Baselane is an all-in-one banking and financial platform built for independent landlords. It aims to simplify financial management by providing tools for accounting, payments, and real-time reporting. It offers automated rent collection, automated property reporting metrics, and expense tracking. Its banking is built for landlords, with a checking account that offers high-yield interest to grow savings. Baselane also has loans and insurance products tailored to landlords.
Our Baselane Rental Property Accounting review goes over use cases and standout features to help you determine if the platform fits your business needs. Overall, we recommend Baselane’s free bookkeeping for independent landlords, Airbnb owners, and novice real estate investors.
We evaluated and determined the best vacation rental accounting software by carefully studying their features, strengths and weaknesses, and unique use cases. We leverage our expertise and extensive research capabilities to identify and address the specific questions our audience has—and this ensures that our content is rooted in knowledge and accuracy, aligning with our Fit Small Business Editorial Policy.
Pros
- Rent collection tools simplify financial management
- A dedicated free bank account
- Free core services
- Property management software integration
- Airbnb owners: Not only is Baselane’s accounting software free, but it’s also really good. You can track an unlimited number of units, making it one of our best accounting software for Airbnb and short-term vacation rentals.
- Independent landlords needing cash flow management tools: Baselane, one of our leading online rent payment services, can help businesses manage their cash flow by providing real-time insights into cash inflows and outflows. This includes the ability to set spending limits and make cash flow projections. You can also integrate with Baselane’s bookkeeping, reporting analytics, and rent collection tools seamlessly.
- Novice real estate investors: Baselane is ideal for novice real estate investors because of its unique tools like Property Metrics, which lets you input the information for each of your properties and look at key performance metrics, such as asset value and appreciation. You can also tag transactions easily by property and Schedule E categories to stay organized. Baselane is even one of our top-recommended banks for real estate investors, specifically for those wanting real estate investor banking with commercial real estate (CRE) loan products.
- Independent landlords wanting access to free checking: Baselane Banking offers a free checking account for landlords, with no account fees or minimum balances and the ability to set up multiple accounts per property. You can also earn up to 5% cash back on purchases. To learn more about the benefits of opening a free checking account, read our review of Baselane business checking.
If you’re seeking other free bookkeeping options, we suggest checking out our guide to the best free accounting software.
Baselane Rental Property Accounting Alternatives & Comparison
Baselane Rental Property Accounting Reviews from Users
Those who left a Baselane Rental Property Accounting review said that they love the fact that the platform is easy to use and has an intuitive interface. They also appreciate the tenant portal and the ability to set up separate virtual accounts for security deposits.
However, there are comments about its customer service, which can be hit or miss depending on who you connect with. Other reviewers pointed out that Baselane could use a mobile app and features like tenant screening or lease generation to streamline the rental process.
Here are the Baselane Rental Property Bookkeeping review scores on third-party sites:
- Trustpilot[1]: 3.9 out of 5 based on around 60 reviews
- Capterra[2]: 4.8 out of 5 based on about 20 reviews
Baselane’s core services are free for landlords, and the platform is free to use for tenants. What’s more, there is no fee for processing rent payments made directly into Baselane Banking accounts. ACH Automated Clearing House payments are also free.
However, payments deposited into an external bank account are charged $2 per transaction, whereas payments made via credit or debit card cost 2.99% per transaction. Landlords can cover these fees or pass them on to the tenant.
Baselane Rental Property Accounting Features
Baselane offers many features that are beneficial to independent landlords and their tenants, such as free banking, reporting and analytics, rent collection, and property metrics.
Baselane’s platform automatically analyzes your transaction history from all of your accounts and properties in one centralized dashboard. You can drill down expense details by category and property, and you’ll have access to unlimited monthly reports. Baselane offers both income statements and cash flow analytics by property and portfolio.
Baselane Analytics & Reporting
(Source: Baselane)
On the Analytics & Reporting page, you can view cash flow metrics, such as net cash flow and net operating income, and break down your cash flow with preset and custom filters. You’ll also be able to generate and download CSV statements of any present and custom filters by property and timeframe.
On the Property Metrics page, you can track the most important metrics across your portfolio easily. All metrics can be viewed on either a per-property basis or in aggregate across your portfolio. They can be shown for different periods, and a summary view is also shown on your dashboard.
Baselane Property Metrics
(Source: Baselane)
Baselane will soon be implementing a total of five key performance metrics:
- Asset value and appreciation: This is measured by your initial inputs of purchase price and current market value. Baselane automatically integrates data from Zillow, which you can use for inputting data on the property page.
- Net operating income (NOI): This metric is determined by the total revenue (rental income and other fees) less total operating expenses. It is key to understanding the profitability of your rentals and is an important contributing factor for other metrics.
