The free material participation log template STR owners actually keep
If you're claiming the short-term-rental tax strategy, the weak link is documentation. This template gives you a clean, CPA-informed structure for logging the hours that support the 100-hour and 750-hour tests — in a spreadsheet or a printable sheet you fill in by hand.
What's inside
- Pre-formatted columns for date, property, person, activity, description, and hours
- A column for other participants’ hours — the comparison the 100-hour test turns on
- Separate rows for taxpayer and spouse so each person’s total stays distinct
- A worked example week so you can see exactly how to fill it in
- An evidence column to reference receipts, photos, and message screenshots
- Works in Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers — plus a printable PDF version
Why a contemporaneous log matters
The material-participation and real-estate-professional tests are won or lost on records. A log created close to the work — not reconstructed at filing time — is far more credible, and the IRS has specifically challenged “ballpark” estimates assembled after the fact.
A spreadsheet is a fine place to start. Its limits show up over a full year: it's easy to forget an entry, hard to attach the receipt or photo that proves it, and tedious to total by person and property at tax time. That's the gap STR Tracker closes.
From spreadsheet to audit-ready in one app
STR Tracker logs hours in seconds, attaches photos and receipts to each entry, keeps taxpayer and spouse separate, and exports a CPA-ready PDF or Excel workbook for any period — with the 100-hour and 750-hour threshold status stamped on the page.
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