10 Best Property Management Accounting Software Shortlist
Here's my pick of the 10 best software from the 17 tools reviewed.
With so many different property management solutions available, figuring out which one is right for you can be difficult. You know you want to streamline the rent collection processes, have accurate financial tracking for multiple properties, and improve reporting for property owners, but need to figure out which tool is best. I've got you! In this post I'll help make your choice easy, using the results of my research and having tested multiple vendors, with my picks of the best property management accounting software.
What is Property Management Accounting Software?
Property management accounting software is a digital tool used to meet the financial requirements of property managers and landlords. These include managing rent payments, tracking expenses, and generating financial reports specific to property-related transactions.
With these tools, property managers can maintain organized financial records and make informed decisions related to both residential and commercial property investments.
Overview Of The 10 Best Property Management Accounting Software
Based on a combination of features, functionality, UI, pricing, and portfolio scope, these are the best rental property management accounting platforms on the market today.
Rent Manager is a comprehensive property management software with a solid list of features. It offers full-featured accounting with exceptional AR and AP processes—as well as ample marketing, listing, and screening tools to run the day-to-day operations of property management.
Why I picked Rent Manager: I selected Rent Manager because it has excellent AP and AR processes to help finance teams work more efficiently. The platform allows you to designate categories for everything coming in (rent, late fees, storage, parking, etc.) and going out (repairs, maintenance, licensing fees, taxes, etc). Once set up, the additional context adds insight to your financial reports and gives you a better understanding of your financial performance.
Rent Manager Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include a complete accounting system, with advanced features like the ability to run in cash and accrual accounting modalities simultaneously. The platform can also generate over 450 unique financial reports for owners, stakeholders, and authorities.
Integrations include AmRent, Lease Track, Butterfly MX, Apartment List, and Experian.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Good balance of property management, finance, and accounting functionality
- Support for cash and accrual accounting simultaneously
- Solid accounting features
Cons:
- Pricing structure is overpriced for small portfolios
- Initial implementation costs 2x the normal monthly rate
Appfolio is a leading property management software that serves as an all-in-one platform for both residential and commercial managers. Its software is feature-rich and leans heavily on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to automate certain workflows and provide data-driven insights.
Why I picked Appfolio: I selected Appfolio because of its extensive use of AI/ML to drive efficiency across property management operations. I also like their performance insights to compare year-over-year, budget to actuals, etc.
Appfolio Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include smart bill entry that scans PDF invoices for key data to import to Appfolio, automated AP, automated late fees, and an AI leasing assistant. You also have a vendor portal, tenant portal, and owner portal that help you customize and automate your communication with each one.
Integrations include ButterflyMX, CondoCerts, Knock, Lowes, NetVendor, and PetScreening.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Unique features like utility management and security deposit alternatives
- Easy integrations with a growing library of industry tools
- Ample automation features to save time
Cons:
- Does not support portfolios of under 50 units
- Pricing structure isn’t a good fit for small portfolios
Buildium is a property management software designed to help managers organize and handle just about every aspect of their business. Its dashboards serve as an overview of your entire operation, from outstanding rent to total door listings and tenancy rates.
Why I picked Buildium: I selected Buildium because it covers all the bases. From the accounting side, Buildium connects directly to bank accounts at most major financial institutions to help you track rent payments automatically. It also has built-in payment processing features for ACH payments and credit card purchases to help manage your accounts payable and vendor management. It even lets you accept cash payments through a partnership with PayNearMe.
Buildium Standout Features and Integrations:
Features of Buildium include built-in payment processing (ACH, credit card, cash) and automatic bank syncing/reconciliation, which combine to make tracking rent payments much easier. It also has a slick resident portal, which makes it easier for tenants to request maintenance, make payments, and manage lease agreements. By handling these more mundane tasks Buildium allows managers to focus on higher-value activities.
