A rent roll is the one report from a property business that outsiders read. A lender uses it to size a loan, a buyer to price a portfolio, an accountant to check the income. That means the software question is not whether it can show you your tenancies, it is whether it can produce a defensible as-at statement that somebody else will accept without a follow-up list of questions.
As at a date, not as of today
The distinguishing feature of real rent roll software is that it can produce the roll as it stood on a past date, including tenancies that have since ended and rents that have since changed. A system that only renders the present cannot answer the question a lender asks, which is what the position was at a quarter end. If the only way to produce last quarter is to have saved a copy, you have a spreadsheet with a database behind it.
The fields somebody will ask for
Unit identifier, tenant, lease start and end, current rent and its frequency, any scheduled change with its date, deposit held and where, arrears balance, and occupancy status with vacancy start where empty. For commercial add recoveries, options and break dates. Anything missing here turns into an email exchange, and a rent roll that generates an email exchange is what makes a transaction slow.
Where the arrears figure comes from
An arrears column that is typed is worth nothing. It should be the tenant ledger balance at the report date, computed, so that the roll and the ledger cannot disagree. Most disputes over a rent roll during a sale come down to an arrears number that nobody can reconstruct, which then casts doubt on every other figure in the same column.
Exports, and the format the other side wants
Lenders and buyers want a spreadsheet they can sort and total, not a formatted document. A product that exports only to a styled report is producing something that will be retyped by an analyst, with the errors that come with retyping. Check the export before you need it, because you will need it at short notice and usually during a transaction.
Questions people ask about rent roll software
How often should a rent roll be produced?
Monthly as a matter of routine, so that a quarter end is never a special exercise. It also surfaces data errors while they are small.
Should the rent roll show market rent as well as passing rent?
For a buyer or a lender, yes, as a separate column and clearly labelled as an estimate. Blending the two into one number is how a rent roll loses credibility.
Does a rent roll include deposits?
It should show the amount held and where, because a deposit is a liability and a buyer is inheriting it.