The short answer
Yes, and the useful ones do more than list payments. A rent tracker earns its place when it knows what each tenant owes and on which day, and says so when the money does not arrive. The record it keeps is also the one you hand to an accountant, or to a court if it ever comes to that. A spreadsheet can hold the record. It cannot tell you anything.
LetCompliance does this in the browser, on a phone or a laptop. There is no App Store download: add it to your home screen and it opens like an app.
When it comes up
Usually around the second or third property. With one tenant on a standing order, a glance at the banking app on the 1st tells you all you need. With four tenancies on four rent days, one of them weekly and one a couple paying half each from two accounts, glancing stops working, and the first sign of a problem is a month that does not add up when you do your tax.
A tracker matters most when something goes wrong. If a tenant falls behind, the arrears figure has to be right to the pound and dated, because the Ground 8 threshold is counted on it and any rent statement you give a court is built from it.
How to keep track of rent, step by step
- Write down each tenancy’s rent, frequency and rent day from the agreement, not from memory
- Expect a charge on every rent day. Each period should produce an amount due, whether or not anything arrives
- Match what arrives against what was due. Go by the reference and the amount, not the name on the transfer alone, because a partner or a parent may be the one paying
- Record part payments as part payments. £600 of £800 leaves £200 owed, not a paid month
- Look the day after each rent day. A late payment caught in two days is a phone call; one caught in two months is arrears
- Give a receipt and keep a running statement. Both protect you as much as the tenant
The options compared
- Your banking app. Free and live, but it shows money in, not money owed. It will never tell you a payment is missing, and rent sits among everything else
- A spreadsheet. Free and flexible. It holds only what you type, does not raise next month’s charge and gives no warning. The blog post on spreadsheets and landlord software, linked below, goes through the trade-off
- OpenRent Rent Collection. Listed at £10 a month on OpenRent’s pricing page (read 20 October 2026)
- A letting agent. Rent collection comes inside a percentage fee, and the agent does the chasing. Published rates are set out on the letting agent fees page
- LetCompliance. Raises the charges, tracks what is paid across every property and makes the receipts, from £7.99 a month for one property
How it works in LetCompliance
- A charge on every rent day. Each tenancy gets a rent charge on its own rent day, raised seven days ahead so a reminder can reach the tenant first. Weekly, fortnightly, four-weekly and monthly rent are all handled, and a scheduled rent increase is charged from the day it takes effect
- Clear states. Pending, paid, part paid, late and missed. An unpaid charge turns late once its due date has passed
- One rent page for every property. What is due in the next 30 days, what has been paid and who is in arrears. Rent that arrived by standing order can be confirmed for every property in one go
- Direct Debit marks itself paid. If the tenant pays by Direct Debit through LetCompliance, each collection is recorded against its charge when Stripe confirms it
- Bank statements matched for you. Upload a CSV statement and each line is matched to a rent charge or an expense. Nothing is recorded until you confirm it
- Receipts and statements. A receipt PDF for every payment, and a month-by-month rent statement of what was charged, what was paid and the balance
- The tenant sees the same figures. Each tenant’s portal shows their balance, history and receipts. A tenant who paid by hand can tell you so from the portal, and the rent is marked paid only when you confirm it
Rent received also goes into Finance, so the income figures for your tax return, and for Making Tax Digital on a paid plan, come from the same record.
On the free plan the rent is tracked on the tenancy for one property, with receipts. The rent page across properties, rent that is not monthly, Direct Debit and the statement come with the 3-day trial and every paid plan, from £7.99 a month.
Does the law say how rent must be recorded?
Not for most lets. The one rule is for weekly rent: section 4 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 requires a rent book or similar document where rent is payable weekly (legislation.gov.uk, read 20 October 2026). The page on rent receipts covers it.
Common mistakes
- Marking a month paid when only part of it arrived
- Tracking by tenant instead of by tenancy, so a couple paying half each looks like one paid tenant and one in arrears
- Checking only at the end of the month
- Changing the rent on the day a Section 13 notice was served rather than the day the increase takes effect
- Keeping rent and costs in different places, so the profit figure for tax is pieced together in January
What is the best app for tracking rent payments?
The one that raises the amount due by itself and tells you when it is missing. Check that it handles your rent frequency, joint tenants and part payments, and whether it can collect the rent as well as record it. LetCompliance does all of that from £7.99 a month. If you will only ever have one tenant on a standing order, a banking app and a calendar reminder may be enough.
Is there a free landlord app to track rent in the UK?
LetCompliance’s free plan tracks rent on the tenancy for one property, with a receipt for each payment. For more than one property, or for the rent page, Direct Debit and the statement, you need the trial or a paid plan.
Can it tell me the day rent doesn’t arrive?
Yes. An unpaid charge shows as late on the rent page once its due date passes, and you can switch on reminder emails to the tenant. Direct Debit rent is different: Each collection starts on the due date. Bacs confirms it about three working days later, and Stripe then pays it into your bank on your payout schedule. Until then it shows as being collected, not as late.
Can my tenant see what they have paid?
Yes, in their tenant portal, which opens from a link with no password: their balance, payment history and receipts.
What LetCompliance does not do here
- There is no live bank feed. A standing order is confirmed by you or matched from a statement you upload
- There is no App Store or Google Play app; it runs in the browser and can be added to the home screen
- The free plan has no rent page across properties
- It knows only what you or Stripe tell it, so a payment you have not confirmed stays unpaid
