Testimonial: switching from Excel to management software
Marc, owner of 4 properties in Namur, shares his transition from Excel to rental management software. Time saved, errors avoided and review after 6 months.
My life under Excel: 4 properties, 7 files, 0 peace of mind
I am an accountant by profession. If anyone should be able to manage their rental properties on Excel, it was me. And for 6 years, that is exactly what I did.
My system: one Excel file per property, plus a “summary” file with links to the other 4. One tab for rents, one for charges, one for works, one for deadlines (lease renewal, indexation, insurance). 7 files in total, stored on OneDrive.
It worked. At least, I thought it did. With 4 properties — 3 flats in Namur and a small house in Gembloux — the workload was manageable. About 8 hours per month: payment tracking, manually generating receipts in Word, calculating indexation by hand, sending reminders by email.
The problem is that “manageable” does not mean “reliable”.
The triggering incident: an indexation error costing 1,200 EUR
In January 2025, during the annual indexation of my flat on Rue de Bruxelles in Namur, I made a formula error. I applied the health index from the wrong reference month. Result: an indexed rent of 812 EUR instead of 785 EUR. 27 EUR too much per month.
My tenant said nothing for 8 months. Then they consulted a legal aid service and sent me a formal notice for overpayment, with a request for retroactive reimbursement of the 8 months. Amount claimed: 216 EUR, plus statutory interest.
The 27 EUR/month error ultimately cost me approximately 1,200 EUR: 216 EUR in reimbursement, 350 EUR in legal consultation to verify my obligations, 600 EUR in “wasted time” (reconstructing the history, correspondence, stress), and above all a damaged tenant relationship that never returned to normal.
That is when I realised: I am an accountant, I handle numbers all day long, and I still made an indexation error on my own properties. If I can get it wrong, anyone can. I needed a tool that would calculate for me.
Choosing the software: my criteria
I spent 3 evenings comparing the rental management software available in Belgium. My criteria, in order of importance:
- Automatic calculation of Belgian indexation (with the health index and the correct reference month)
- Automatic generation of receipts in PDF
- Payment tracking with alerts in case of delay
- Document storage: lease, property inventory, EPC, insurance
- French-language interface, adapted to Belgian law (not a French tool with inappropriate terminology)
- Reasonable price for 4 properties
Many software products on the market are designed for French law. They use “taxe fonciere” instead of “precompte immobilier”, “DPE” instead of “EPC”, “depot de garantie” instead of “rental guarantee”. For a Belgian landlord, these differences are not cosmetic: they affect calculations, document templates and legal obligations.
I ultimately chose a Belgian software at 12 EUR/month for 4 properties, with all the features I needed. The 14-day free trial allowed me to test before committing.
The migration: 4 evenings, 1 scare
I migrated my 4 properties over 4 evenings, one per evening. For each property, the process was the same:
- Entering property information (address, surface area, EPC, property tax)
- Entering the current lease (tenant, start date, rent, charges, rental guarantee)
- Importing payment history from Excel (CSV export)
- Uploading scanned documents (lease, property inventory, EPC certificate)
Total time: approximately 1h30 per property, or 6 hours for all 4.
While migrating my 3rd property, I discovered that the lease had never been registered with the FPS Finance. In 4 years. My tenant therefore had no legal notice obligation. I corrected this within the week. Without the migration, I might never have noticed.
Second discovery: the rental guarantee for my Gembloux property was not in a blocked account but in a standard savings account in my name. Not legal. I regularised that too.
The migration is not just a data transfer: it is a forced audit of your entire management. And that is priceless.
6 months later: what has changed in practice
Here is concretely what the software has changed in my management:
| Task | Before (Excel + Word) | After (software) |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly receipts (4 properties) | 45 min/month | 5 min (automatic generation + sending) |
| Payment tracking | Manual verification, sometimes forgotten | Automatic notification at D+5 |
| Annual indexation | 30 min/property (calculation + letter) | 1 click (calculation + letter generated) |
| Finding a document | 5-10 min (rummaging through folders) | 10 seconds (everything is centralised) |
| Tax return preparation | 1 full day | 1 hour (data export) |
| Total monthly time | ~8 h | ~2.5 h |
The most important gain is not time: it is peace of mind. I no longer wake up at night wondering whether I sent the receipt or whether the indexation is correct. The software takes care of it. If a rent does not arrive, I receive an alert. If a deadline is approaching (lease renewal, insurance expiry), I am notified 30 days in advance.
Since the migration, zero indexation errors, zero forgotten receipts, zero misplaced documents.
The verdict: why I should have migrated 3 years earlier
If I do the cold calculation:
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Software cost | 12 EUR/month (144 EUR/year) |
| Time saved | 5.5 h/month (66 h/year) |
| Value of time saved (at 50 EUR/h) | 3,300 EUR/year |
| Errors avoided (indexation, oversights) | Priceless |
| Unregistered leases detected | 2 out of 4 |
For 12 EUR per month, I save 5 hours of my time, eliminate calculation errors, and discovered irregularities I had been carrying for years. It is probably the best value for money of all my investments.
My advice to those who are still hesitating: do not do as I did. Do not wait for the error that costs 1,200 EUR before making up your mind. If you manage even just 2 properties on Excel, try software for 14 days. The migration takes one evening per property. And you will never go back.
For landlords managing a larger portfolio, the question does not even arise. Beyond 5 properties, managing alone without a dedicated tool is either a feat — or recklessness.
- “**Migrate one property at a time, not everything at once.** I tried to switch everything over in one weekend and made data entry errors on lease dates. Take one evening per property, check every field, and move on to the next. Within a week, it is done properly.
- “**Export your Excel files to PDF before archiving them.** Once in the software, you will never open your old files again. But keep them as PDFs in an 'archive' folder in case a tenant disputes a payment history.
- “**Use the migration as an opportunity to update all your documents.** It is the perfect chance to verify that each lease is registered, each rental guarantee is in a blocked account, and each EPC certificate is up to date. I discovered that 2 of my 4 leases were not registered with the FPS Finance.
Frequently asked questions
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Software becomes truly useful from 2-3 properties. Below that, a well-structured spreadsheet may suffice. But even with a single property, software avoids indexation calculation errors and automatically generates receipts. The real tipping point is when you start forgetting deadlines or making calculation errors.
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Prices range from 5 to 25 EUR per month depending on the number of properties and features. Some software offers a free plan for 1-2 properties with limited features. For 4 properties as in my case, count approximately 10 to 15 EUR per month. It is negligible compared to the time saved and errors avoided.
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For 4 properties, count 4 to 6 hours of work spread over a week: entering information for each property, current leases, tenants, and importing payment history. Most software offers CSV import from Excel, which speeds up historical data entry.
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No, the software does not replace an accountant. However, it considerably facilitates the preparatory work: export of collected rents, deductible charges, works carried out. My accountant told me he spends half as much time on my property file since I started sending him a clean export instead of my old Excel files.
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