01
Rent roll
Every unit on one page: rent due, paid, still owed, and a Paid, Partial or Overdue mark next to each tenant.
Most rentals are run by one person, not a company
Most rental homes in the US are not run by big management companies. They are run by one person with a few units, a phone, and a spreadsheet that breaks at the worst moment.
17.7 million
individual landlords in the US.
72.6%
of independent landlords own just 1 to 4 units, from an Avail survey of 4,055 landlords.
78%
of 1 to 4 unit properties are not professionally managed.
Sources for these figures
Sources: rentledger.org, Small Landlord Statistics 2026 · VerticalRent, Landlord Statistics 2026. Figures as reported in research read in November 2026.
The monthly questions a spreadsheet makes hard
- Who paid in full, who paid only part, and how much is still owed?
- What late fee applies, given each lease’s grace period?
- How much deposit are you holding, kept separate from rent?
- Whose lease ends in the next 30, 60 or 90 days?
- What did each property earn and spend, ready for Schedule E at tax time?
Miss one $50 late fee and you have given away more than twice the price of this book. Miss a $75 one and it is more than three times. Those are not made-up numbers: rent guides work their examples at $1,200 a month with a $50 fee, and $1,800 a month with a $75 fee. And if unpaid rent ever ends up in a claim, the ledger is the record you hand over. The IRS generally allows 3 years to question rental income, so the book has to hold up that long.
Sources for these figures
What it does
No rent collection, no bank connection, no account to create. You record what happened; the book keeps the totals. Each line below is a column or a page in the book.
02
Automatic late fees
Charge rent, record payments as they come in, then apply late fees in one step, worked out from each lease’s grace period.
03
Running balance per tenant
Every charge and payment lands on one page per tenant. When a tenant asks what they still owe, you read the balance off that page: charges minus payments, nothing rebuilt from texts and bank alerts.
04
Lease and overdue alerts
Warnings for rent overdue past its grace period and for leases ending in 30, 60 and 90 days, on the page where you work.
05
Deposits kept separate
Deposit held and deposit returned are tracked apart from rent, so deposit money never gets mixed into income.
06
Statements and year end
A downloadable statement per tenant, and expenses sorted by Schedule E category with a year-end summary for each property.
Your data stays on your device. Download a backup file (CSV or JSON) whenever you like, and bring it back with restore. There is nothing to log into and nothing syncing to a cloud account.
Charge on the 1st, record as it lands, fees after the grace period
1
Charge rent
At the start of the month, charge rent for every occupied unit in one go.
2
Record payments
As money arrives, record it against the tenant. Part payments are fine, the balance updates itself.
3
Apply late fees
Anyone still owing after their lease’s grace period gets the fee that lease sets. Whatever is left carries into next month’s balance.
What the alternatives cost
The big property platforms are built for 50 or more units. Their starting prices show it.
| Option | Price | Cost over one year | Made for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Landlord Rent Ledger (this page) | $22 once | $22 | 1 to 10 units, offline, no account |
| Buildium Essential | $62 / month for 1 to 20 units | $744 | Growing portfolios and managers |
| AppFolio | $1.49 / unit / month, $280 / month minimum | $3,360 at the minimum | Professional managers, 50+ units |
| Landlord spreadsheets on Etsy | $6.99 to $35.66 once | $6.99 to $35.66 | Excel or Google Sheets, manual late-fee maths |
Sources for these prices
Sources, read in November 2026: Reallyo, Buildium pricing and reviews · CostBench, AppFolio pricing · Etsy listings are in “How we priced it” below the questions. Software prices change, so check the current price on each seller’s page before you decide.
What missed late fees cost you in a year
Most leases set the late fee as a percentage of the rent, so the rent drives the answer. Change the numbers to match your leases. This is the maths the ledger does for you automatically.
$290 a year
That is a $72.50 fee missed 4 times: about 13 times the $22 price of the ledger, in a single year.
Pricing
One payment, yours to keep. For scale: Buildium Essential runs $744 over one year, and AppFolio starts at $3,360 over one year at its minimum. This book is $22 once, or $29 with the printable forms pack.
The ledger
$22 one time
- The full rent ledger as a single HTML file
- Works offline in any modern browser, computer or phone
- Rent roll, late fees, balances, alerts, deposits
- Schedule E expense summary per property
- Tenant statements, CSV and JSON backup and restore
- Filled-in sample month included, emptied with one click
Ledger plus printable forms pack
$29 one time
- Everything in the ledger
- Rental application form
- Move-in checklist
- Rent receipt
- Late notice
Buying is not open from this page yet. The ledger itself is finished and in testing, and there is no Etsy listing or seller account yet, so there is nothing to pay today. The buttons above open a pre-written email in your mail app so you can ask to be told when it lists. When it lists, it will be on Etsy first, where landlords already search for rent trackers.
Questions
Do I need Excel or a Google account?
No. It is a single HTML file that opens in a browser. There is no spreadsheet to break and no account to sign into.
Does it collect rent or connect to my bank?
No, and it is not trying to. It is a ledger, a record of what was charged, paid and owed. Keeping it offline and bank-free is the point.
Where does my data live?
On your device, in the file you open. Download a backup (CSV or JSON) to keep a copy or move to another device, and restore from that file whenever you need to.
What if I load the sample month and want my own book back?
Loading the example keeps a snapshot of what was there before. The button in the demo header reads “Undo example: back to an empty book” while the sample is loaded. Choose it and your previous book comes back exactly as it was, or a blank book if you started empty.
Is this tax or legal advice?
No. It is a record-keeping tool. Late fees and deposits are governed by your lease and your state law, so check both, and check with your CPA for tax questions. The Schedule E summary organises your numbers, it does not file anything.
How many units does it handle?
It is built and priced for 1 to 10 units. If you manage far more than that, a platform like Buildium is honestly the better fit.
How we priced it, and what other landlords pay
SmartFilesShopUS on Etsy, $6.99. Rent roll, tenant payments, expenses and cash flow for 1 to 20 units, no subscription. Verified live in November 2026: $6.99, shop rated 5.0 stars from 1 review, 13 shop sales in 8 months, and no reviews yet on that item itself. See the listing
TheWeeklyCrew on Etsy, $35.66. A Star Seller rental property template, rated 4.9 stars from 45 reviews. See the listing
MahoganySheets on Etsy, $4.95 on sale, $9.90 list. Landlord spreadsheet for Excel and Google Sheets, rated 4.7 stars from 17 reviews, for up to 35 units. See the listing
Comparable landlord trackers on Etsy sell for $6.99 to $35.66 once, and the research behind this product put a fair price for an offline app at $19 to $24, which is where the $22 price sits.
Read this part honestly: Etsy does not publish sales per listing, so review counts and shop sale counts are only thin evidence of demand, not proof of sales. No keyword tool was used in the research, so demand is inferred from listing counts, reviews, software pricing and forum presence. Many of the prices above were sale prices when they were read in November 2026 and may have changed since. Check the current price on the listing itself.
See the book working before you spend anything.
The sample month at the top of this page is the product doing its sums: $2,250 collected of $4,525 charged, $2,275 still owed. Empty it, reload it, check the maths.