipts, creating reports, and preparing for tax season in minutes instead of hours (or days) have become possibly achievable by accounting software for rental properties. What Is Accounting Software for Rental Properties?, Comparison between bookkeeping software and accounting software.

Definition Of Rental Properties?

Accounting software for rental properties captures day-to-day income and expenses. While enabling users to run insightful reports to help them scale their businesses. The software saves landlords hours. If not days hunting for receipts to assemble their tax returns at the end of the year. It also saves them from potentially paying many fee hours to bookkeepers and accountants; while these professionals may still be necessary to have on your team. Accounting software can make their jobs easier, and thus the invoices they send you are lower.

Quick alerts for your late payments and real estate portfolio progress report are also given by accounting software aside from time-saving which can help you accurately account for rental property depreciation.

To help you compare functions and features, pricing, convenience, and customer service, is the research done on the best accounting software for rental properties. The add-on charges are high after free trials

Top Accounting Software

AppFolio

Our choice for best overall, AppFolio, comes with basic and advanced features, making it accessible to landlords who do their own accounting and to beginner and advanced accountants and bookkeepers alike

Advantages AppFolio

Allows Pay only for the features you need and use
Advanced accounting features a landlord needs
Includes a mobile app

Disadvantages of AppFolio

Has a minimum monthly fee
Not fit for a small number of properties
Limited live help after purchase

To operate and grow their business remotely AppFolio has developed software with a suite of features a landlord would need. Complexity needs of varying users, earning our rating as the best overall accounting software for landlords come with the core and plus plans to match budgets.

AppFolio salesperson will guide you through a free demo if you fill out their online form so you can evaluate the features important to you. They also have services you can choose to utilize for a fee with an onboarding fee of at least $400 and then a minimum $250- $1,500 monthly fee which may increase based on how many units you have in a Core or Plus plan:

landlords with at least 200 units, AppFolio is a better fit for mid to large-sized properties.

Customizable reports, online payments and maintenance, marketing tools, lease management, and communication functions come with the nominal capital of AppFolio. An insight to scale your portfolio with the plus tier gets you a variety of strategic performances. Moreso, an entry to services like website creation, lead generation, tenant screening, insurance, online payments, a maintenance call center, utility management, debt collections, and so on. After the utilization of the services, your account will be charged. In addition to these features, powerful marketing integrations with more than 80 internet listing service providers have partnered with AppFolio.

RentDirect Software

Taking the strong bookkeeping tools to the next level of business growth with the plus tier stands out for accounting due to the advanced performance insights and revenue management.

A responsive customer support team gives the software very high-reliability ratings. However, wanting more access to a live person to talk through support issues is one of the few customers complain about.

Allowing you to add new user accounts for free, an easy way to add account users, and setting different permission makes Rentec Direct the top choice for rental property accounting software if you need multiple users.

Advantages of RentDirect Software

It has mobile apps for integrated communication
Premium features for property managers and landlords
Multi-user access to one account with unique usernames and passwords

Disadvantages of RentDirect Software

Its limited number of integrations

Advisable for multiple users, with no additional cost Rentec Direct license the primary account holder to create and control multi-user accounts that others can access with a unique username, password, and permission level.

More advanced packages cost $35 to $40 per month, with the pricing based on the number of units you’re managing which is free for basic features available for about 10 properties and additional features are available as add-ons, ranging from $7 to $15 per service.

QuickBooks synchronization is a feature that comes with Rentec Direct that includes general ledger accounting and financial reporting which takes around 30 seconds for the tenant payment process. Tracking work orders, ACH, and credit card payment processing becomes automated for users.

Property management features like online portals for tenants and owners, a free custom website and hosting to promote your company and properties online, online rental applications, electronic signatures with DocuSign, electronic 1099 filing, syndication of vacancy listings, utility billing integration, and tenant background screening for credit, criminal, and eviction records are the other options provided by the Rentec Direct aside the calculation of the payment.

QuickBooks Online Advanced and DocuSign are currently integrated.

The customers on third-party reviews show excellent reviews by the support staff sites like Software Advice.

Buildium

plans support up to 5,000 properties, earning the top spot for users with large property portfolios of 5,000 properties with Buildium’s Growth and Premium.

Advantages of Buildium

Built by property managers for property managers
Automatic rent collection through a tenant portal
Online ticket support
A lot of training materials offered

Disadvantages of Buildium

It is expensive pricing plan
Some customer support complaints
Not a fit for single property managers

Has expansive accounting features supporting up to 5,000 units in their Growth and Premium plans Buildium, reviews the best property management accounting software for large property portfolios.

