The bank deposit is not the books. A small landlord still has four jobs: a rent roll that shows who paid, a deposit ledger that shows what you still hold, an owner-cost log a tax preparer can sort, and a vacancy file that counts empty days. AI drafts the memo and the SUMIFS. Excel or Google Sheets is the audit trail.
This is a buyer-intent map, not property-management software and not a filed Schedule E. Tab names and prices come from live Etsy listing copy, the shipping Excel workbooks opened this session, and vendor pricing pages pulled 2026-08-29.
Disclosure: Jaceal LLC operates Smart Files Shop on Etsy. Landlord-workbook links go to our listings. ChatGPT and Claude links go to the vendors. See our Affiliate Disclosure.
This week — Labor Day weekend 2026 (Saturday, September 5 – Monday, September 7). September 1 is the common academic-year lease start; the next three-day move-out window is this holiday weekend. Who paid through last month lives on a rent roll. A deposit you still hold is a different ledger. Empty-unit days belong on a vacancy / make-ready log, not a text thread. Our live Landlord Rent Roll Spreadsheet is still $6.99 — that is the listing price, not a holiday markdown. Use the payment log so paid / partial / late is a row, not a Venmo screenshot.
| Job | Best stack | Cost | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who paid / lease dates | Landlord Rent Roll | $6.99 | Payment log with paid / partial / late; tenant and lease list |
| What you still hold | Security Deposit Tracker | $6.99 | Deposit Ledger remaining = held − deductions − refunds paid |
| Rent + costs + deposits | Expense & Deposit Tracker | $7.99 | Rent Roll, Expenses by Category, Schedule E Helper in one file |
| Empty days / make-ready | Vacancy Tracker | $6.99 | Turnover Ledger, printable Make-Ready, Work Orders |
| Nightly stays | Vacation Rental Bookkeeping | $7.99 | Booking Log, occupancy %, ADR, RevPAR — not a 12-month rent row |
A Venmo screenshot is not a year of collections. Each rent event needs a row: unit, amount due, amount paid, late fee if you assessed one, method, status. Paid / partial / late should come from those amounts, not from memory. Lease start and end dates live next to the tenant, not in a calendar app you forget to open in month eleven.
Live listing: Landlord Rent Roll Spreadsheet | Rental Property Tracker Tenant Payment Income Expense Excel · — $6.99, listing 4483585796, state active (Etsy Open API, 2026-08-29). Instant download: Excel + Google Sheets workbook plus a Start-Here PDF and an HTML companion. Live attached files on the listing: STARTHERE-HowtoOpenYourFiles.pdf, LandlordPropertyManager-Excel.xlsx, and LandlordPropertyManager-Interactive.html.
The live .xlsx for this listing was not opened from disk this session, so tab names below are from the live listing description, not from xl/workbook.xml. Listing copy names these jobs in the workbook: a Dashboard of rent collected, expenses, and net; a property and unit tracker (address, unit, beds/baths, status); a tenant and lease database (who lives where, lease start/end, deposit, contact); a rent payment log with paid / partial / late flags; and an expense and maintenance tracker. Open START-HERE first. Replace the sample properties and tenants with your doors, then log rent and expenses as they happen.
Use this file when the problem is “who is current.” It is not a remaining-deposit ledger, not a make-ready checklist, and not property-management software. Lease end dates belong on the tenant/lease list in this file — that is the lease-tracking job for a small portfolio. A dedicated lease-renewal reminder workbook is not a public Etsy listing as of 2026-08-29. Do not treat an unpublished URL as live. Until one is public, keep the date on this rent roll and set your own calendar reminder from that date.
After the month closes, paste unit totals only into ChatGPT or Claude for a three-sentence owner note. Do not upload the tenant list with names, emails, or phone numbers.
