How to Manage Multiple STR Properties in DeductFlow

Running two, three, or ten short-term rentals from a single DeductFlow account requires clean property separation, smart shared-expense allocation, and per-property material participation tracking. This guide covers every step—from adding your second property to generating a full portfolio P&L.

What the Portfolio View Looks Like

Step-by-Step: Setting Up Multi-Property Management

1. 1

   Add Each Property to Your Account

   Navigate to Properties > Add Property for each STR in your portfolio. For each property, enter:

   • Address — Full street address for identification and reports
   • Nickname — Short name for quick reference (e.g., "Smoky Mountain Cabin")
   • Purchase date — Start of depreciation clock
   • Purchase price — Total cost basis for depreciation calculations
   • Land value — To calculate building-only depreciable basis

   Properties can be added at any time. If you're adding historical properties, you can back-date the purchase date and DeductFlow will calculate depreciation from that point.

2. 2

   Tag Expenses and Income by Property

   Every transaction in DeductFlow has a Property field. Make property tagging a habit:

   • When importing Airbnb/Vrbo CSV, the property is assigned during import
   • When adding manual expenses, always select the property from the dropdown
   • When logging mileage, select the property the trip was for
   • When adding assets, assign them to the correct property

   Untagged transactions go to an "Unassigned" bucket visible in your dashboard. Review this weekly and assign any untagged items to maintain clean property separation.

3. 3

   Allocate Shared Expenses

   Some expenses legitimately serve all your properties. Navigate to Expenses > Shared Expenses to create allocation rules:

   • DeductFlow subscription — Allocate equally or by revenue share
   • CPA fees — Allocate by portfolio engagement or equally
   • General liability insurance covering all properties — Allocate by property value
   • General advertising — Allocate by bookings

   Once you set up an allocation rule, DeductFlow automatically splits future expenses in that category. You can also retroactively apply rules to past expenses.

4. 4

   Track Material Participation Per Property

   Material participation is tracked in the Hours section. Navigate to Hours > Log Time and always select which property the time was spent managing. This gives you:

   • Per-property hour totals to verify each meets a material participation test
   • Portfolio aggregate hours if you have a grouping election
   • Time breakdowns by activity type (guest communication, cleaning supervision, maintenance, etc.)

   Without property-level hour tracking, you can't prove material participation for individual properties if one of them is examined separately by the IRS.

5. 5

   Review Per-Property P&L Reports

   Navigate to Reports > Property P&L. Select individual properties or "All Properties" for the comparison view. Each property report shows:

   • Gross revenue by month
   • Total operating expenses by category
   • Depreciation (from asset entries)
   • Net operating income
   • Net income after depreciation

   Use this to identify which properties are profitable versus generating losses, and to make hold/sell/improve decisions based on actual data rather than estimates.

6. 6

   Generate a Portfolio-Level Summary for Your CPA

   Navigate to Reports > Portfolio Summary. Select the tax year and click Export. The portfolio summary includes:

   • All properties in one consolidated view
   • Per-property income, expenses, depreciation, and net income
   • Portfolio totals for Schedule C consolidation
   • Notes on grouping election status if applicable

   If you have a grouping election, your CPA will aggregate all properties on a single Schedule C. Without a grouping election, separate Schedules C may be filed per property, depending on your specific structure.

Shared Expense Allocation Methods