What is a rent roll?
A rent roll is a snapshot — usually one row per unit — of your current rental situation: who the tenant is, what they pay, and when their lease ends. Lenders request it when you refinance, buyers demand it when you sell, and smart landlords glance at it monthly to spot expiring leases and below-market rents before they become expensive.
A rent ledger is the rent roll's running companion: a dated log of charges and payments per tenant, showing what was due, what arrived, and what is still outstanding. The rent roll answers “what should be coming in?”; the ledger answers “what actually came in — and who is short?” You need both, and a good template keeps them in the same file so the two never disagree.
The fields every rent roll template should include
| Field | Why it earns its column |
|---|---|
| Property & unit | The anchor for everything else; lenders and buyers read the roll property by property. |
| Tenant name(s) | Who is contractually responsible — not just who sends the money. |
| Lease start & end dates | Drives the expiry countdown. A lease ending in 30 days is a marketing task today, not a surprise next month. |
| Monthly rent | The contracted amount — the baseline every payment is compared against. |
| Market rent | What the unit would fetch today. The gap between this and the row above is your renewal strategy. |
| Security deposit held | Money you hold but do not own; it must be visible and never mixed into income. |
| Other recurring charges | Parking, pet rent, storage — the amounts that quietly go missing from informal records. |
| Status | Current, notice given, month-to-month, vacant. Status changes the meaning of every other number on the row. |
And on the ledger side, five columns do the real work: date, tenant/unit, amount due, amount received, and balance due — with the balance calculated, not typed, so a partial payment can never hide. In the Rental Property Tracker, the Rent Roll & Leases sheet counts down days to lease expiry automatically (flagging anything inside 30 days), and the Income Log's Balance Due turns red on any shortfall — including the classic “paid $1,000 of $1,450” partial payment.
How landlords actually use a rent roll, month to month
- Week 1: check the ledger against bank deposits. Anyone short is visible immediately, while a polite reminder is still a reminder — not a conflict.
- Monthly: scan lease end dates two months out. Renewals and listings both take longer than you think.
- Quarterly: compare contract rent to market rent per unit. A portfolio-wide $50/unit gap is real money left on the table.
- At refinance or sale: export the roll as-is. A clean, current rent roll is one of the first credibility signals a lender or buyer sees.
The failure mode to avoid: a rent roll that lives in your head, a text thread, or a notebook. It works until the first partial payment, the first disputed late fee, or the first time a lender asks for documentation — then it works not at all.
Free simplified rent ledger — and the full system
We publish a free sample — a simplified one-sheet Rent Ledger with due/received/balance columns and the red-flag balance formula — in our community posts for landlords (free sample available — see our community posts on BiggerPockets and Reddit, where we share it with the full write-up). It is enough to run one or two units cleanly.
When you outgrow a single sheet — multiple properties, expenses to categorize, a tax summary to produce — the full Rental Property Tracker adds the Properties register, the Rent Roll & Leases sheet, expense logging mapped to Schedule E lines, a monthly P&L and the year-end summary your CPA wants. One workbook, one-time price.
Buy the full Tracker — $29 one-time
Mixing long-term and short-term units? The Bundle ($49) adds the Airbnb income and expense tracking sheet to the same system.
FAQ
What is the difference between a rent roll and a rent ledger?
The rent roll is a snapshot of current leases (tenant, rent, dates, deposit). The rent ledger is the running payment history (due, received, balance). Lenders ask for the roll; disputes are settled with the ledger. You should keep both.
How often should I update my rent roll?
Whenever a lease is signed, renewed, or ends — and glance at it monthly. The payment ledger should be updated as payments arrive, which takes under a minute per payment if the balance column is a formula.
Can I just use a free rent roll template?
For a static snapshot, yes — many free templates are fine as a starting grid. Where they fall down is the ledger side: typed-in balances, no shortfall flagging, and no connection to your expenses or tax summary. Our free simplified ledger (see the community posts mentioned above) covers the payment-tracking basics; the paid Tracker connects everything.
Does the Tracker work in Google Sheets?
Yes — it is a standard .xlsx with ordinary formulas and dropdowns. Upload it to Google Sheets and the countdowns, balances and summaries all carry over. No macros, no add-ins.
What will a lender or buyer want to see on my rent roll?
Current tenant names, lease terms, contracted rent, deposits held and occupancy status — current and consistent with your bank deposits and leases. A roll you have maintained all year beats one reconstructed the night before, every time.