Every cost of running your rental gets logged here — from the mortgage payment to supplies from the hardware store. Each expense is categorized for taxes. At tax time, your year-end summary is already organized the way your accountant needs it. If you manage multiple properties, each expense needs a property assignment. When adding or editing an expense, select which property it belongs to — or choose "Split Evenly" to divide the cost across all your active properties. Make sure you have the correct property selected in the property bar at the top of the screen before viewing your expense list.
- Date — When was the expense incurred? For credit card purchases, use the purchase date, not the statement date.
- Amount — The total spent. For shared expenses (like a Costco run that includes personal items), enter only the rental property portion.
- Paid To — The vendor or payee. This helps when searching for expenses later ("how much did I spend at Home Depot this year?").
- Category — This is the most important field. The category determines which tax deduction category the expense maps to. Choose carefully — miscategorizing a capital improvement as a repair (or vice versa) affects your taxes.
- Description — What was this for? Useful when the vendor name isn't descriptive (e.g., "Replaced kitchen faucet" for a Home Depot purchase).
- Receipt Location — Where did you file the receipt? Options include physical locations (filing cabinet, accordion folder) and digital (email, cloud folder). Helpful when your accountant asks for documentation.
For expenses that happen every month (mortgage, utilities, insurance, streaming services):
- Recurring Monthly — Check this box and select which months apply. The app creates expense entries for each selected month.
- How it works — Enter the expense once with an amount. Check "Recurring Monthly" and select the months (most people select all 12). When you save, you'll have 12 expense entries created automatically.
- Variable amounts — For bills that vary month-to-month (like electricity), you have two options: enter an average and adjust individual months later, or enter each month separately as you receive the bills.
For annual or irregular expenses you don't want to forget (property tax, insurance renewal, annual septic pumping), check "Set Reminder." This is a note to yourself — the app will remind you when the date approaches next year.
The app comes with standard expense categories pre-mapped to tax deduction categories. Here's how they organize:
- Advertising — Listing fees, photography, marketing
- Cleaning & Maintenance — Cleaning services, landscaping, routine maintenance, garbage
- Commissions — Platform commissions, booking agent fees
- Insurance — Property insurance, liability insurance
- Legal/Professional — Accountant fees, legal fees, property management
- Mortgage Interest — The interest portion of your mortgage payment
- Repairs — Fixing broken things (dishwasher repair, roof patch, plumbing fix)
- Supplies — Consumables (toilet paper, cleaning supplies, light bulbs)
- Property Tax — Annual property taxes
- Utilities — Electric, gas, water, sewer, trash, cable, internet, streaming
- Capital Expenses — Major improvements that add value (new roof, renovation, new appliances)
- Mortgage Principal — The principal portion (not deductible, but tracked for cash flow)
Repairs vs. Capital Improvements
This distinction matters for taxes:
- Repair: Fixes something that's broken — Fully deductible this year
- Improvement: Makes something better or adds value — Depreciated over time
- Examples: Replacing a broken dishwasher = repair. Upgrading to a better dishwasher = improvement. Fixing a roof leak = repair. Replacing the entire roof = improvement.
When in doubt, ask your accountant. The app categorizes correctly either way — you just need to choose the right category.
- Year selector — The dropdown at the top lets you view and manage expenses for any year. The app stores each year separately.
- Year locking — Past years are locked by default to prevent accidental edits to historical data you've already filed taxes on. You can unlock temporarily if you need to make corrections.
- Delete entire year — If you need to re-import a year's expenses from scratch, you can delete all expenses for that year (after unlocking) and start fresh.
You can create custom categories in Settings. Custom categories can map to any existing tax deduction category, or be marked "Other" for the catch-all category. Use custom categories when you want to track something more specifically — like separating "Hot Tub Maintenance" from general "Cleaning & Maintenance" — while still having it roll up correctly for taxes. Expense categories are shared across all your properties — you don't need to set up categories separately for each one.
Some expenses are tax-deductible but not something you "budget" for — like mileage. In Settings, under Expense Categories, you can exclude specific categories from budget tracking. They'll still appear in your expense list and tax summary, but won't show up in Budget Setup or Budget vs. Actuals. If you manage multiple properties, see the Managing Multiple Properties section for details on how expenses are assigned to properties.