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Comparison

Managing a rental in Excel or in an app? A comparison

Excel is more than enough to get started — with one apartment and an easygoing tenant, it's hard to find a cheaper tool. Problems start once you have several tenants, monthly utility settlements, and payment deadlines to track. Compare both tools before you decide.

No commission on rent · generate an agreement free, no account

When Excel is enough

We won't pretend a spreadsheet is a bad choice. Excel has real advantages and remains a sensible option in many situations.

  • It's free

    You already have a spreadsheet in your office suite, or free in an online one. Zero extra cost, zero subscription.

  • It's flexible

    You can tailor the table layout, columns, and formulas exactly to your needs. No app gives you that much freedom for unusual calculations.

  • You already know it

    There's nothing new to learn and no one to onboard. You open the file and get to work — no account, no setup.

  • It works offline

    A file on your drive doesn't need the internet or a login. You always have it on hand, and no one can switch it off.

Just one apartment? Excel is genuinely enoughIf you rent a single apartment to a long-term tenant and utilities are either included in the rent or billed directly by the supplier, stick with the spreadsheet. An app starts paying off once more tenants join and monthly meter settlements pile up.

Where Excel starts to hurt

These scenarios come up again and again in conversations with landlords. If they sound familiar, a spreadsheet is no longer enough.

  • Manual meter settlements every month

    The tenant texts you a photo of the meter, you type the reading into the spreadsheet, calculate consumption at the tariff rate, and email the result. Every month, for every apartment, separately.

  • Tracking payment deadlines

    A spreadsheet won't remind the tenant about rent or tell you who's behind. You check the bank account and match payments against the table by hand.

  • File versions

    settlements_v3_corrected_FINAL.xlsx — a year on, it's hard to say which file is current and how it differs from the last one.

  • Documents scattered across emails

    The lease is an attachment from two years ago, the handover report is in another thread, the addendum is somewhere on your drive. When a tenancy ends, gathering the documents can eat up an entire evening.

  • No change history

    When a tenant disputes a settlement from six months ago, the spreadsheet won't show who changed a cell's value, when, or what the previous version looked like.

  • Formula errors at thresholds and pro-rated amounts

    Billing a partial month or a mid-period rate change are classic spots where a formula silently miscalculates — and the error only surfaces once there's a dispute with the tenant.

Excel and Brokik — a feature comparison

What you do by hand in a spreadsheet, and what Brokik does for you.

Aspect
Excel
Brokik
Rent and utility billing
Manual — you enter readings and rates yourself and keep an eye on the formulas
Brokik calculates rent and utility settlements — by metered usage, from a fixed advance, or from an advance with control readings and a provisional settlement when tenants change
Payment reminders
None — you track deadlines yourself
Automatic payment reminders for the tenant
Documents and leases
Outside the spreadsheet — in emails and folders on your drive
All documents in the property's Documents tab
Signing the lease online
Print, sign, scan
Built-in e-signature confirmed with a one-time code sent by email
Handover/acceptance reports
Manual — your own template to print and sign on site
Electronic report with the apartment's and meters' condition, signed online
Meter readings from the tenant
The tenant sends a text or photo, you type it in
The tenant enters the reading in the app, and it goes straight into the settlement
Reports and tax summaries
Manual — you build the summaries yourself
Reports and annual tax summaries generated from your rental data
Tenant access
None — everything goes through you
Tenant account via email invite or QR code
Cost
Free, or included in an office suite
A plan sized to the number of properties, per the price list
Monthly time spent
Grows with every tenant — with several apartments, even several hours a month
Most of it happens automatically — you approve and keep an eye on things

Switching over in three steps

You don't need to import anything or set everything up at once. Three steps, and the first settlement takes care of itself.

  1. Add a property

    Enter the apartment's basic details and the meters you bill the tenant for.

  2. Invite the tenant

    Send an email invite, show a QR code or copy the link. The tenant creates a free account and accepts the invitation.

  3. Set up billing

    Set the rent, utility rates, and payment deadlines. From then on, settlements and reminders run automatically.

Frequently asked questions about switching from Excel

Short answers to the questions we hear most often

Also worth checking

See exactly what the app can do, and calculate your rental costs

Brokik featuresBilling, documents, handover reports, reports — the full list of app features.
Settling utility advancesOverpayments, underpayments and utility settlement when tenants change — without a spreadsheet.
Brokik pricingA plan sized to your number of properties, per the price list.

Move your rental from a spreadsheet to an app

Create an account and add your first property. You pay for a plan sized to your number of properties, with no commission on rent. We refund your first plan in full if you ask within 30 days of paying. You can always keep Excel around as an archive.