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Rental spreadsheet template vs. done-for-you: which is fastest?

Search for a way to get your rental figures into a spreadsheet and you’ll mostly find templates - blank, tidy Excel files with the right columns waiting for your numbers. They’re genuinely useful, and often free. But it’s worth being clear about what they do and don’t do, because there’s a step they leave entirely to you.

What a template gives you

Structure. Nice columns for rent, fees, expenses and totals; sometimes a summary tab or a few formulas. If you like arranging your own records, a template is a solid home for them.

What a template doesn’t do

Read your statement. The figures still have to get into those columns somehow - and that “somehow” is you, typing each one off your agent’s PDF. The template is the destination; the tedious journey is still on you. For a scanned statement, you can’t even copy-paste.

The done-for-you approach

This flips it around. Instead of giving you an empty sheet to fill, RentSorter reads your agent’s statement and produces the filled spreadsheet - every line itemised, totals worked out, the maths checked, ready to download. You do the reviewing, not the typing.

They’re not really rivals - they’re two ends of the same job

A template is where your figures live; RentSorter is how they get there without retyping. Plenty of landlords will happily use both: let RentSorter turn the statement into clean data, then keep or paste it into whatever spreadsheet or software they already trust.

So which is fastest?

If you enjoy building your own records and only have the odd statement, a template is fine. If you dread the typing - or you’ve got monthly statements, several properties, or a line-heavy HMO - having the sheet filled for you is the big time-saver. If neither sounds right, there are other ways to handle a statement - landlord software, an accounting app, or a tool that does just the one job.