How do I track rent, expenses and loans across several properties?

Give every property its own record of rent, expenses and loans, then roll them up into one portfolio view, so you can see both how each property performs and where you stand overall. Update it monthly from your property manager statements and loan statements, and keep each property's documents with it.

Set up one record per property

For each property, capture:

• Purchase date, price and ownership (whose name, what percentage)
• Current estimated value
• Each loan or split: lender, balance, rate, fixed or variable, fixed rate expiry date, offset account
• Rent, lease start and end dates, and property manager
• Regular costs: rates, water, land tax, insurance, strata, management fees

Use consistent categories

Use the same expense categories for every property, ideally matching how your accountant reports them. That makes comparisons easy and tax time faster.

A monthly routine (about 20 minutes)

1. Download each property manager's monthly statement
2. Record rent received and expenses paid by category
3. Check loan balances and any rate changes
4. Note upcoming dates: lease ends, fixed rate expiries, insurance renewals
5. File receipts against the right property

Look at the portfolio, not just the properties

Once each property is up to date, the totals tell you what matters: combined cash flow, total debt, total equity, and which property is dragging the rest down.

Common mistakes

• Mixing private and rental spending in the same loan or account
• Recording advertised rent instead of rent actually received
• Forgetting one-off costs like strata special levies
• Keeping documents in email instead of with the property

Doing it in Opulo

Opulo gives each property its own record and rolls everything into one dashboard showing cash flow, equity and loans across your portfolio, with documents stored against each property and alerts for upcoming dates.