Everything a spreadsheet gets right. None of what it gets wrong.
Spreadsheets win landlords over because they’re free, flexible, and yours. They lose them a few years in — when a dragged formula quietly miscounts a year of rent, and the receipts are somewhere in email. Keep the good part. Drop the risk.
What breaks
The failure is silent, which is the problem
A spreadsheet never tells you it’s wrong. The formula that skipped a row, the total that stopped including the new unit — they just produce a number that looks right. With no formulas to break, BareBones can’t drift out from under you.
- A formula copied one row short undercounts — with no error
- Receipts drift into a folder no one can search
- Every April is a re-sort of twelve months of rows
Side by side
The same job, without the sharp edges
When a spreadsheet is honestly fine
One unit, a handful of transactions a year, and you like it? Keep your sheet — no tool is worth the switch for that. The math changes with the second property, the first automation, or the first audit letter. That’s when a real ledger stops being overkill and starts being the point. And since BareBones is free, there’s nothing to lose by keeping it ready.
Keep the control. Lose the risk.
Move your rentals into a ledger that can’t silently miscount — and still costs nothing. Import what you have and go.