— The ledger · Topic —
Accounting tools for landlords and small property investors.
Head-to-head · Landlord finance
We ran the Alder Row quarter, 80 transactions and seven planted traps, through Stessa Essentials and Baselane Core without connecting a bank to either. Stessa scored 22/32, Baselane 16/32. Both got the Schedule E right where the rows were tagged; neither flagged the duplicate charge.
Last verified
Oct 29, 2026
Methodology · Landlord finance
Our second fictional test client is a self-managing landlord with a duplex, a house and a quarter of deliberately messy books: 80 transactions, two escrowed mortgages, a deposit refunded short, a property tax that never touches the bank feed. Here is who Alder Row Properties is, what each of the seven planted traps tests, and how to run the set through any landlord app yourself before our first review lands.
Last verified
Oct 26, 2026
Pricing desk · Landlord finance
Before we put landlord bookkeeping software through our lab, we read all twelve vendors’ own pricing, trial and policy pages on one day and logged what they actually say. Eight offer a free tier, only three offer a timed trial without a card, and “free” is paid for in four different ways: your bank deposits, your tenants’ fees, unit caps, or nothing at all.
Last verified
Nov 6, 2026