Keeping track of rental payments is easy while everyone pays in full on time and becomes the whole job when they do not. Three habits make the difference, and all three are about the record rather than the money: one ledger per tenancy, a rule for allocating anything that is not a full payment, and a reconciliation to the bank each month. Any system that supports those three will do; none that skips them will.
One running ledger per tenancy
Date, what was due, what was paid, the period it was for, and the running balance. Per tenancy rather than per property, because tenancies change and a property-level record cannot say who owed what. The running balance is the point: a ledger that records payments without recomputing the balance answers the wrong question, which is what was paid rather than what is owed.
Decide the allocation rule before you need it
When a part payment arrives, does it clear the oldest debt first, or the current month? Either is defensible and it should be written in the lease and applied consistently. Deciding case by case produces a ledger whose arrears figure cannot be reproduced, and the arrears figure is what any later step depends on.
Reconcile to the bank every month
The ledger says what you recorded; the bank says what happened. Comparing them monthly catches a payment that arrived with no reference, a debit that was returned, and a posting made to the wrong tenancy while those are still small. Left to the year end, the same errors take a day to unpick and some are no longer resolvable at all.
Keep the evidence beside the numbers
Receipts issued, demands sent, and the bank line each payment corresponds to. A ledger is an assertion; the ledger with its supporting documents is a record. The federal guidance on rental recordkeeping asks for exactly this: books supported by documents showing the income and expense reported, which is the same discipline arriving from a different direction.
Questions people ask about keep track of rental payments
Is a spreadsheet good enough?
For a few tenancies with a disciplined owner, yes, provided it computes a running balance and is reconciled monthly. It stops being enough when somebody else needs to use it.
How should a part payment be recorded?
In full, as received, allocated by your stated rule. Never round it or adjust the arrears figure to match; the ledger should show what happened.
How long should payment records be kept?
At least as long as the period a return can be examined or a claim brought, which is longer than most people keep them and costs almost nothing.