Get the Landlord Rent Roll Spreadsheet — $6.99 ·
Folding deposits into rental income is how April gets ugly. A deposit is money you still hold until you refund it or lawfully keep a deduction. Remaining should be a formula: amount held minus itemized deductions minus refunds you sent. You do not type the remaining total.
Live listing: Security Deposit Tracker Spreadsheet | Landlord Refund Deduction Log Excel Sheets — $6.99, listing 4562846904, active. Instant Excel + Google Sheets. The listing copy calls it a 6-tab file. Tabs in the shipping workbook (xl/workbook.xml): Start Here, Dashboard, Properties, Deposit Ledger, Deductions, Refunds Paid, and Lists. Lists is the helper sheet behind the dropdowns.
Deposit Ledger is one row per deposit. Columns include Deposit ID, Property ID, Unit, Tenant, Move-in, Move-out, Received, Amount held, and Return-by date. Remaining, deductions, and refunded amounts are formulas. Return-by is a date you enter — the sheet treats a remaining balance after that date as a reminder, not a legal finding. The Start Here tab itself says this is not a rent roll.
Deductions itemize move-out charges against a Deposit ID. Categories on the Lists tab include Cleaning, Damage, Unpaid rent, Late fees, Keys/locks, Utilities, Painting, and Other. Refunds Paid is the check or transfer you sent — one row per payment. Dashboard rolls held, deducted, refunded, and remaining. Purple SAMPLE rows (D001 closed after refund; D002 still held) are there so every formula is visible before you overwrite them.
It does not look up deposit-return law. It does not calculate statutory interest. Compatibility on the live listing: Microsoft Excel (2016 and later recommended), Google Sheets via File → Import or Drive → Open with Google Sheets, no macros, not tested in Apple Numbers — do not use Numbers.
Get the Security Deposit Tracker — $6.99
Insurance is not a repair. A security-deposit refund is not an expense. If you want collections, deductible flags, and deposits in one Excel file instead of three, that is a different job from the standalone rent roll plus the standalone deposit ledger.
Live listing: Landlord Expense Deposit Tracker Excel | Rental Security Deposit Schedule E Spreadsheet — $7.99, listing 4562934360, active. Instant Excel + Google Sheets. The listing copy calls it a 7-tab file. Tabs in the shipping workbook (xl/workbook.xml): Setup Instructions, Properties & Units, Rent Roll, Expenses by Category, Security Deposits, Annual Summary, Schedule E Helper, and Lists.
What the opened file does:
Buy this instead of the standalone rent roll plus the standalone deposit file if you want those jobs in one place. It is still not a vacancy tracker and not a bank feed. Purple SAMPLE rows (123 Example St Unit A / Unit B, 456 Sample Ave Unit A, Tenant A / Tenant B / Tenant C) are there to show the formulas before you overwrite them.
Get the Expense & Deposit Tracker — $7.99
Notice is not move-out. Move-out is not a new lease. Paint and locks disappear into “misc” unless make-ready tasks have their own rows. Days vacant and a 30-day vacancy-loss estimate should calculate from dates you type, not from a guess in April.
Live listing: Landlord Vacancy Tracker Spreadsheet | Tenant Turnover Make Ready Log Excel Sheets — $6.99, listing 4563056483, active. Instant Excel + Google Sheets. The listing copy calls it a 6-tab file. Tabs in the shipping workbook (xl/workbook.xml): Start Here, Dashboard, Properties, Turnover Ledger, Make-Ready, Work Orders, and Lists. The Properties sheet header reads “Properties & Units.”
Turnover Ledger is one row per notice-to-new-lease event. Columns include Turnover ID, Property ID, Unit ID, Outgoing tenant, Notice date, Move-out date, New lease start, List date, Monthly rent, Days vacant, Vacancy loss $, Make-ready $, and Status. Days vacant, vacancy-loss $, make-ready $, and status are formulas. When New lease start is blank, open vacancy days follow the as-of date you type on Dashboard B4. SAMPLE uses 2026-08-26 so open-vacancy days do not drift with the clock.