Integrations include Obligo, LeadSimple, Tenant Turner, PetScreening, Gravy, Hunter Warfield, and more.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Useful resident portal for payments and maintenance requests
- Excellent mobile app
- All-in-one property management platform
Cons:
- A bit pricey for smaller managers (under 50 units)
TenantCloud is an affordable property management software that has basic accounting features built-in. It’s generally best when paired with external accounting software, but it can be sufficient on its own for simpler operations.
Where TenantCloud shines is on the business side of property management: It’s great for listing available units to dozens of listing sites automatically, screening tenants, collecting rent, and more.
Why I picked TenantCloud: I selected TenantCloud because it’s one of the most affordable platforms on the market, with plans from just $15.
TenantCloud Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include many listing and marketing tools, like the ability to automatically add listings to dozens of listing sites. TenantCloud also helps with generating and managing tenant leads and running tenant screening reports.
Integrations include QuickBooks, Stripe, Zillow, and Google Calendar.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Tenant lead generation tools
- Solid listing tools
- Affordable price point
Cons:
- Best paired with additional accounting tools (like QuickBooks)
- Basic accounting functionality
Hemlane is a property management tool that covers leasing, tenant placement, lease tracking, and rent collection. It’s primarily designed for smaller portfolios (1 to 100 properties), and in fact, its pricing structure makes it a bit more expensive for large firms (but a pretty good value for smaller operations).
Why I picked Hemlane: I selected Hemlane because they offer managed repair and maintenance coordination services. Essentially, Hemlane’s admin team finds licensed professionals in your area to complete tenant repair requests and handles all the coordination for you.
Hemlane Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include managed repair coordination, extensive marketing and leasing tools, one-click advertising to the 30 top listing websites, and simple online rent collection.
Integrations include Zillow Rental Manager, Stripe, and BetterCapital.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Solid marketing and listing tools
- Budget-friendly for smaller operations
- Managed repair coordination
Cons:
- Not suited to large operations
- Basic accounting features
Rentec Direct is a comprehensive property management software that’s known for excellent financial reporting capabilities. It’s a relatively simple tool to use, but it packs a punch in terms of features. It handles both the day-to-day operations (like collecting rent payments and recording expenses), as well as the bigger-picture financial projections and performance tracking.
Why I picked Rentec Direct: I selected Rentec Direct for a combination of the reporting features and its Trust Account Certified status. That means it complies with all state-level requirements for trust accounting and security deposit fund tracking.
Rentec Direct Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include trust account certification in all US states to comply with state real estate board requirements, robust financial reporting and projections, and built-in tenant communications via SMS and email.
Integrations include PetScreening, Dropbox Sign, Twilio, Plaid, and CloudConvert.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Tenant and owner portals via mobile app
- Top-notch compliance support, including Trust Account Certification
- Robust financial reporting
Cons:
- Pricey for managers with smaller portfolios
Stessa is a rental property management software that offers a diverse range of features. It focuses on all the aspects that are most important for property management: Tenant screening, rental applications, rent collection, insurance, landlord banking and payments, and accounting.
Why I picked Stessa: I selected Stessa primarily for its impressive reporting and business intelligence features. Its customizable dashboards can help managers monitor portfolio performance and optimize business operations. Plus, the advanced tenant screening features help you make more informed decisions about who you’re renting to by checking credit reports, income verification, and screening applicants for any outstanding judgments or liens.
Stessa Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include advanced reporting capabilities to create income statements, cash flow reports, and real-time balance sheets. Stessa has a Cash Management feature that allows you to set up checking accounts tied to each of your individual properties, helping to simplify expense tracking and produce more accurate and up-to-date financial reports.
Stessa is in the process of making further advancements to its Cash Management feature to streamline one of the most time-consuming aspects of property management: collecting rent from tenants. The update will allow residents to set up recurring rent payments online—so residents avoid late fees and you save your team a lot of time.
Integrations include Appfolio and PropertyWare.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Cash management feature with competitive APY
- Excellent financial performance insights
- Free tier available
Cons:
- Accounting functionality is limited in the free tier
- Limited integrations
MRI Commercial Management is a property management software tailored to the needs of large investors and commercial real estate managers. It focuses on leasing tools, lease flow monitoring, and advanced intelligent reporting and monitoring tools.
