Rental property spreadsheet: the 12 numbers worth tracking
What a landlord or short-term rental host actually needs in a spreadsheet, from rent and occupancy to cash-on-cash return, and the columns that are a waste of time.
A rental property spreadsheet fails in one of two ways: it tracks so little that you cannot answer "is this place making money", or it tracks so much that you stop filling it in by March. This guide lists the numbers that matter, the ones that are nice, and the ones to skip.
The twelve that matter
| Number | Why it matters | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Gross rent or booking revenue | The top line, per month per unit | Lease or platform payouts |
| Occupancy (STR) or vacancy days (LTR) | Empty nights are the largest hidden cost | Booking calendar |
| Cleaning and turnover cost | The STR cost that scales with success | Turnover log |
| Platform and payment fees | 3-15% that never reaches your account | Payout statements |
| Mortgage interest and principal, separately | Interest is a cost; principal is forced saving | Lender statement |
| Property tax and insurance | Fixed, annual, easy to forget monthly | Bills, divided by 12 |
| Utilities you pay | Often the difference between profit and loss for STR | Bills |
| Repairs and maintenance | Budget 1% of property value per year even in good years | Receipts |
| Capital improvements | Tracked apart from repairs for tax reasons | Invoices |
| Net operating income | Revenue minus operating costs, before the mortgage | Formula |
| Cash flow | NOI minus debt service - what actually lands in your account | Formula |
| Cash-on-cash return | Annual cash flow divided by cash you put in | Formula |
Structure that survives past March
One row per transaction, one column per category, and everything else computed. The moment you type totals by hand, the sheet stops being trustworthy. A monthly dashboard should read revenue, costs, NOI, cash flow and occupancy for a selected month, and a year view should line up twelve months so you can see seasonality. Keep a separate tab per property only if the properties are genuinely separate businesses; otherwise a property column with filters is simpler.
Nice to have
- Average daily rate and revenue per available night for STR - useful once you tune pricing.
- Guest source (platform, direct, repeat) - shows whether direct booking efforts pay.
- Maintenance reserve balance - a running "sinking fund" so the boiler is not a crisis.
Skip these
Daily rate history copied from the platform (it is already there), guest names beyond first name and dates (privacy risk with no analytic value), and property appreciation guesses. Appreciation is not cash flow, and a spreadsheet that mixes the two flatters every bad decision.
A note on tax
Separate repairs from improvements, interest from principal, and keep receipts dated. Rules differ by country and change yearly; a clean ledger makes the conversation with your accountant short, and that is the spreadsheet's real job. Nothing here is tax advice.
Check whether a listing pays for itself with the Airbnb profit calculator.
Tools that go with this guide
- Airbnb / STR Manager - bookings, payouts, cleaning costs and profit for one or several properties.
- Small Business Bookkeeping Spreadsheet - income and expenses by category with tax set-aside, for the business side.