Migrate Rental Data from Google Sheets or Excel to Estavo
Estavo provides CSV templates for importing rental property transactions, properties, and units from any spreadsheet. If you’ve been tracking rental income and expenses in Google Sheets or Excel, this is your migration path. No AI parsing, no guesswork — you map your columns once, review the result before it’s committed, and everything lands exactly as you expect.
This approach is intentional. AI-assisted spreadsheet parsing is fast but unreliable for financial data. A misclassified transaction that flows into your Schedule E is a tax problem. You get to review every row before it imports.
Before You Import
Do this first — it takes 5–10 minutes:
- Create your property and unit records — transactions need a unit to attach to, and the unit name in your CSV must exactly match a unit name in Estavo
- Note your exact unit names — they’re case-sensitive in the import
CSV import requires the Host plan or above ($19/month). Free-tier users are offered a 14-day trial when they first attempt an import.
The Import Process
Download the CSV template
Go to Money → Import → Download template.
Choose:
- Transactions — income and expense history (the most common import)
- Properties — bulk-create property records
- Units — bulk-create unit records under existing properties
Open the template in your spreadsheet app
The template has column headers matching Estavo’s fields. Copy your data into the template columns — one row per transaction.
Map your existing columns to the template
This is the main work. Common mappings from a rental spreadsheet:
| Your spreadsheet column | Estavo template column |
|---|---|
| Date / Payment date | date |
| Property / Unit / Address | unit_name |
| Income / Revenue / Rent | amount + direction: credit |
| Expense / Cost / Payment | amount + direction: debit |
| Category / Type / Description | category (use slugs from the table below) |
| Notes / Memo | description |
| Airbnb / Platform / Source | platform |
| Guest / Tenant | guest_name |
| Check-in | check_in |
| Check-out | check_out |
Save as CSV and upload
Save your filled file as .csv (not .xlsx). Go to Money → Import → Upload and select it.
Estavo validates every row and shows you exactly what will import successfully and what has errors.
Review the preview and confirm
The import preview shows:
- Total rows parsed
- Rows that will import successfully
- Rows with errors, and why (missing required field, invalid category slug, unrecognized unit name)
Fix errors in your CSV, re-upload, or skip problematic rows. When ready, click Confirm import.
Transaction Template: All Fields
| Field | Required | Format | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
date | Yes | YYYY-MM-DD | e.g., 2024-03-15 |
unit_name | Yes | Text | Must exactly match (case-sensitive) a unit name in your account |
direction | Yes | credit or debit | credit = income, debit = expense |
amount | Yes | Number | Positive number, no currency symbol: 1200.00 |
category | Yes | Category slug | Use exact slugs from the table below |
description | No | Text | Free text, up to 500 characters |
check_in | No | YYYY-MM-DD | Short-term rental bookings only |
check_out | No | YYYY-MM-DD | Short-term rental bookings only |
guest_name | No | Text | Short-term rental bookings only |
platform | No | Platform slug | Short-term rental bookings only |
Category Slugs (Required — Use Exact Values)
| Category name | Slug to enter in category column |
|---|---|
| Advertising | advertising |
| Auto and travel | auto_and_travel |
| Cleaning and maintenance | cleaning_and_maintenance |
| Commissions | commissions |
| Insurance | insurance |
| Legal and professional | legal_and_professional |
| Management fees | management_fees |
| Mortgage interest | mortgage_interest |
| Other interest | other_interest |
| Repairs | repairs |
| Supplies | supplies |
| Taxes | taxes |
| Utilities | utilities |
| Depreciation | depreciation |
| Other | other |
Platform Slugs (for Short-Term Rental Bookings)
| Platform | Slug to enter in platform column |
|---|---|
| Airbnb | airbnb |
| VRBO | vrbo |
| Direct booking | direct |
| HomeAway | homeaway |
| Booking.com | booking_com |
| Any other | other |
After the Import
- Imported transactions appear in Money view with
source: csv_import - Status is set to Confirmed by default (not Draft)
- Filter by Source: CSV import to review only imported rows
- Edit any transaction individually if you spot an error
The most common import error: unit_name doesn't match. The unit name in your CSV must match the unit name in Estavo character-for-character, including capitalization and spaces. Go to Portfolio → [your property] → [the unit] to find the exact name, then fix your CSV column.
What Years of Data Should You Import?
Minimum: Import the current calendar year and last year. That gives you the current tax year plus one prior year for comparison.
Recommended for active investors: Import 3–5 years of transaction history. This gives you meaningful year-over-year P&L comparisons and historical context when reviewing a property’s performance.
Full history: If you’ve been tracking since you bought the property, import everything. The cost basis tracking and depreciation records benefit from a complete history.
White-Glove Migration: We Do It for You
If you’d rather not map columns yourself, email support@estavo.net with your spreadsheet attached.
A real person will:
- Review your spreadsheet structure
- Map your columns to Estavo’s fields
- Clean the data (fix date formats, normalize category names)
- Load it into your account
- Send you a summary of what was imported
Free for new subscribers. After the first 50 migrations, there’s a one-time fee of $79–$149 depending on spreadsheet complexity. This is worth it if your spreadsheet has custom formulas, merged cells, or years of inconsistent formatting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I import from Airbnb’s transaction export directly?
Not directly — Airbnb’s CSV export format doesn’t match Estavo’s template. You’ll need to map Airbnb’s columns (payout date, amount, reservation ID, check-in/out) to the Estavo template columns. This takes about 20–30 minutes for a typical Airbnb export. The white-glove migration service handles this for you.
What if my spreadsheet has expenses and income in the same column with positive/negative numbers?
Split them into two rows: one with direction: credit and the income amount (positive), one with direction: debit and the expense amount (positive). Negative numbers are not supported in the amount column.
Can I import property and unit records, or just transactions?
All three entity types have import templates: Properties, Units, and Transactions. For most landlords, it’s faster to create properties and units manually in the Portfolio view (a few minutes each) and then import the transaction history via CSV.
What happens to the imported data if I made mapping mistakes?
There’s no one-click undo for an import. You can delete individual imported transactions from the Money view, or contact support@estavo.net for a bulk rollback of a recent import. This is why the import preview step matters — review it carefully before confirming.
Is historical imported data used in Schedule E reports?
Yes — confirmed imported transactions appear in all reports (P&L and Schedule E export) for the date range they fall in. Import your full history and your reports will cover all of it.