Why I picked MRI Commercial Management: I selected MRI because of its focus on commercial real estate (most tools on this list can support commercial properties, but few have a feature set as rich as MRI’s).
MRI Commercial Management Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include lease flow CRM to manage the entire property lifecycle (and gain greater visibility into your leasing pipeline, helping to improve occupancy rates), and Secure Sign to manage and sign digital commercial real estate documents electronically.
The AI-powered Lease Intelligence can analyze commercial lease data. It helps you manage lease agreements and other contract documents by analyzing breakpoints and checking calculations and other key lease clauses.
Integrations include AmRent, ApartmentFinder, Experian, HappyCo, Knock, and Obligo.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Responsive web-based design for use on any device
- Excellent lease management, lease flow, and lease analytics tools
- Designed for commercial property management
Cons:
- Somewhat outdated UI
- Accounting features are fairly basic
Doorloop is a full-service property management software tool, covering everything from tenant screening to payment collection to accounting.
Why I picked Doorloop: I picked Doorloop primarily because of its ease of use. The app’s design is slick and responsive on any device, and the tenant and owner portal versions are simplified enough to not confuse users who are less tech-savvy.
Doorloop Standout Features and Integrations:
Features of Doorloop include a built-in CRM and tenant portal for all-in-one management, an intuitive owner portal, a simple UI with responsive design, and marketing features that help you find tenants and schedule showings.
It’s very easy to use, whether you’re accessing the manager portal, owner portal, or tenant portal. It gives you lots of ways to automate and customize your text and email communication with tenants and owners. The dashboards only show you what’s necessary, without unnecessary clutter.
Integrations include Zillow, Trulia, Quickbooks, Asana, DeskAI, Slack, Zoom, Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote, Gmail, Outlook, DocuSign, Salesforce, RingCentral, and Expensify.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Built-in marketing features to find tenants and schedule showings
- All-in-one platform
- Very simple to use for managers, owners, and tenants
Cons:
- Limit of one currency per account
- No free trial
Yardi Breeze is a cloud-based property management and accounting software that makes it easier for individual managers and small firms to manage their properties. It’s specifically designed to be simple to use, even for beginners and non-technical users (another product from the same company, Yardi Voyager, is a more advanced, connected solution for larger managers). Plus, it has specialized applications for different property types, including residential, commercial, self-storage, and affordable housing.
Why I picked Yardi Breeze: I selected Yardi Breeze because of its intuitive UI and its responsive cloud-based design for cross-platform compatibility.
Yardi Breeze Standout Features and Integrations:
Features include specialized applications for unique property types (commercial, self-storage, affordable housing, etc.), each of which offers features specifically tailored for those industries. For instance, the self-storage application has extensive promotion/discount management tools, as well as the ability to track non-unit rentals like boat and RV storage in defined lots.
Integrations include QuickBooks, Condo Control, Nexus, and Butterfly MX.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- No onboarding/initiation fees
- Simple integrations
- User-friendly
Cons:
- Annual contract (12 months)
- Pricing structure makes it expensive for managers with less than 50-100 doors
| Tools | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Rent Manager | From $1/unit/month ($200 minimum) | Website |
| AppFolio | From $1.40/unit (minimum monthly fee of $280) | Website |
| Buildium | From $52/month | Website |
| TenantCloud | From $15/month | Website |
| Hemlane | From $2.50/unit + $34 base fee | Website |
| Rentec Direct | From $45/month | Website |
| Stessa | Up to $20/month | Website |
| MRI Commercial Management | Custom pricing available upon request | Website |
| Doorloop | From $59/month (up to 20 units) | Website |
| Yardi Breeze | From $1/unit/month ($100 minimum) | Website |
Compare Software Specs Side by Side
Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.
Compare SoftwareOther Property Management Accounting Software Options
If you didn’t find quite what you were looking for, here are a few more options to consider.
