What is a rent roll?
The rent roll is a snapshot of leases and rents that can include information such as tenants’ names, rents paid or owed, how long a tenant has occupied the property, and more. Rent rolls are used by owners, lenders, and government agencies as a springboard to understanding the value and stability of a particular real property asset.
How do I generate a rent roll in Azibo?
Azibo enables rental property owners to automatically generate a complete, up-to-date rent roll for individual properties, portfolios, or all properties. Simply follow these steps:
- Keep your lease terms up to date in Azibo, and create new leases as needed. If you don’t have an active lease for a property or unit, it will still appear in the rent roll, but tenant and lease information will be “null”.
- Confirm all of your rent invoices and incomes are up to date in Azibo.
- If you’re collecting all rental income (including monthly rent, parking fees, and one-time charges) in Azibo, we will automatically track payment status, outstanding balance, and late counts for you.
- If you’re collecting rental income outside of Azibo, please be sure to add those invoices and record the actual payments for each.
- To view your annual cumulative income, tag your income by category and property/unit in Transactions. Learn Azibo transaction tagging tips.
- Go to Reports and click Rent Roll. Select the properties for the report to see the live results.
General bookkeeping mistakes to avoid
Learn common landlord bookkeeping mistakes and how to avoid them to ensure you generate accurate, compliant reports for your rental business.
- Missing rental income and expenses. Import all the income and expenses automatically by linking your bank accounts and credit card accounts. If a handful of transactions are still missing, add them manually.
- Incorrect accounting for mortgage payments. Be sure to split and tag your mortgage payment into principal, interest, and escrow to ensure compliant and accurate reports and taxes. Learn more about Accounting for Mortgage Payments in Azibo
- Improperly categorizing repairs and CapEx. Follow the IRS guidelines on what counts as repairs/maintenance vs. capital expenditures. Learn more in our guide Property Improvements and Repairs: Expense or CapEx?
- Booking security deposits as income. Since security deposits do not count as rental income, they should not be listed on the P&L. Similarly, a returned security deposit is not an expense.
- Reporting expenses before a unit is in service. Costs incurred before your rental business is up and running do not count as operating expenses and should not be included in the P&L. Instead, they are capital expenditures, which have different tax implications.
- Misreporting pre-paid rent. In cash-basis accounting, prepaid rent should always be recognized as income on the date that it’s received, not when it’s due. Learn more about accounting for prepaid rent.
- Not reporting insurance and property tax expenses paid by escrow, or not reporting them at the right time. Insurance or tax expenses covered by escrow should be booked when your lender pays, not at the time of your monthly escrow payments. Make sure you don’t miss them or book them too early. Learn more about expensing insurance escrow accounts.
- Including owner distributions or contributions. While you might be tempted to list owner distributions (withdrawals from your rental business profits) as expenses, and owner contributions (money taken out of your own pocket to fund your rental business) as income, neither should be listed in the P&L.
Disclaimer: This content has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for accounting or tax advice.