Essential, Growth, and Premium are the three offer plans of Buildium. The number of units you manage is the cost of each plan. Essential provides up to 150 units and starts at $50 a month. The ability to service up to 5,000 units, and starts at $160 a month is what growth offers with more features. Business Analytics and Insights and Buildium Rewards are the premium features and allow you to have up to 5,000 units at $460 per month. A 10% discount is also offered by Buildium for anyone who signs up for annual charging.

Users can record and view all fees, payments, deposits, and refunds, manage accounts payable through built-in calculators in the cloud that show how much you owe to companies and vendors, reconcile bank accounts automatically, generate a variety of financial reports, and automatically generate and e-file a Form 1099.

Buildium also offers a lot of advanced features with easy-to-understand tutorials besides its accounting features.

TransUnion, RevSpring, MSI, Nelco, Happy Inspector, PayNearMe, and several outside software platforms are integrated with Buildium. The recognition it received from G2 and Capterra is a solid list of integration, and its active updates to resolve issues make it a dependable platform.

Buildium serves as a testament to the reliable service they provide which has a high rating across different review websites.

Property Matrix

The ability to customize everything, makes this the best software for experienced accountants property Matrix comes packed with all the advanced features professional accountants needs.

Advantages of Property Matrix

To Fully customizable features
It has a mobile app
Designed for all levels of accounting experience

Disadvantages of Property Matrix

Fit for landlords with over 250 units
More expensive than other accounting software

Property Matrix is a website-based software furnished and designed for users of all levels of accounting experience with advanced features that have automation accomplishments for expert users. Besides, allowing experienced users to pick the top-of-the-line accounting features they need to improve their reporting efficiency, all features are customizable.

The three pricing plans are; Standard, Property Matrix Pro, and Enterprise:

Standard: up to 250 units for $400 per month: $1.50 for additional units. Important features include enterprise accounting, maintenance, marketing, portals, custom reports, and unlimited phone support.
Property Matrix Pro: up to 250 units for $475 per month: $1.50 for additional units. Includes all Standard features, plus tools for commercial properties, budgets, and CAM (common area maintenance) charges.
Enterprise: up to 800 units for $1,200: $1.35 for additional units and all Property Matrix Pro features.

Due to its advanced features and customization muscle property Matrix surpasses other software programs. Managing complex accounting processes, minimizing workload, and eliminating the need for third-party accounting software are one of the capabilities of property Matrix.

Users on Property Matrix can:

Organize and track transactions
Manage multiple companies
Create recurring invoices and bills for vendors and tenants
Set triggers and automate routine actions
Track information efficiently through custom fields
Manage documents from one single system
Create custom forms
Collect electronic signatures
Organize communications through one single Communications Hub
Get a professionally designed website

Due to the robust accounting software of enterprise-level landlords and their accountants, they will benefit more than small and medium-sized landlords, making a suitable experience for users with customizing features.

Accountants, investors, and property managers through its numerous affiliates are served by property Matrices, such as the National Apartment Association and the American Apartment Owners Association, complimentary reviews on Capterra, and Software Advice.

Stessa Software

Stessa is a free rental property finance software that is popular among investors and comes with everything a landlord with several properties would need, making expenses low and getting the best value.

Advantages of Stessa Software

Free and easy to use
Automated bookkeeping
Designed by landlords, for landlords

Disadvantages of Stessa Software

No tenant screening, maintenance request, tenant communication, or property advertising and listing options
Not fit for professional or enterprise-level users
Focuses more on real estate investors

Besides Stessa being free software and coming with ample accounting features, it is the best value for real estate investors to get the fundamentals done well.

Tens of thousands of investors use Stessa to observe over $45 billion in real estate assets founded in 2016. It has an app compatible with Mac devices.

Financial accounts associated with a rental property, a document management center, an option to scan receipts, fully automated bookkeeping and financial tracking features that sync with the bank, and the option to create a variety of reports (balance sheets, cash flow, rent rolls, IRS-ready tax statements, and more).

By focusing on key metrics, Stessa is perfect for landlords and investors who want to manage their assets and track their finances. However, it is not fit for professional or enterprise-level users and has a limited amount of features.

Allowing users to import income and expense transactions automatically every month, Stessa absorbs with AppFoli. It’s a fairly easy fact backed up by reviews left by previous users making it easy for novice investors and accountants.

Rent Managers

Advanced features software that handles all aspects of a business’s finances and documents is mostly found with rent managers

Advantages of Rent Managers

Extra features to manage properties of all sizes
Comes with online and standalone versions and a mobile app
Customizable accounting software

Disadvantages of Rent Managers

No pre-made pricing plans
Each version comes with different features

Combined with outside platform integrations Rent Manager has a comprehensive accounting system that has all the functionality, so extra features are awarded.

