The Spreadsheet Landlord Toolkit for Self-Managing

I've been a spreadsheet landlord for 4 years. 12 units. No PM software. No property manager. Just Google Sheets and a few supporting tools.

Here's everything in my toolkit. Every sheet, every formula, every workflow. Feel free to steal all of it.

Sheet 1: The Rent Roll

One Google Sheet. 12 tabs, one per month. Each tab has: Unit, Tenant, Rent Amount, Due Date, Grace Period End, Date Paid, Days Overdue, Status, Notes.

The "Days Overdue" formula: =IF(F2<>"", 0, IF(TODAY()>E2, TODAY()-E2, 0))

The "Status" formula: =IF(F2<>"", "Paid", IF(TODAY()>E2, "OVERDUE", IF(TODAY()>D2, "Grace", "Not Due")))

Conditional formatting: Red for OVERDUE, yellow for Grace, green for Paid.

Summary at the bottom: Total expected, total collected, total outstanding, count of overdue units.

This sheet takes 2 minutes to update when a payment comes in. Open it, find the row, enter today's date in the Date Paid column. Done. I share the full template in my best rent tracking spreadsheet template post.

Sheet 2: Maintenance Tracker

Separate Google Sheet. One tab per year. Columns: Request Date, Unit, Tenant, Issue, Priority (H/M/L), Status (New/In Progress/Waiting/Complete), Assigned To, Date Completed, Cost, Notes.

I use data validation for Priority and Status columns so they're always dropdown menus. Keeps things consistent. I share this template in my free maintenance tracker spreadsheet post.

Conditional formatting based on aging. High priority open more than 2 days? Red. Medium more than 7? Yellow. This gives me a visual scan of what needs attention.

Sheet 3: Expense Tracker

Third Google Sheet. Columns: Date, Property, Unit, Category (Repair/Improvement/Insurance/Tax/Utility/Other), Vendor, Amount, Receipt (link to photo in Drive), Notes.

At year end, I filter by property and category. Total repair costs per property. Total per category. Export to CSV for my accountant.

This takes 1 minute per expense to log. I do it right after I pay a vendor. If I wait, I forget.

Sheet 4: Tenant Directory

Simple sheet. Unit, Tenant Name, Phone, Email, Lease Start, Lease End, Rent Amount, Security Deposit, Emergency Contact.

I add conditional formatting for lease expirations (see our lease expiration tracker guide). If lease ends within 90 days, the row turns yellow. Within 30 days, orange. Expired, red.

This gives me a 90-day heads up to start renewal conversations.

Google Drive: Document Storage

One folder per property. Inside each property folder, one folder per unit. Inside each unit folder: current lease, move-in photos, move-out photos, any important correspondence.

When a tenant moves in, I spend 10 minutes creating their folder and uploading documents. When they move out, all the evidence is right there.

Communication Templates

Saved in my Notes app. Templates for:

Late rent first notice. Late rent second notice. Maintenance acknowledgment. Maintenance update. Lease renewal opening. Lease renewal terms. Move-in instructions. Move-out checklist.

I copy, paste, customize, send. What used to take 5 minutes of careful writing now takes 30 seconds.

The Missing Piece: Monitoring

Everything above works great. But it all depends on me opening the right sheet at the right time.

The rent roll only helps if I check it after the grace period. The maintenance tracker only helps if I scan it regularly. The tenant directory only helps if I notice the yellow rows before leases expire.

For 2 years, I did this manually. Then I started missing things. Not because the system was bad. Because I'm human and I don't check spreadsheets every day.

That's when I added RentGuard. It connects to my rent roll and maintenance tracker and monitors them daily. I get an email when rent is overdue or a request is aging. I don't have to remember to check. It checks for me.

The Full Toolkit Cost

Google Sheets: $0. Google Drive: $0. Notes app: $0. RentGuard: $15/month.

Total: $15/month. Compared to $55-175/month for PM software that would make me change my entire workflow.

This toolkit has managed 12 units for 4 years. It's not glamorous. It's not high-tech. But it works.

If you want to try the monitoring piece, descoshop.com. Free forever. Set up in 60 seconds. Your spreadsheets stay exactly the same.