- Proper.ai
Best service for one-on-one support
- QuickBooks Online
Best for beginners
- Sage Intacct
Best for a variety of features
- Condo Control
Best for condos and homeowner associations
- Property Matrix
Best for customizations
- RealPage
Best for commercial and residential portfolios
- PropertyWare
Best for reporting and analysis
How I Selected the Best Property Management Accounting Software
Here’s a short summary of the main criteria I used to develop my list of the best rental property management software for this article:
Core functionality
At its core, property management accounting software should allow you to:
- Collect rent payments
- Record and reconcile property transactions
- Manage invoices and billing
- Prepare financial reports
- Account reconciliations
Additionally, if the software is a property management tool with accounting features built in, it should also enable you to:
- Screen potential tenants
- Manage lease paperwork
- Manage maintenance requests
- Accept rent payments with multiple payment options (ACH, check, credit card, etc.)
Key features
Here are some unique features I looked for when selecting rental management accounting software:
- Property management features: While this list focused on accounting functionality, having property management features (tenant screening, maintenance management, etc.) built-in to the software is a huge selling point in my book.
- Rent collection: All software on this list will be able to process payments from tenants/customers. But the ease of use is important, as are the payment options available. Property management platforms tend to have tenant “portals,” which tenants sign into to pay bills, set up auto-pay, etc. These often have more payment options, as well.
- Manager/tenant/owner communication: I gave preference to software that does a good job of connecting managers, tenants, and owners with different interfaces and reports. Ideally, software should be full-featured for managers and simplified for tenants.
- Tenant communications and notifications: Many of the best software options in this category provide tools to communicate with tenants, including automated rent reminders, and lease expiration from one platform.
Usability
Usability encompasses the user interface (UI) on all platforms, including mobile devices.
Not all of these tools have mobile apps, but I gave preferential treatment to those that do (and to those that have intuitive UI in general).
I also considered the software’s usability for tenants for tools where there is a tenant-facing component like rent collection and maintenance requests.
Intended use and portfolio scope
This list is somewhat of a hybrid: There are a few accounting-specific options (like QuickBooks) and tons of property management software that come with some accounting features (like Buildium and Doorloop).
I included both, as different firms and managers may have different preferences.
I also considered the intended use and scope of each tool in terms of door count, residential/commercial, etc.
Integrations
Some of the platforms on this list are comprehensive enough that integrations become less essential. Others, like QuickBooks, are so accounting-focused that integrations with property management software are 100% necessary.
It’s essential to make sure the property management accounting software tool you choose can sync with your company’s checking accounts, and easily integrate with any software you’re already using to process payments or communicate with tenants, as well as any other tools you use in your day-to-day business.
Price
Property management software should save you time (and money). It’s not always worth the cost—especially for those managing just a few properties.
The price range for the tools on this list runs between $15 to $200 per month. Most property management accounting software also includes a per-unit charge, which typically runs between $1 to $5 per unit.
People Also Ask
Here are some common questions people have about buying property management accounting software.
Is QuickBooks good for collecting rent and other property management tasks?
QuickBooks is a complete accounting and bookkeeping tool, but it needs to be paired with a dedicated property management software. Because it’s not specifically designed for property managers, so it does require a few workarounds.
Is property management accounting software necessary?
Not necessarily, although it becomes more and more essential as the portfolio size increases. If you’re managing a few doors, you can likely handle the day-to-day finances on your own with a simple spreadsheet.
But for managers with dozens or hundreds of doors, a centralized software platform is vital.
What tasks can property management software help with?
Functionality varies depending on the product, but most property management software can help with:
- Tenant screening and communication
- Rental applications
- Rent and past due payment reminders
- Deposit collections
- Maintenance requests
- Bookkeeping tasks
- Managing transactions with owners and vendors
Some software focuses only on accounting/bookkeeping tasks, while other platforms offer more comprehensive features for property managers.
Summary
Property management software solutions can help property managers save time, keep accurate books, collect rent payments, and improve relationships with tenants and owners.
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