Vacancy loss $ uses monthly rent ÷ 30 — a planning estimate, not a tax figure, which is what the Dashboard note in the file says. Make-Ready is a Letter-landscape printable walkthrough. Task names on Lists include Clean, Paint, Carpet / floor, Patch / repair, Locks / keys, Smoke / CO, HVAC service, Photos, and List online. Costs roll to the ledger by Turnover ID. Work Orders are ongoing repairs by unit; Turnover ID is optional, so an HVAC service on an occupied door does not have to pretend it is a make-ready. Unpaid $ rolls to the Dashboard.
Not a rent roll. Not a deposit ledger. The Start Here tab says so in the subtitle. Purple SAMPLE rows (Oak Street Duplex / Maple Court; T001 Closed / T002 Vacant / T003 Notice) are there so every formula is visible before you overwrite them.
Prompt: “Here are this month’s vacancy-day totals and last month’s. Write a 150-word owner note. Do not invent reasons a unit is empty.” Prices: ChatGPT Free $0/month; Plus is a paid individual plan — confirm current USD on ChatGPT’s pricing page (this session’s fetch returned regional MXN). Claude Free $0, Pro $20/month or $17/month billed annually ($200 up front) per Anthropic / Claude pricing.
Get the Vacancy Tracker — $6.99
ChatGPT Free writes SUMIFS and month-end copy. ChatGPT’s pricing page lists a Free plan at $0/month (unlimited text chats with GPT-5.6 Luna, limited tool use). Plus is the paid individual plan for expanded uploads and tools; Excel / Google Sheets extensions are listed as Limited on Free and Yes on Plus. Totals only — no tenant names, no taxpayer IDs, no full leases. Use ChatGPT Free
Claude Free is the better paste target for a full month of unit totals plus last year’s same month. Ask it to keep rent collected, deposits still held, and vacancy-loss estimates in separate sentences so held money never masquerades as income. Claude Pro is $20/month or $17/month billed annually per Anthropic’s pricing page. Use Claude Free
Google Sheets is the default editor if you do not run Excel. The deposit, expense, and vacancy workbooks opened this session are .xlsx downloads with no macros; Drive → Upload → Open with Google Sheets is the path on each listing. Gemini inside Sheets is optional and not required for the remaining-deposit math or the vacancy-day formulas. The three opened workbooks are labeled not tested in Apple Numbers — do not use Numbers.
Nightly stays / STR host books — $7.99. Vacation Rental Bookkeeping Spreadsheet | Host Income Occupancy Tax Excel Sheets (4528642066, active). Live attached files: Airbnb-STR-Tracker.html, Airbnb_STR_Income_Expense_Tracker.xlsx, STR_Tracker_Start_Here.pdf. The .xlsx for this listing was not opened from disk this session; tab names below are from the live listing description. Listing copy: a 13-tab Excel / Google Sheets workbook — Start Here, Property Setup (up to 20 STRs), Booking Log (Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com, Direct), Expenses, Monthly Summary, Dashboard (revenue, net income, occupancy %, ADR, RevPAR, cash-on-cash ROI), Annual + 5-Year, ROI & Cash Flow, Year-over-Year, Mileage Log, Booking Calendar, Sample Data, Leave a Review — plus a browser companion. Independent product. Not affiliated with Airbnb, Inc. or Vrbo. Use this when the unit is sold by the night. Do not force those stays onto the long-term rent roll. Occupancy and ADR are stay-level; a monthly rent row cannot hold them.
