This is not an argument that spreadsheets are bad. For a single rental a well-built workbook is the right tool. The question is at what point keeping it correct costs more than it saves, and what replaces it when it does.
Most portfolios begin in Excel or Google Sheets, and many should. A workbook is free, it opens instantly, and it does exactly what you tell it. For one unit with a stable lease, that is enough, and swapping it for a database would be effort with no return.
The tipping point tends to arrive somewhere between five and ten units, and it arrives through the details, not the row count. A spreadsheet has no opinion about what an index rent adjustment should be, whether a cost is recoverable from the tenant, or which version of the Nebenkosten reconciliation is the one you actually sent. It holds whatever you type, including a mistake, and it will not tell you the numbers stopped agreeing three months ago.
A spreadsheet holds an honest lead on cost and setup. The work it cannot do sits in the reconciliation and the record-keeping.
| Capability | REPM | Spreadsheet |
|---|---|---|
| Track rent per unit | Yes | Yes |
| Zero setup, opens instantly | - | Yes |
| Free, already on your machine | - | Yes |
| Index rent with stored base index and adjustment history | Yes | - |
| Service-charge prepayment reconciled against actual cost | Yes | - |
| Recoverable vs non-recoverable cost logic | Yes | - |
| Annual statement generated from live data | Yes | - |
| Change history and audit trail | Yes | - |
| Several people editing safely, with roles | Yes | - |
| Portal listing and syndication | Yes | - |
| DIN 276 cost controlling with versions and approvals | Yes | - |
One or two standing units, stable leases, no service-charge apportionment worth reconciling, and one person keeping the file. In that situation REPM is more than you need, and we would rather say so than sell you a system for a job a workbook already does. If you are close to that line and unsure which way it falls, the reasoning on the blog goes into where the switch actually pays off.
The strain shows up in a handful of specific places. Index rents that need a stored base index and a history of adjustments. Service-charge prepayments that have to reconcile against actual cost at year end. The split between recoverable and non-recoverable cost. An annual statement that should read from live data instead of being rebuilt by hand. A change history when a tenant queries a figure. More than one person editing without overwriting each other. Each of these is a formula you can build once and then have to defend every year.
REPM holds that logic in the model rather than in cells. Leases carry their index base, the service-charge statement reads from live cost and lease data, and every change is recorded with who made it and when. You stop rebuilding the same reconciliation each spring and start reading it.
REPM Lite is the low-friction way to test the switch. It is free for the first 30 days and 19 EUR per month after, holds properties, units, leases and tenants, and runs simple projects with cost tracking, so you can move one building off the workbook and see whether the structure earns its place before you move the rest. The pricing page has the detail.
Yes. REPM imports from CSV, so a clean spreadsheet of properties, units and leases loads directly, and the import templates match the shape REPM expects. The work is mostly in tidying the sheet before import: one row per unit, consistent columns, no merged cells.
There is no hard number, but the practical tipping point is usually somewhere between five and ten units, or the first time a service-charge reconciliation or an index adjustment goes wrong. If you manage one or two units with simple leases, a spreadsheet is genuinely fine and REPM is more than you need.
Yes, on the Pro tier. The service-charge statement reads from live lease and cost data rather than a rebuilt sheet, including the split between recoverable and non-recoverable cost and Heizkostenverordnung apportionment. The manage page covers how that works.
A local workbook has no access control, no audit trail, and one backup, which is whoever last saved it. REPM runs on Microsoft Dataverse with role-based access, an audit trail and EU data residency, which matters once the file holds tenant personal data and financing figures rather than just rent amounts.
Yes. REPM exports to Excel and Power BI, so the ad-hoc analysis you like can stay in a spreadsheet while the system of record stays in one place. The goal is not to ban Excel, it is to stop a workbook being the only copy of the truth.
Start REPM Lite free for 30 days, import a single property, and see whether the structure holds up better than the workbook.
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