Rental Property Income and Expense Spreadsheet: A Free Bookkeeping Template for Landlords

What does the rental template track?

Each property's rent and costs, month by month, on its own tab, with that month's profit at the bottom. A last tab maps each category to the Schedule E line your CPA will likely use.

• Property 1 by month: 275 Demo St, Davis, a managed single-family rental, January to October 2026.
• Property 2: 1640 Test Way, Vacaville, a BRRRR bought, rehabbed, rented and refinanced in 2026.
• Schedule E line map: each category in the template, next to the Schedule E line your CPA will likely use.

One tab per property is the spreadsheet form of the property-by-property books in the rental property bookkeeping guide.

What goes in one month for one property?

Rent and late fees in, then each cost: management fee, repairs, mortgage interest, property tax and insurance. The principal part of the mortgage and the escrow deposit are not costs, so they stay out of profit.

Property 1 is managed by Sample Property Management. The manager collects the $2,900 rent, keeps 8% of what it collects, pays small repairs, and sends the rest on the 10th. Here is the first tab for January to October 2026.

Demo Rentals LLC is a sample company. March rent was paid late, with a $75 late fee. April carries the property tax installment and the hazard insurance renewal, both paid from the lender's escrow. September carries a $1,140 liability policy paid on the Demo Flips LLC card and owed back to it. Depreciation is a year-end figure from your CPA, so it is not in a monthly column.

April shows a loss because the property tax installment and the yearly insurance renewal both landed in it. That is why a rental is read over the year, not one month at a time. A statement like this for each door is a rental property P&L, the report that shows which rentals make money.

What leaves the bank but is not a monthly cost?

Loan principal, which pays down the debt. Escrow deposits, which the lender holds until it pays the tax or insurance. And improvements such as a new roof, which go on the property record instead.

The tenant's $2,900.00 security deposit is held by Sample Property Management in its trust account, so it never reaches Demo Rentals LLC's bank.

The October 2026 payment shows the split: $1,214.60 of interest is a cost, and $236.40 of principal is not. The lender's statement gives the split each month, and how to record a rental property mortgage payment shows the method.

The roof was a full tear-off and replacement, so it sits on its own line with its invoice. Whether a cost is a repair or an improvement is your CPA's call, made from the records in repairs vs improvements on a rental property.

How is a BRRRR property tracked?

In phases. Through the purchase and rehab, costs build up on the property record and the loan. From the lease start it has rent and costs like any rental. A refinance swaps loans and is not income.

Property 2 is self-managed, and its new loan has no escrow. The second tab follows it from purchase to refinance.

Rented from Oct 15, 2026 and refinanced on Oct 22, 2026. Months after October 2026 have not happened yet, so the tab has no rows for them.

In the books, the deposit is money held for the tenant, so it never appears as income in the template. How a deposit is treated on the return is your CPA's call.

Whether the interest and insurance paid during the rehab are costs of the year or part of the property's cost is a tax question, and your CPA decides it. The template keeps each one on its own dated line, so either answer is supported.

Which Schedule E line does each category likely go on?

Each cost category in the template sits next to one Schedule E expense line. The map shows where your CPA will likely put each total. Your CPA decides the final placement on the return.

The IRS describes Schedule E as the form used to report income or loss from rental real estate, in the Schedule E instructions on irs.gov. The line names below are copied from Part I of the 2025 Schedule E form on irs.gov, the latest final version.

Line names from the 2025 Schedule E (Form 1040), Part I. The map shows where a CPA will likely put each total. It is not a filing instruction. Your CPA decides where every figure goes on your return.

Categories Property 1 did not use this year still have their own lines on the form. Bookkeeping keeps the totals right. The return is your CPA's work.

How do you set it up for your own properties?

Copy the blank Your property tab once for each property. Each month, enter rent and costs from your bank statement, the property manager's statement and the lender's statement. Split every mortgage payment the way the lender does.

1. 1Copy the blank Your property tab once for each property. Type the address at the top of each tab.
2. 2Each month, enter rent and late fees from your bank statement, or from the property manager's owner statement if a manager collects the rent.
3. 3Enter the manager's fee and any repairs it paid from the same statement.
4. 4Split each mortgage payment the way the lender's statement does: interest is a cost, principal and escrow are not.
5. 5When the lender pays property tax or insurance from escrow, enter it as a cost in that month.
6. 6Record a security deposit as held for the tenant, not as rent. Record an improvement on its own line, with its invoice.
7. 7At year end, send the totals and the documents behind them to your CPA.

When is a spreadsheet enough for rental books, and when is it not?

A spreadsheet works well for a few doors with simple loans. It gets harder with several LLCs, a refinance, a manager on some doors and not others, or books that must agree with the bank every month.

If you are weighing rental software instead of a spreadsheet, our rental property bookkeeping software comparison sets Stessa, REI Hub and Baselane against the work you want done each month.