LetCompliance vs Excel / Google Sheets
The ONS puts at least two thirds of UK landlords on a spreadsheet. It costs nothing, it is familiar, and it works, until it doesn't. A missed EICR renewal can bring a council penalty of up to £40,000, and a forgotten Prescribed Information packet can stop a Section 8 possession order in 2026. Here's the honest comparison.
Recognised by HMRC for Making Tax DigitalThe bottom line
from the advert to the tax return
LetCompliance is landlord software for the whole let, in one login: lettings, rent and arrears, e-sign, compliance, Section 8 / 13 notices and landlord tax, including Making Tax Digital.
Excel / Google Sheets still leads on its specialism, and the breakdown below says where.
Side by side
Also in LetCompliance
39 more parts of the let, in the same login. They are not compared with Excel / Google Sheets here, so for their side, look at their own website.
- Advertise + take applications + book viewings
- Waiting list / register-interest capture
- Holding deposits (Tenant Fees Act 2019)
- Tenant referencing (regulated UK credit check)
- E-signed tenancy agreements
- Move-in pack: statutory documents assembled
- Rent tracking + automatic arrears chasing
- Rent collection (Bacs Direct Debit)Rent is collected by Bacs Direct Debit through Stripe Connect, paid into your own account. There is no Open Banking bank-feed reconciliation.
- Tenant portal
- Landlord / owner portal
- Maintenance work orders + AI repair triage
- Professional photography, inventory & inspections
- Accompanied viewings & contractor sourcing
- Tenant Risk Report + arrears-recovery service
- AI expiry-date detection on uploaded certificates
- 0-100 compliance score per property
- SMS reminders
- Right to Rent checks
- Deposit protection deadline tracking
- HMO room-level management
- Pet request 28-day tracker (RRA 2025)
- Section 8 notice builder (Schedule 2 grounds)
- Section 13 rent-increase notice builder
- Awaab’s Law damp-and-mould SLA engine
- Renters Rights Act 2025 toolkit
- PRS Database readiness trackerLive today: per-property register-readiness checklist, regional deadline, and status, ref and date. HMO-aware.
- SA105-shaped Tax Pack
- Section 24 personal-vs-Ltd calculator
- MTD ITSA quarterly summary on HMRC dates
- Capital gains tax calculator
- Mileage log
- Receipt / invoice scanning
- Xero: CSV export
- Client accounting: statements + CMP reconciliation
- Property valuation tracker (HM Land Registry HPI)
- Insurance renewal tracker
- Planned maintenance scheduler
- Property key facts + key-date tracking
- Time to go live: Same-day self-serve
Choose LetCompliance when
- You own more than one property and value your evenings.
- You've ever wondered "when does that Gas cert expire?" and had to dig.
- Post-Section 21 you cannot afford a technicality to sink a possession claim.
Choose Excel / Google Sheets when
- You have one property and you love Excel.
- You genuinely enjoy tracking dates across 15 columns with conditional formatting.
Switching: the questions that matter
What moving across involves, answered for LetCompliance. What Excel / Google Sheets can hand over is theirs to answer, so ask them.
- How do my properties and tenants get in?
- One CSV file, the format any spreadsheet saves as. It carries properties, rooms, tenants, rent, tenancy start dates, deposits and the gas, electrical and EPC expiry dates. Every row is checked and shown to you before anything is imported.
- Do I have to move everything at once?
- No. Move one property first, on Single at £7.99 a month with Making Tax Digital included, and keep your spreadsheet for the rest until you have seen enough.
- What about Making Tax Digital part-way through a tax year?
- Each quarterly update covers the tax year from its start, not just the last three months, so the year’s income and expenses so far need to be in LetCompliance before it sends your next one. A bank statement imports as a CSV. You can use more than one product in a year, but only one for each submission (GOV.UK).
- Do my tenants need to do anything?
- Not to start. Each tenant gets their own portal link, with no account or password to set up. If you collect rent by Direct Debit through LetCompliance, each tenant sets the Direct Debit up from that portal, because only the account holder can authorise one.
- What happens to the deposit?
- Changing software does not touch it. A protected deposit stays with the same scheme, whether the scheme holds the money or insures it. Record the scheme and its reference here.
The verdict
LetCompliance or a spreadsheet?
Pick LetCompliance if
You own more than one property and value your evenings.
Pick a spreadsheet if
You have one property and you love Excel.
Still not sure? Put one property on LetCompliance, from £7.99 a month, and keep your spreadsheet for the rest. A month of your own rent, certificates and tenants will settle it faster than any table.
LetCompliance wrote this page, so this is its view. Both sides above say where the other one is better.
FAQs
What is the real cost of a spreadsheet tracker?
Zero pounds directly; but the cost of one missed EICR (£40k max), one late deposit protection (1-3× deposit penalty) or one blocked Section 8 claim dwarfs any SaaS fee.
Can I import my spreadsheet?
Yes. Our setup lets you upload a CSV of properties and drop existing PDFs into the dashboard.
Is LetCompliance property management software, or mainly a compliance tool?
It is property management software for landlords and letting agents, and it runs the whole let, not just compliance. In one login you advertise, take applications and viewings, reference tenants, e-sign the tenancy, collect rent by Direct Debit and chase arrears, track a 0-100 compliance score, draft Section 8 and Section 13 notices, manage HMO rooms, book done-for-you property services and prepare your SA105 tax. The compliance score is one feature among many, not the whole product.
Which should a UK landlord choose: LetCompliance or a spreadsheet?
The page above sets what Excel / Google Sheets's own website says it does beside LetCompliance, and lists everything else LetCompliance does. For most UK landlords and small-to-mid agencies who want the whole tenancy in one place, LetCompliance covers more of the let; Excel / Google Sheets is the better pick for the specific areas it leads on, which are called out above. LetCompliance starts at £7.99 a month for one property, with a 3-day trial and no card.
Does LetCompliance handle Making Tax Digital and SA105 tax as well as Excel / Google Sheets?
LetCompliance ships an SA105-shaped Tax Pack, a Section 24 personal-vs-limited-company calculator, a capital-gains calculator and a mileage log, and it sends Making Tax Digital quarterly updates for UK property income to HMRC on every paid plan from £7.99 a month (not the free plan or the trial). It is recognised by HMRC for UK property income, and if your return needs self-employment, savings or dividend income you finalise the year with software that can add it, or with your accountant.
Are these Excel / Google Sheets comparisons independent and kept up to date?
They are written by LetCompliance, which says so plainly. The Excel / Google Sheets column shows only what Excel / Google Sheets's own website says, with the date it was read, and every page names where Excel / Google Sheets is the better choice and the one thing LetCompliance does not do (Open Banking bank-feed reconciliation). Providers change their plans and prices without notice, so check theirs before you buy.
The whole let in one login, from £7.99 a month.
Start with one property on a paid plan, Making Tax Digital included, and see how it runs your let before you move the rest. Portfolio covers up to ten properties for £19 a month.
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