How To Choose The Best Software For Your Rental Property Business

Finding the best software for your rentals can help you minimise the amount of time required when managing your buy-to-lets, increase your accounting accuracy, and ensure you stay compliant with strict (and regularly changing) regulations.

However, it’s not as simple as googling best property management software, or best property accounting software. You need to first know what to look for. For example, the needs of a commercial let property manager differ dramatically from a landlord of one or two short-term lets. Plus, whichever solution you choose needs to be future-proofed to match your long-term goals and with the MTD rules that took effect in April 2026 in mind.

In this article, we take a look at what you need to know in order to select the best software for your rental property business and stay on the right side of legal and tax obligations and compliance considerations.

What type of investment property do you hold?

The first thing is to consider the kind of properties you hold. For example, do you have commercial lets, residential, short-term or holiday lets, or a mixture?

The reason this is important is that you don’t want to be using multiple software to manage your property portfolio. It’s neither practical nor cost-efficient.

Landlord Studio is designed for residential buy-to-let investors and our features are designed to best solve the challenges faced by these landlords. However, many of our users also have holiday lets and commercial property within their portfolios.

Know your legal obligations

Running rentals, whether they’re residential, or commercial comes with a lot of paperwork. From drafting a legally binding tenancy agreement to ensuring you supply your tenants with copies of documents such as the How To Rent Guide or the legionnaires’ assessment, to managing repairs and maintenance.

Related: Landlord Compliance Requirements: The Checklist

All of this documentation can be a challenge to stay on top of and so there are a few features that you can look for in the software that you choose that can help you stay organised and compliant. A few of these features include:

Setting reminders  

Easily set reminders with Landlord Studio and get notified so that you never forget an important inspection date again.

Tenancy tracking

Efficiently track all of your past, current and upcoming tenancies.

Tenant communications

Email and SMS your tenant’s important information from inside the Landlord Studio app using our customisable message templates.

Deposit tracking

Log the deposit amount, where you’ve stored it, and the reference number.

Document storage and sharing

Upload important documentation such as your property EPC, EICR, and the tenancy agreement and keep them properly organised by property and easily accessible from any device at any time. Plus, easily share important documents.

Property maintenance management

Create, prioritise, and track maintenance jobs in the app and ensure no maintenance requests ever slip through the cracks again.

Additional things to look for are the company’s educational resources and customer support.

Understanding your tax obligations

Running a rental is just like running any other type of business. You need to accurately record all of your taxable rental income and expenses and file an accurate income tax self-assessment at the end of the tax year.

However, there are also industry-specific nuances you need to have a clear understanding of. A few examples of these include:

• Mortgage relief. Section 24 legislation means landlords can no longer claim mortgage interest as an allowable expense but instead can claim back 20% of the financing costs in relief as a tax credit.
• Allowable expenses, which include things like council tax, insurance and other business-related operating expenses find out more.
• Replacement of domestic items relief, which allows you to claim tax relief on anything you spend on replacing what it labels as a ‘domestic item.’
• Capital gains tax which all investors are liable to pay upon the sale of an asset.

All of these rules are subject to regular change. And having a clear understanding of these tax obligations is essential if you want to operate and profitable long-term investment.

What you need to know about MTD for landlords

MTD for Income Tax started on 6 April 2026 for landlords with qualifying income above the £50,000 threshold. It extends to those above £30,000 from 6 April 2027, and above £20,000 from 6 April 2028.

There are some fundamental changes that landlords need to make to stay compliant. If your own start date has not arrived yet, we recommend getting prepared early to avoid potential ‘teething issues’.

Summary of MTD changes:

• Keep up-to-date digital records throughout the year.
• Use HMRC-recognised software for submissions.
• Submit quarterly updates and a final declaration.

With these changes now in effect, finding and adopting a quality accounting solution that meets your specific needs and keeps you MTD compliant is essential.

Find out more about making tax digital for landlords

Landlord Studio, MTD, and property management

Landlord Studio is a rental management and cloud accounting software designed specifically for landlords.

Our software pairs property management features such as reminders, document storage and sharing, tenant management, and property maintenance management with award-winning accounting tools.

Easily track income and expenses on the go, digitise receipts, and instantly generate financial reports.

• Save time with task automation, and features like integrated bank feeds and smart scan receipts.
• Cloud-based. Access your data on the go from any device, available on iOS, Android, and desktop.
• Everything in one place. Store important documents set reminders for key dates and gain quick insights into your portfolio financials

Become MTD ready with Landlord Studio

Landlords can pair Landlord Studio’s suite of property management tools and easy-to-use income and expense tracking features with Xero using our seamless Xero integration.

Our Xero integration automatically syncs all financial data entered into Landlord Studio with your connected Xero account. This Xero integration not only enables users to take full advantage of Xero’s industry-leading accounting features but also means users can easily stay MTD compliant.

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