How to track rental income and expenses in Google Sheets

Updated 2026-11-08 · Lintel

A good landlord spreadsheet is boring on purpose. It has one ledger where every dollar goes, a category list mapped to tax lines, and summary tabs that only contain formulas. Here's how to build one yourself, or skip ahead to the ready-made version.

1. Make one ledger, not one tab per property

The most common mistake is a separate tab for each rental. It feels tidy until you need a total across properties, or a property changes name. Instead, keep one Transactions tab with these columns:

Column	What goes in it
A Date	The date the money moved (cash basis)
B Property	Dropdown of property nicknames
C Category	Dropdown from your category list
D Payee / description	Who and what
E Amount	Always positive. The category decides whether it's income or expense
F–G Helper columns	Schedule E line and year, looked up by formula

2. Build a category list mapped to Schedule E

On a Categories tab, list each category with its Schedule E line: Rent → 3, Advertising → 5, Repairs → 14, Property taxes → 16, and so on. Add categories that are not reported, like mortgage principal, capital improvements and security deposits, and mark their line as “—”. Our Schedule E cheat sheet has the full mapping.

Then add a lookup in the ledger's helper column, for example in F5:

=IF(C5="","",IFERROR(INDEX(Categories!B:B,MATCH(C5,Categories!A:A,0)),"?"))

and the year in G5: =IF(A5="","",YEAR(A5)). A “?” shows you mistyped a category.

3. Use dropdowns to stop typos

Select column B, then Data → Data validation → Dropdown (from a range) and point it at your property list. Do the same for column C with the category list. Typos are the #1 reason totals don't add up.

4. Total every Schedule E line with SUMIFS

On a Summary tab, put property nicknames across row 1 (B1, C1…) and Schedule E line numbers down column A. Each cell is one formula:

=SUMIFS(Transactions!$E:$E, Transactions!$B:$B, B$1, Transactions!$F:$F, $A2, Transactions!$G:$G, 2026)

That reads: add up amounts where the property is this column's property, the Schedule E line is this row's line, and the year is 2026. Copy it across and down, then add a total column and a line 20/21 calculation.

5. Add depreciation separately

Depreciation isn't a transaction, so it needs its own small calculation per building and improvement. The math is in our depreciation guide, and you can check your numbers with the free calculator.

6. A 15-minute monthly routine

Open your bank and card statements for the rental account.
Add every rental transaction to the ledger and save receipts to a folder. Paste the link in a column.
Check the Summary for “?” lookups and anything unexpected.
Update lease end dates and log any mileage.

Or start from a finished, tested version

Building this takes a weekend; testing every formula takes longer. Landlord Ledger is this exact structure, finished:

28 categories already mapped to Schedule E
Lines 3–21 for 10 properties
Depreciation with the mid-month convention, a rent roll and a mileage log
A dashboard

It's an .xlsx that imports into Google Sheets with File → Import → Upload.

Get Landlord Ledger — $12 Free Lite version (1 property)

General information, not tax advice.