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STR tax strategy guide

Thanks — your Schedule E template is on its way

You're on the list. Grab the template below, keep it somewhere you'll actually update, and it'll pay for itself the first time your CPA doesn't need to ask "what was this expense for?"

Your download

Short-Term Rental Schedule E template — Google Sheets

Click the button below and Google Sheets will prompt you to Make a copy — the template lands in your Google Drive as an editable spreadsheet. All 30 Field Ledger categories are pre-set as a dropdown; the Summary tab auto-rolls totals to your Schedule E lines; the Caveats tab carries CPA-facing notes to hand off with your records.

Open the template →

Not tax advice — consult a qualified tax professional for your specific situation. The template is a starting point, not a filed form.

What to do with the template

  1. Make a copy. Click File → Make a copy so it saves to your own Drive. The original stays as a clean template you can go back to.
  2. Rename the property tabs. One tab per rental property. Multi-property hosts, this is where the template earns its keep — Schedule E is per-property, and lumping everything together makes February miserable.
  3. Log an expense as it happens. Two minutes a day, in the right column, with the vendor and amount. Not once a month — as it happens is what makes it work.
  4. Check the summary tab quarterly. If a category feels light or heavy vs. what you know you spent, that's a signal to reconcile before the trail goes cold.
  5. Export or share with your CPA at year-end. File → Download → Excel (.xlsx) or CSV. Your CPA slots it into their tax-prep workflow.

Where the template stops — and Field Ledger picks up

A template works if you maintain it. Most hosts start strong in January and lose the habit by May — that's the honest failure mode of any spreadsheet. Field Ledger is built for the version of you who wants to log the day in plain English ("cleaned Brooklyn 2.5h, drove to the property, Home Depot $45 for paint") and have a language model structure it into typed records you review before it saves. Same 15 Schedule E categories at year-end, plus mileage, plus material participation hours (if you're pursuing the STR tax loophole), plus per-property audit-defensible records.

No pressure — the template is yours whether you try Field Ledger or not. But if the "start strong, lose the habit" pattern is what happens to your records, that's the exact gap Field Ledger is designed to close.

Try Field Ledger free for 714 days

Same Schedule E categories, but you type your day in plain English and Field Ledger structures it. Hours, mileage, trips, and expenses all in one daily entry. Your CPA gets the same categorized records — you just don't have to open a spreadsheet.

  • Type your day; the language model structures it for review
  • Hours, mileage, trips, and expenses in one entry
  • CSV export mapped to Schedule E categories
  • No credit card required to start; cancel anytime
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