I Tried Spreadsheets, Paper Forms, and Software - Here's What Actually Works

I'll tell you how I ended up building my own property management software, because I think it explains why the existing options didn't work for me, and probably won't work for you either if you're anything like me.

I own four apartments in Auckland CBD - a three-bedroom, two one-bedrooms with car parks, and a one-bedroom. I've rented the three-bedroom by room to strangers, student groups, and families. For years I tracked everything manually.

It started with spreadsheets. I had a Google Sheet with tabs for each property, columns for each room, rent due dates, amounts paid, running arrears totals. I calculated pro-rata daily rent by hand - $43 per day for a $300/week room - and manually updated the sheet every time a payment landed in my bank account. It worked, sort of, until I had tenants in arrears across three properties and couldn't keep up.

Then I tried GnuCash. Proper double-entry accounting. It was great for tracking where the money went, but it couldn't tell me which tenant was behind on rent or generate the arrears schedule I needed for the Tenancy Tribunal.

And the paper forms. I've filed bond refund forms for 14+ tenants by hand. Each one is the same tedious process: fill in the tenant details, calculate the deductions, post it off to Tenancy Services, wait. When a tenancy ended I'd write individual emails to each room tenant, calculate their final rent amount, work out any bond deductions, and hope I got the arithmetic right.

After two Tribunal cases, a Disputes Tribunal case against my body corporate, and an 11-year High Court building defects saga, I decided I needed something purpose-built. I looked at what was available. Here's my honest assessment.

Palace

Website: palacesoftware.com
Pricing: Not public - you have to talk to sales.

Palace is the established player in New Zealand. Most large property management companies use it. It handles trust accounting, owner disbursements, maintenance workflows, inspections, compliance - the full suite.

What it does well: It's comprehensive. If you're a professional PM running hundreds of doors, Palace has the features you need. Trust accounting is solid. Xero integration works. It's been around long enough that the rough edges are mostly smoothed out. Bank feed support comes through the Xero connection.

The problem for me: It's built for property management companies, not for a self-managing landlord with a small portfolio. The pricing reflects the enterprise market. The learning curve is significant. I don't need trust accounting or owner disbursements because I am the owner. It's more tool and more cost than a self-managing landlord needs.

Best for: Professional PM companies managing 20+ properties. If you self-manage a handful of rentals, Palace isn't the answer.

MyRent

Website: myrent.co.nz
Pricing: From $20+GST/month for 1 property (~$23 actual), scaling up. A 3-property landlord pays around $44/month including GST.

MyRent is probably the biggest name in self-managing landlord software in NZ - around 40,000 landlords, 4.8 stars on Trustpilot, $2.1 billion in rent tracked. They've been around since 2017 and they've earned their reputation.

What they do well: Tenant advertising and onboarding. Finding a tenant, listing on TradeMe, generating tenancy agreements, lodging bonds - MyRent makes that whole process smooth. They're vertically integrated, so everything from listing to signing happens in one place. Large user base means they're well-tested and reliable.

Where it didn't work for me: The "Hands-Free" rent collection means your tenant pays MyRent, who hold the money for a few days, then pay you. I chose to self-manage precisely because I don't want someone else sitting between me and my rental income. Most of the useful features are extras on top of the base price, so the real cost adds up. And the ongoing tenancy management - arrears tracking, bank reconciliation, tribunal preparation, tax reports - felt secondary to the tenant-finding side.

The way I see it: MyRent owns finding and signing tenants. RentManager owns managing the tenancy after they move in. They're strong where we're light, and we're strong where they're light. If your biggest pain point is finding tenants and getting them signed up, MyRent is excellent. If your pain point is tracking rent, chasing arrears, doing tax returns, and preparing for the worst case, that's what I built RentManager to do.

Best for: Landlords whose main need is tenant advertising, onboarding, and hands-free rent collection. If you're happy with someone else handling your cashflow and don't need detailed arrears or tribunal tools, MyRent is a solid choice.

Keyhook

Website: keyhook.com
Pricing: Free for landlords (they make money from tenant services).

Keyhook started as a tenant-focused platform and expanded into landlord tools. They offer tenancy agreement creation, bond lodgement, maintenance requests, and basic rent tracking. Tenants can build a rental CV with references, which is a genuinely good idea.

What it does well: It's free, which is hard to argue with. The tenant onboarding experience is solid. Digital tenancy agreements and bond lodgement are included. They're actively developing and adding features regularly.