Before you bid — $7.99. Real Estate Deal Analyzer Spreadsheet | BRRRR Rental Cash Flow ROI Cap Rate Excel Google Sheets (4528634147, active). Live attached files: Real_Estate_Deal_Analyzer.xlsx, Real-Estate-Deal-Analyzer.html, Real_Estate_Deal_Analyzer_Start_Here.pdf, Get_The_App.pdf. The .xlsx was not opened from disk this session; tab names below are from the live listing description. Listing copy: 12 tabs — Start, Deal Dashboard (go / caution / no-go), Property Inputs, Rehab Budget, Rental Analysis (NOI, cap rate, cash-on-cash, GRM, 1% Rule / 50% Rule / GRM quick-checks), Cash Flow Projection (10-year), BRRRR Exit Planner (65% / 75% / 80% LTV scenarios), Flip Profit, Sensitivity, Comparables / notes, Sample Data Guide, Leave a Review — plus an HTML companion. One deal before you bid. Not a rent roll. Not investment advice.
Four browser dashboards, not the Excel pack — $19.99. Landlord Rent Roll Bundle Spreadsheet | Tenant Payment Deal Analyzer Excel Sheets (4533445912, active). Be exact about the download. Live attached files on this listing are five items, none of them .xlsx: LandlordPropertyManager-Interactive.html, Real-Estate-Deal-Analyzer.html, Airbnb-STR-Tracker.html, Renovation-Tracker.html, and Property_Bundle_Start_Here.pdf. That matches the listing copy: four interactive HTML dashboards plus a start-here PDF. Double-click to open in a browser. Listing copy says each dashboard has an Export Excel button that writes an .xlsx of the data you typed. If you need the shipping Excel rent roll, the Excel deposit ledger, or the Excel vacancy file, buy those listings above. Buy this set if you want the HTML dashboards in one download.
Other live landlord-ops files: etsy.com/shop/SmartFilesShopUS. Love Guarantee on the live listings: 14-day free fix, free small customization, or refund. Custom requests (labels, columns, unit list, branding) are offered on the listing copy. Paid customs are by quote; listing menus typically show light custom $15–$29, standard custom $39–$79, and deep custom $89–$149 by scope.
The rent roll, deposit, expense, vacancy, STR, and deal-analyzer listings are instant downloads with the Love Guarantee: 14-day free fix, free small customization, or refund. The three Excel workbooks opened this session (deposit, expense, vacancy) are .xlsx files that open in Excel and Google Sheets. The rent-roll listing also includes a Start-Here PDF and an HTML dashboard you can open in a browser. That HTML file is a local companion, not an App Store app.
Landlord Rent Roll if you need who paid and when the lease ends. Security Deposit Tracker if move-out refunds are the pile. Expense & Deposit Tracker if you want those jobs plus a Schedule E helper in one Excel file. Vacancy Tracker when a door is on notice or empty. ChatGPT Free for the month-end note. Do not paste tenant names into a chat.
Use ChatGPT for formulas, month-end notes, and lease-reminder copy. Do not paste tenant names, emails, phone numbers, bank account numbers, Social Security numbers, or full lease PDFs into a consumer chat. Strip identifiers first, or work only from unit totals.
Use a payment log that records unit, amount due, amount paid, late fee, and paid / partial / late status, plus a tenant and lease list that holds lease start and end dates. A live Excel + Google Sheets workbook for that job is the Landlord Rent Roll Spreadsheet ($6.99) from Smart Files Shop.
No. Rent collected is income you received. A deposit is money you still hold. Mixing them in one total is how April gets ugly. Use a payment log for rent and a deposit ledger for held / deducted / refunded / remaining.
Many small landlords close the month in Excel or Google Sheets: a rent roll, a deposit ledger, and a vacancy log when a unit is empty. Property-management software is a later step when you have a manager, owner draws, or more doors than you will log. Sheets and Excel are enough for who paid, what you still hold, and empty-unit days.
Yes. ChatGPT lists a Free plan at $0/month (unlimited text chats with GPT-5.6 Luna, limited tool use). Plus is a paid individual plan — confirm current USD on ChatGPT's pricing page (this session's fetch returned regional MXN). Claude also has a Free plan; Claude Pro is $20/month or $17/month billed annually per Anthropic's pricing page.