- Return on equity (ROE): This is measured by calculating your total return relative to your equity stake in your properties. ROE is an important measure of performance relative to the equity you invested.
- Cash-on-cash return: Similar to ROE, this tracks your performance relative to your initial investment. However, cash-on-cash return looks only at cash return and takes into account all initial cash outlays.
- Cap rate: Think of cap rate as a shortcut to understanding how well your investment property is doing relative to its current asset value. It is calculated by dividing your property’s NOI by its current asset value. The cap rate is a quick way to understand the yield on your investment and compare it to other similar properties in the same geography.
The tenant portal streamlines the process of paying rent and rent collection. After creating an account, tenants can pay rent by connecting a bank or credit card account as well as optionally enroll in auto pay. Baselane makes it possible to view and manage past payments, rent collection details, and landlord contact information.
Baselane Rent Collection
(Source: Baselane)
Available on the Analytics & Reporting tab, Tax Package is a consolidated report of your property financials that can be easily shared with a tax preparer, lender, investing partner, or anyone requesting your financials. The package includes a Net Operating Cash Flow report and a ledger of transactions in CSV format.
New in 2024: You can now download all of your uploaded attachments (including receipts) for your Schedule E filing with one click.
Baselane Banking is tailor-made for landlords, with useful features like subaccounts, spend controls, and the opportunity to earn rewards. It is completely free—there are no monthly fees or minimum balances, and the objective is to focus on how the landlord banks.
Baselane Banking
(Source: Baselane)
Each customer of Baselane Banking has both a main account and the ability to set up virtual accounts that can track items like security deposits or maintenance reserves. Each virtual account is a true account, with its own account number separate from the main account.
The difference between the main and virtual accounts is that you attach your debit card to the main account. You can create virtual debit cards and establish a spending limit on a daily or monthly basis. It’s also possible to connect an external account through Plaid.
Baselane currently doesn’t offer a mobile app. However, the platform is accessible through any web browser, so landlords can access their accounts and manage their properties from their mobile devices.
Baselane doesn’t have integrations with accounting software since it has its own bookkeeping features. You can, however, download custom statements from your Baselane profile and all of your transactions from the Transaction tab to import them into another software.
Baselane Customer Service & Ease of Use
There are a few different ways to contact Baselane, which are all available via the dashboard:
- Live chat
- Schedule a call via its in-app messenger
- Schedule a live video demo with its onboarding expert
- Phone
Baselane’s office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST).
Baselane Dashboard
(Source: Baselane)
You’ll find that Baselane’s dashboard is uncluttered and easy to use, with intuitive navigation. You can use the navigation bar on the left to find your desired section, and there are also shortcuts on the main dashboard.
Baselane Assisted Bookkeeping Options
Unlike software providers like QuickBooks Online and Xero, Baselane currently doesn’t offer assisted bookkeeping options, and we’re unaware of any bookkeeping firms that specialize in Baselane. You might consider an alternative software if you want professional assistance, and you can check out our list of the top online bookkeeping services for options.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Baselane gives you access to metrics related to your property’s performance, such as your net cash flow. You can also view core real estate metrics like cap rate, return on equity, and cash-on-cash return.
You’ll invite tenants to Baselane as part of the Rent Collection setup process. Once you have finalized and submitted a new rent collection for your unit, Baselane will automatically invite your tenant to create a Baselane account. From there, they will view their rent details and pay rent.
Baselane offers its core services for free but makes money through the financial services it provides. Like most banks, Baselane earns interest on the money deposited in Baselane Banking accounts. When you use your Baselane Visa debit card, stores pay a small fee for processing the transaction. Baselane keeps a portion of this fee and shares some with customers through benefits like high APY and cash back rewards.
Baselane can be a good option for landlords, especially those who own a few properties and want to simplify their finances. It offers free bookkeeping software, bank accounts with high APY, rent collection with ACH transfers, and dedicated accounts for each property and security deposit, which helps to categorize income and expenses.
Tenants can easily pay rent online, and automated features like rent reminders save time. You can also earn cashback on debit card purchases, potentially offsetting some management costs.
It depends on the payment option. There are no fees to pay rent from a linked bank account via ACH or bank transfer. However, if you choose to pay using a debit or credit card, you’ll incur a 2.99% convenience fee, which will be added to your payment.
Bottom Line
Baselane dramatically simplifies the process of managing your rental property finances. Instead of using a series of separate financial services and tools to manage your banking, bookkeeping, cash flow and performance analytics, and rent collection, it centralizes everything in one place. All those features help you increase your property returns through better insights to empower the key investment decisions you make.
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