Where it fell short for me: The rent tracking is basic. There's limited arrears automation - and that was my core problem. Because their revenue comes from tenant-facing services, the landlord side can feel like it's not the priority. Tax reporting is limited. Bank sync isn't a core feature, so you're still manually checking who's paid.

Best for: Landlords who want a free tool for managing the tenant relationship and don't need detailed financial tracking or arrears automation.

Renti

Website: renti.co.nz
Pricing: Free basic tier, paid plans available.

Renti focuses on simplifying rent collection and tracking. It's straightforward and easy to set up, which I appreciate. Basic rent tracking, payment reminders, tenant communication.

What it does well: It's simple. If you want something you can set up in ten minutes and start using, Renti does that. NZ-focused, which matters more than people think.

Where it fell short for me: The feature set is limited compared to what I needed. Basic reporting. Fewer integrations. If you need detailed expense tracking or legal document generation - arrears schedules, Section 55 notices - you'll hit the edges quickly.

Best for: Landlords with one or two properties who want simple rent tracking without a lot of complexity. If that's you and it does what you need, there's nothing wrong with simple.

The Spreadsheet

Pricing: Free.

I used spreadsheets for years, so I'll be fair to them. A well-built spreadsheet can track rent, categorise expenses, and calculate arrears. You understand exactly how it works because you built it. No dependency on any company. Complete flexibility.

But here's what killed it for me. No automation. Every week I was logging into my bank account, checking which tenants had paid, updating the spreadsheet, and mentally noting who I needed to chase. With a dozen tenants, that's an hour a week just on data entry. One wrong formula and your records are off until tax time or - worse - until a Tribunal hearing reveals the mistake. No bank sync, no document generation, no reminders. And at tax time, I was manually categorising and totalling everything for the IR3R.

The spreadsheet works for one property and a landlord with discipline. The moment you've got multiple tenants across multiple properties, it starts to crack. I know because I rode it until it broke.

Best for: One property, strong spreadsheet skills, and the discipline to update records every single week without fail.

What Actually Mattered to Me

Know whether rent has been paid without logging in to check. Bank sync that matches payments to tenants automatically. This is the single biggest time-saver. I used to spend Sunday mornings cross-referencing bank transactions. Now it happens on its own.

Catch arrears early. My $1,150 Tribunal case started as one missed payment that I didn't follow up on fast enough. Automated reminders at day 3, 7, and 14 would have caught it at $300.

Generate the documents I actually need. Section 55 notices with the correct arrears amounts. Tribunal arrears schedules in the format adjudicators expect. Bond lodgement through MBIE's system instead of paper forms. I've done all of these by hand too many times.

Make tax time painless. Expenses categorised against IR3R categories throughout the year, so I'm not sitting at the kitchen table in June trying to remember what each transaction was for.

Keep tenant data in New Zealand. Under the Privacy Act 2020, I take this seriously. All RentManager data is hosted in the AWS Auckland region. Your tenants' personal information doesn't leave the country.

RentManager NZ

Website: rentmanager.nz
Pricing: Starter $9/month (1 property), Standard $19/month (up to 5), Standard+ $29/month (up to 10). One month free trial.

This is the tool I built because nothing else did what I needed. Bank sync for automatic rent matching across all major NZ banks. Real-time arrears tracking with auto-reminders. Section 55/55A notice generation. Tribunal arrears schedules. Expense categorisation for IR3R. MBIE bond lodgement. Healthy Homes compliance tracking. Tenant application screening.

I use it every day on my own properties. Every feature exists because I needed it myself, not because a product manager thought it looked good on a feature list.

Full disclosure: you're reading this on the RentManager blog, so take my self-assessment with appropriate scepticism. But I've tried to be honest about every tool above, including the ones that are free and might be all you need.

A Few Things to Check With Any Tool

Wherever your data is hosted. Ask. It matters.

Whether you can export your data. You should always be able to get your records out in a usable format.

Whether it's actively maintained. NZ tenancy law and tax rules change regularly. Software that isn't updated will fall behind.

Whether it handles NZ-specific requirements. International tools miss bond lodgement, RTA notice requirements, IR3R categories. These aren't edge cases - they're the core of what a NZ landlord needs.

Try RentManager

If you're a self-managing landlord in New Zealand and you're tired of spreadsheets, manual bank checking, and paper forms, RentManager is what I built to solve exactly that.

Try it free for a month at rentmanager.nz - no credit card required.