A rent roll template is a dozen columns and one discipline, and the discipline is the part that decides whether the output is trusted. A template anyone can fill in produces a document nobody can reconcile unless the same rules were applied each time. This page is the columns, then the discipline, then the checks to run before it leaves your hands.
The columns
Unit, tenant, lease start, lease end, contracted rent, rent collected for the period, deposit held, current balance, and a status for vacant units with their asking rent. Add square footage or bedrooms if you report on rent per unit size. Resist adding more: a rent roll is read quickly by people looking for four things, and extra columns make those four harder to find.
The discipline: one as-at date
Every figure on the sheet is as at the same date and the sheet says which. Mixing a rent figure from today with a balance from last week is the commonest way a rent roll ends up disagreeing with the ledger, and the person who notices is usually the one you least want noticing. One date, stated at the top, applied to every column.
Three checks before you send it
Does the unit count match the building. Does the sum of contracted rents match what your ledger says was charged for the period, allowing for mid-month changes you can explain. And are the deposits consistent with the rents. Those three take five minutes and catch nearly everything that would otherwise be found by the recipient.
Template or output
A template is right while the roll is assembled by hand. Past a certain size the roll should be an output of the record, produced on demand, because a hand-assembled roll is out of date when it is finished and cannot be reproduced identically next month. The moment somebody outside your business reads it regularly, that reproducibility is worth more than the template.
Questions people ask about rent roll template
Should vacant units be on the rent roll?
Yes, with the asking rent and a vacancy status. A roll of occupied units only overstates the property and a careful reader will notice the unit count does not match.
What period should collected rent cover?
Usually the current month, stated explicitly. Whatever you choose, use it every time so month-to-month comparisons mean something.
Does a lender want a different format?
Often they have their own, and it will ask for the same things in a different order. Having the underlying figures reliable makes reformatting trivial.