If you use TenantCloud, now is a good time to make sure you have a complete copy of the information your rental business depends on.
TurboTenant announced its acquisition of TenantCloud in August 2026, and TenantCloud customers are being transitioned to TurboTenant for ongoing property management.
If you are still getting oriented, read what the TenantCloud acquisition means for customers before beginning the backup process.
TurboTenant says important information such as properties, tenants, bank information, payment methods and payment history will transfer automatically, while historical items such as applications, screening reports, maintenance requests and messages will remain accessible through TenantCloud.
That does not mean your records are about to disappear.
But anytime property-management software changes, it is smart to create your own backup before the transition.
This is especially important for accounting records, lease documents, maintenance history and information you may need months or years from now.
TenantCloud provides a desktop Export Data feature, and many reports can also be downloaded separately in PDF or Excel format.
Whether you plan to stay with TurboTenant or switch from TenantCloud to another platform, this TenantCloud migration checklist will help you protect the records that matter most.
For a broader transition review beyond data backup, also see the 7 things to check before your TenantCloud account moves to TurboTenant.
Quick TenantCloud Migration Checklist
Before you move, save these 10 things:
- Tenant and lease records
- Rent rolls and complete payment history
- Accounting reports and financial summaries
- Maintenance and work-order history
- Lease documents and uploaded files
- Owner, vendor and service-provider contacts
- Important reports, report layouts and filters
- Applications and tenant-screening information
- Tenant, owner and vendor message history
- Account settings, late-fee rules and custom templates
Start with a full TenantCloud account export, then download the most important records separately so you have easy-to-read copies.
1. Save Complete Tenant and Lease Records
What to save
For every active tenant, save the information you would need to rebuild the lease in another property-management system:
- Tenant name and contact details
- Property and unit
- Lease start and end dates
- Monthly rent
- Security deposit
- Recurring charges
- Lease status
- Outstanding tenant balance
- Grace periods and late-fee terms
- Any special lease terms you rely on
TenantCloud’s account export can include leases and contacts, and its Lease Statement report can show lease dates, tenant names, units and balances.
Why it matters
Your tenant and lease information is the foundation of your property-management system.
If a lease amount, renewal date or deposit balance is wrong after a migration, the error can affect rent collection, late fees, accounting and tenant communication.
How to save it
Start with TenantCloud’s desktop export:
Profile → Settings → Security → Export Data
You can export all account data or make a custom selection.
Then generate a Lease Statement for an easier human-readable backup.
Best format: Keep the main data export in its original ZIP/Excel format and save a PDF copy of important lease reports.
Tip: Check a few leases manually after downloading. Do not assume a successful download means every field you care about is present.
2. Save Your Full Payment History and Rent Rolls
What to save
Download records showing:
- Rent charged
- Rent received
- Payment dates
- Outstanding balances
- Partial payments
- Credits
- Security deposits
- Other tenant charges
- Rent-roll history
- Online-payment history
TurboTenant says complete TenantCloud payment history will transfer into the new TurboTenant account.
Even so, maintaining an independent copy before the transition gives you something to compare against afterward.
Why it matters
Rent history can become important for tenant disputes, delinquency questions, evictions, owner reporting, security-deposit reconciliation, accounting and tax preparation.
It is much easier to prove what happened when you have the original records.
How to save it
TenantCloud’s Reports area includes Rent Roll, Tenant Statement and Online Payments reports, among others.
Best format: Use Excel for detailed transactional records and PDF for final statements you may need to reference later.
Tip: Run reports for a wide enough date range to capture historical activity—not just the current month.
3. Export Accounting Reports and Financial Summaries
What to save
At minimum, consider downloading:
- Profit & Loss reports
- Operating Statements
- Property Statements
- Owner Statements
- Property Expense reports
- Deposit and liability reports
- Tax Preparation reports
- 1099-related information
- Bank or reconciliation records you rely on
- Year-to-date income and expense information
Why it matters
Accounting history is one of the hardest parts of any software migration to reconstruct.
Properties and tenant names can be re-entered.
Rebuilding months or years of income, expenses, owner transactions and balances is much more difficult.
For professional property managers, clean historical accounting can be even more important because the records affect property owners as well as tenants.
How to save it
Go to Reports and download the financial reports you regularly use.
Apply the appropriate date, property, lease and contact filters before generating reports.
Best format: Save both Excel and PDF when possible.
Excel gives you usable data if you need to import or analyze it later.
PDF provides a fixed historical record of what the report looked like at the time you generated it.
Tip: Reconcile your accounts before creating your final pre-migration reports whenever possible.