To check the exact cost for a specific package of features you need, you have to contact them directly since it doesn’t have any pricing plans.

To help users manage their business wherever they are, it comes with an online version, standalone versions, and a mobile app

Rent Manager allows users to process e-payments, e-check with delivery via email, create custom-designed reports, make electronic bank reconciliations, control every aspect of accounts payable and receivable, and more. It also functions in cash and accrual accounting simultaneously, saving time otherwise spent on double-entry bookkeeping.

Rent Manager also has additional customizable features for each user, including online payment portals, marketing and leasing, operations, maintenance, and advanced reporting. It integrates with close to 100 other programs like Avidxchange, Beanworks, Safeguard, and Zeno by PayLease.

Customer service provided by Rent Manager is top-notch. The customer support staff is also praised for their knowledge of all features, including the latest upgrades.

MRI Software

Having 175 solution partners and over 25 consulting partners, MRI Software gives users the flexibility to choose what they need to facilitate the work of accountants and bookkeepers, making it the best choice if integrations are important to you

Advantages of MRI Software

175+ solution partners and 25+ consulting partners
Pay only for what you use
Reliable company with a long history

Disadvantages of MRI Software

Fitter for commercial users
No predesigned packages

To simplify and streamline the whole accounting process, MRI has partnered with over two hundred companies, each designed to provide a financial solution that meets the unique requirements of each management firm, making it best for integrations.

MRI Software doesn’t have specific pricing tiers or a free trial version. As you can add over 175 integrations and features, the cost can vary.

The list of MRI Software’s features is lengthy: online rent collection, maintenance requests, tenant screening, multifamily insurance, resident communication, investor relations, rent tracking, compliance solutions, credit risk management, and more. This integrated accounting software can grow with you as your needs change through its Partner Connect program. Through this program, you can add third-party tools for AP automation, debt collection, electronic payments, and more.

Because of the many features and the option to add additional tools, commercial users would be able to optimize MRI Software as well as their partner relationships.

MRI Software has been in business since 1971, a testament to its reliability and expertise in providing a variety of services to clients across different industries.

Accounting software for rental properties can make your life easier both during the year and at tax time, but it’s important to find the one best suited for your budget, your portfolio, and how you want to use the financial data. Some programs are customizable, including a few programs that won’t publish pricing tiers because they will only quote after they interview you to learn how you want to use their software.

We found AppFolio to be the overall best because it blended moderate pricing tiers. With plentiful functions to appeal to simple and complex portfolio owners alike. Furthermore, it integrates with other common programs and can be learned by landlords. With little accounting experience while still meeting the needs of more advanced users.

FAQs

What are the Comparison in Accounting Software?

Best Accounting Software for Rental Properties
Software Company	Why We Picked It	Monthly Price Range
AppFolio	Best Overall	$280+
Rentec Direct	Best for Multiple Users	$35 to $40+
Buildium	Best for Large Property Portfolios	$50 to $460+
Property Matrix	Best for Experienced Accountants	$400 to $1,200+
Stessa	Best Value	Free
Rent Manager	Best Extra Features	Must call for a quote
MRI Software	Best for Integrations	Must call for a quote

Difference Between Accounting Software And Bookkeeping Software?

Bookkeeping software is useful for capturing income and expenses into the daily ledger. And it can run some basic reports for you like an income statement and balance sheet. However, accounting software can open up your business to integrating marketing. Publishing to multiple listing sites with a single click, and running more advanced reports to inform your growth strategy.

Who Needs Accounting Software?

Landlords with just a few properties have the discipline to record their income. And expenses into a spreadsheet might do fine with a program like Excel. Everyone else will want something that can integrate with their credit cards and bank accounts. To minimize redundancy, have multiple user access for different team members. And run complex reports with the click of a mouse to save time and reduce the risk of human error with manual Excel calculations.

Cost Of Accounting Software?

Most programs charge between $1 and $2 per unit under management. Some may charge you a monthly minimum fee, usually in the $200 to $250 range. Even if you don’t have enough properties to warrant that high fee. A few companies charge a substantial setup cost, usually in the $400 range, but others don’t.

How to Choose Accounting Software for Rental Properties?

12 accounting software was reviewed programs for rental properties before deciding on the seven best for these different categories. Lower costs and minimum fee requirements fared better than more expensive programs. We liked programs with moderate fees and low monthly unit costs, offering superior value for their large suite of features.

To be on our list, the winners needed to address marketing, rent payment, vendor management, tenant and owner communication, and integration with other software programs. And be easy to use for beginners while still giving experts the advanced functionality they desire. Finally, we investigated each company’s history in the market and its reputation for customer service and reliability.

Top Accounting Software For Rental Properties – FAQs