Rental Property Profit & Loss Report
Estavo’s P&L report shows your total rental income, itemized expenses by IRS Schedule E category, and net profit (or loss) for any date range — for your whole portfolio or filtered by individual property or unit. It’s generated instantly from your confirmed transactions and exports as CSV or PDF for your CPA.
This is the core financial summary every self-managing landlord needs at year end — and the one most landlords previously spent hours assembling by hand from a spreadsheet.
Generating a P&L Report
Go to Reports → P&L
Set your date range
| Preset | Covers |
|---|---|
| This month | Current calendar month to date |
| Last month | Previous full calendar month |
| This year | January 1 – December 31 of the current year |
| Last year | January 1 – December 31 of the prior year |
| Custom | Any start and end date you choose |
For year-end tax preparation, use This year or set a custom range matching your fiscal year.
Filter by property or unit (optional)
Leave both at “All properties” for a portfolio-wide P&L.
To see how a specific property is performing: select it from the Property filter.
To see a single unit’s P&L: select the property, then select the unit.
Generate
Click Generate report. The P&L renders on screen immediately.
Reading the P&L Report
Income Section
All confirmed credit transactions in the period, grouped by unit and (for short-term units) by booking platform.
Total rental income = sum of all confirmed credit transactions in the date range.
Expenses Section
All confirmed debit transactions, grouped by IRS Schedule E category:
| Expense category | IRS Line | Typical rental landlord expenses |
|---|---|---|
| Advertising | 5 | Listing photography, marketing |
| Auto and travel | 6 | Mileage, property visit travel costs |
| Cleaning and maintenance | 7 | Cleaning, pool/spa, lawn, pest |
| Commissions | 8 | Airbnb/VRBO fees, leasing commissions |
| Insurance | 9 | Property insurance premiums |
| Legal and professional | 10 | Attorney, CPA fees |
| Management fees | 11 | Property management company fees |
| Mortgage interest | 12 | Interest portion of mortgage |
| Other interest | 13 | HELOC, hard money loan interest |
| Repairs | 14 | Maintenance, contractor invoices |
| Supplies | 15 | Cleaning supplies, light bulbs |
| Taxes | 16 | Property taxes |
| Utilities | 17 | Electric, water, gas, internet |
| Other | 19 | HOA fees, warranty, miscellaneous |
| Total expenses |
Net Profit / Loss
Net = Total rental income − Total expensesA positive number is net rental profit. A negative number is a rental loss (which may be deductible against other income depending on your tax situation — your CPA handles this).
Depreciation (Schedule E Line 18) does not appear in the automated P&L. Your CPA calculates depreciation using your property’s cost basis. The P&L shows cash-basis income and expense — depreciation is a non-cash expense that your CPA adds to the tax return calculation separately.
Drilling Into the Detail
Click any expense category row to expand it and see individual transactions. This lets you:
- Verify a specific repair invoice is categorized correctly
- Spot duplicate entries before sending to your CPA
- Click through to edit a transaction if you find an error
After editing, return to Reports and regenerate — changes appear immediately.
Per-Unit P&L
To analyze a single rental unit’s profitability:
- Reports → P&L
- Set your date range
- Select the unit from the Unit filter
- Generate
The P&L shows income and expenses attached to that specific unit. Property-level shared costs (mortgage, insurance) don’t appear on the unit P&L — they’re at the property level. If you want to allocate shared costs across units for a “true” unit-level P&L, export the data to a spreadsheet and divide manually based on your chosen allocation method.
Before Treating the P&L as Final
Run through this checklist before sharing with your CPA or using for tax prep:
- All transactions for the period are entered and confirmed
- No obligation-generated drafts are sitting unconfirmed — check Money → Status: Draft
- The “Other” category is minimal — expenses sitting in Other should be in specific categories
- Income totals match your rent roll or Airbnb/VRBO payout records
- Large expense amounts (over $2,500) have receipts attached and are correctly categorized vs. capital improvements
- Mortgage interest matches your Form 1098 interest statement
Exporting the P&L
Click Export at the top of the report:
- CSV — all transactions for the report period with amounts and categories. Most CPAs prefer this for loading into tax software.
- PDF — formatted P&L summary with your organization name, property, and date range. Use this for lenders, partners, or anyone who wants a clean one-page financial summary.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the difference between the P&L report and the Schedule E export?
The P&L report shows income and expenses in a readable format that mirrors how businesses present financial performance. The Schedule E export maps the same data to IRS Schedule E line numbers and is formatted for tax filing. Use P&L for your own analysis and for lenders/partners; use Schedule E export for your CPA’s tax prep. See Schedule E Export.
Can I run a P&L that covers multiple years?
Yes — set a custom date range spanning multiple years. The P&L doesn’t limit you to a single year. For multi-year trend analysis, you might prefer to run separate annual P&Ls and compare them side-by-side.
My net profit looks wrong — what should I check first?
- Filter Money by Status: Draft — any unconfirmed drafts are excluded from the P&L. Confirm them.
- Check that credit transactions (income) are actually marked as
creditand debit transactions are marked asdebit. Swapped directions will skew the totals. - Check the date range — transactions just outside the range won’t appear.
- Look for large transactions in the “Other” category that might be double-counted or miscategorized.
Does the P&L include transactions from sold properties?
Yes, if the date range overlaps with when the property was active. Transactions on sold properties remain in your ledger permanently — marking a property as Sold doesn’t remove historical records. If you don’t want sold property data in your P&L, filter by property and run separate reports per active property.