Rental property budget planner & budget vs actual tracker (US & Canada)

Plan next year for every rental, then see, month by month, whether you're on budget. A rental property budget planner and budget vs actual tracker for landlords in the US and Canada, in Excel and Google Sheets: rent with vacancy, every expense, mortgage payments and capital projects by month, NOI and cash flow vs budget, a forecast for the year and a head start on next year's budget. Built for up to 10 properties, 200 budget lines, 1,500 actual entries and 25 categories you can rename. Set any budget year: 2026, 2027 or later.

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Instant digital download (.xlsx). No macros, no subscription.

Rental property budget planner and budget vs actual tracker spreadsheet dashboard

What you get

Settings for the budget name, currency label, budget year, a growth % for next year and your “on budget” range, plus the categories, each typed Income, Operating expense, Debt service (mortgage payments) or Capital, with an optional growth % of its own
Properties: each property's rent per month, a rent change from the month it starts (renewals and increases) and a vacancy & bad-debt allowance. The rent budget for every month is worked out for you
A budget with one row per expense or extra income, entered the way bills really come: an amount every month, an annual amount spread evenly over the year, and/or amounts in specific months (property tax in April and September, snow removal in winter, a roof in June)
Actuals: log what really came in and went out, either each payment or one total per category per month from your bookkeeping. Negative amounts are refunds; rows outside the budget year are flagged and not counted
Budget vs actual for one property or all of them and any month (blank = the latest month with actuals): budget, actual and variance for the month and the year to date, the variance %, the annual budget, a forecast for the year and a clear status for every category (on budget, above / below budget for income, over / under budget for costs, or not in the budget), with totals for income, operating costs, NOI, debt service, capital and cash flow
A dashboard with budget vs actual NOI and cash flow for the year to date, income / operating costs / capital as a % of budget, the cash-flow forecast for the year, tables by property and by month, and two charts
Next year: a suggested budget for next year from this year's forecast and your growth %s, category by category, with the change vs this year, a head start for next year's file
Check columns that flag missing or unknown properties and categories, bad dates and amounts, rent changes without a month and text in number cells; the dashboard counts them for you
A Start Here guide in plain English, with how every number is worked out, to set up in about 20–30 minutes

Details

How the numbers work: rent budget = rent per month (or the new rent from the month it changes) × (1 − vacancy %); each budget line per month = the every-month amount + the annual amount ÷ 12 + anything typed in that month; NOI = income − operating expenses; cash flow = NOI − mortgage payments − capital projects; variance = actual − budget; forecast for the year = actual so far + the budget for the rest of the year; next year's suggestion = this year's forecast × (1 + growth %)
Up to 10 properties, 200 budget lines, 1,500 actual entries and 25 categories; any currency label
Calendar-year budget, cash basis
Excel 2010+ and Google Sheets, no macros, no add-ons, no subscription
Tested formula by formula against an independent model (rent changes and vacancy, every budget pattern, a report for one property or all, a budget year with no actuals yet, cleared data and edge cases), in LibreOffice and live in Google Sheets
Not accounting software: the numbers are only as good as what you enter

Screenshots

Budget lines: monthly, annual or specific months

How it works

Buy on Etsy and download the .xlsx file.
Open it in Excel, or upload it to Google Drive and choose File → Save as Google Sheets.
Delete the clearly marked sample data, set the budget year, enter your properties and budget lines, then log the actuals each month.

Free tool: Rental cash flow & cap rate calculator

This is a planning and record-keeping tool, not financial, tax, legal or accounting advice. A budget is an estimate: real rents, vacancies, costs, interest rates and taxes will differ, and the forecast and next year's suggestion are only a starting point. Mortgage payments and capital projects are cash-flow items here, not tax deductions: for taxes, only the interest part of a mortgage payment is an expense, and capital costs are depreciated (US) or claimed as capital cost allowance (CCA, Canada) rather than deducted in the year you pay them. Please check the rules for your situation, or ask a professional, before you rely on the numbers. It was designed with the help of AI tools, then reviewed and tested before release.

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