As a landlord, keeping on top of your accounting is an unavoidable task. Whether you’ve invested in a single property or you manage a whole portfolio, it’s another thing on your plate and you wish it involved less hassle.
We bring good news! If you’re one of the 2.5 million landlords in the UK who owns a buy-to-let or furnished holiday-let property, your accounting can be made significantly easier with Xero, the cloud-based accounting software.
Xero has dedicated features to make your life easier
If you know anything about us, you’ve probably heard we’re Xero mega-fans. We shout our genuine love for the software from the rooftops. It’s because we’ve seen time and time again how its introduction transforms property rental businesses and takes the accounting stress off the owners’ shoulders.
Designed specifically to help small businesses and landlords, think of Xero as the fairy godmother of accounting software. Tasks that would usually take hours are completed in just a few clicks (the wave of its proverbial magic wand).
The software lets you:
- See and manage rental payments with open banking. You can link your bank account directly to Xero.
- Access real-time records when you’re on the go. Whether you’re in Berkshire or Buenos Aires, Xero lets you see your properties’ income and expenditure whenever you need. All records are up-to-date and accessible on your phone.
- Gather data without the need for paper. It’s easy to import data and keep it permanently and securely in Xero. You’ll be better prepared for your year end accounts and tax returns, and you won’t have to play a game of hide-and-seek with your paperwork.
Xero makes managing properties simple
Xero is fantastically user-friendly, offering a multitude of ways to view and analyse your financial data. The better the information, the easier it is to make decisions. Where should you look to increase rent? Which property would be most beneficial to sell?
Whether you’re starting small or have a whole portfolio of properties, Xero provides a standardised approach. It lets you manage your income from multiple properties in one dedicated space.
Bank feeds allow transactional data from your bank to flow automatically into Xero on a daily basis. The software also makes use of automatic coding using bank rules, meaning you can work through your data quicker and save hours on tasks you’d normally be doing manually. Better visibility over your whole portfolio makes it easy to find quick wins where you can save time and money.
You won’t have to change your processes at a later date to comply with MTD
Although Making Tax Digital (MTD) for landlords has been pushed back to April 2026, practising digital accounting now will set you up for success. MTD will apply to all landlords with property income greater than £50,000/year (and £30,000/year from April 2027). It’s important to note this figure is income, not profit.
When MTD arrives, it will be a massive change for many landlords. You’ll need to keep digital records for all property income and expenses and send updates to HMRC every 3 months. Setting yourself up on digital accounting software, like Xero, sooner rather than later will avoid disruption down the line.
It makes tax submissions a breeze
Xero takes a great deal of the legwork out of reporting your Income Tax Self Assessment (ITSA) to HMRC. Having all financial data stored in one, central place means you simply have to pull in the numbers when it’s reporting time. Plus, we can provide customised report templates that align with HMRC’s criteria and format, giving you peace of mind you’re doing everything correctly when you submit.
Offering your tenants easier payment methods can reduce the risk of unpaid rent
You can speed up the collection of your rental income and save time by creating recurring monthly invoices for each tenant. Setting up a payment method such as Crezco is also quicker and easier for your tenants than creating a standing order.
Our partnership with Xero means we can give specific benefits to landlords
Starfish is a Xero Gold Partner, giving us access to extra resources that help landlords in Xero. We have specific property rental lists of accounts, i.e. types of income and expenses. You can use these to get started on Xero and help you record transactions correctly.
We can help you set up your Xero account to keep track of the money received and spent on each property, determining how profitable each property is. Once you’re up and running on the software we can also work with you to speed up the collection of your rental income.
We offer a landlord reporting pack, which includes:
- Income & expenditure reports, so you know exactly where you’re spending your money
- Reports split by property
- Valuable insight reports
Make spending hours on accounting a thing of the past
At Starfish, we know Xero inside-out. We share this expertise with the landlords we work with, setting them up on streamlined tech that takes the accounting stress off their plate.
If you’d like our help getting set up on Xero and to hear about our landlord-specific tools, fill in our quick form and we’ll be in touch for a chat!