4. Save Maintenance and Work-Order History
What to save
Keep a record of:
- Open maintenance requests
- Completed maintenance
- Request dates
- Property and unit
- Tenant descriptions
- Status
- Assigned service professional
- Repair notes
- Equipment information
- Related documents or photos
- Costs, if tracked separately
TurboTenant identifies maintenance requests as historical information that will remain accessible through TenantCloud after the transition.
Why it matters
Maintenance history is easy to underestimate.
A tenant may report the same plumbing problem six months from now.
An appliance may fail again.
An owner may ask how much has been spent on repeated repairs.
Historical maintenance records help provide that context.
How to save it
Generate the Maintenance Requests report and choose a date range long enough to cover the history you want to preserve.
If important photos, invoices or contractor documents are attached to individual requests, save those files separately as well.
Best format: Excel for request history; original JPG/PDF files for attachments.
Tip: Create a separate list of all currently open maintenance requests before migration so nothing gets overlooked.
5. Download Lease Documents and All Important Uploaded Files
What to save
Do not stop at lease data.
Save the actual documents:
- Signed leases
- Lease addenda
- Owner agreements
- Notices
- Inspection documents
- Property documents
- Insurance records
- Vendor invoices
- Maintenance attachments
- Tenant-uploaded files
- Other important PDFs and images
TenantCloud’s File Manager contains files uploaded across properties, leases, contacts, maintenance requests and payments.
Why it matters
A database entry telling you that a lease exists is not the same as possessing the signed lease.
You should maintain independent copies of legally and financially important documents.
How to save it
Go to:
Documents → File Manager
Use property and file-type filters to find important files.
Best format: Preserve files in their original format. Keep signed agreements as PDFs whenever possible.
Tip: Organize documents by property rather than putting hundreds of unrelated files into one folder.
6. Save Owner, Vendor and Service-Provider Contact Information
What to save
Property managers should preserve:
- Property-owner names
- Company names
- Email addresses
- Phone numbers
- Mailing addresses
- Ownership/property relationships
- Vendors
- Contractors
- Maintenance providers
- Accountants or other service professionals
Why it matters
Your relationships do not belong to the software platform.
A good migration preserves not only buildings and leases, but the people required to operate those buildings.
For a professional property manager, losing owner information or vendor relationships can create more disruption than losing a software setting.
How to save it
Generate the Contacts report separately for tenants, owners and service providers.
Include all useful columns before downloading.
Best format: Excel is ideal because contact records are easier to import or clean later.
Tip: Include archived contacts if they may be needed for historical records.
7. Save Important Reports, Filters and Reporting Setups
What to save
Identify the reports you regularly depend on.
For example:
- Owner reporting packages
- Property performance reports
- Rent rolls
- Operating Statements
- Tenant Statements
- Maintenance reports
- Tax reports
Also make a record of:
- Date filters
- Property filters
- Selected columns
- Grouping choices
- Report layouts
- Owner report-sharing settings
Why it matters
Data is only part of your workflow.
You may have spent years determining exactly which reports owners receive, what information should appear and how your staff reviews performance.
Those choices may not migrate cleanly into another platform.
How to save it
Download your most important reports.
For configurations that do not have a documented export option, take screenshots or create a simple written record of:
Report → Filters → Columns → Who receives it
Best format: Excel/PDF for report contents; screenshots or a short document for configurations.
Tip: Do not assume saved filters or personalized report layouts will appear identically in another system.
8. Save Applications and Tenant-Screening Information Carefully
What to save
Where appropriate and legally permitted, preserve the application and screening information you are required or allowed to retain.
This may include:
- Rental applications
- Application status
- Screening history
- Applicant contact information
- Screening reports
- Supporting documents
TurboTenant says historical TenantCloud applications and screening reports will remain accessible through TenantCloud rather than being part of the new working TurboTenant experience.
Why it matters
You may later need to understand why an applicant was approved or denied or retrieve information connected with a tenant’s original application.
But screening information is also sensitive.
How to save it
Use TenantCloud’s reporting and document tools only for information you have a legitimate business and legal reason to retain.
Best format: Store sensitive applicant information securely with restricted access.
Important: Follow applicable federal, state and local requirements regarding retention and disposal of consumer reports, applications and personally identifiable information.
9. Preserve Important Communication and Message History
What to save
Identify conversations involving:
- Rent disputes
- Lease changes
- Payment arrangements
- Maintenance problems
- Notices
- Owner instructions
- Vendor commitments
- Complaints
- Other material property-management decisions
TurboTenant lists TenantCloud messages among the historical information that will remain accessible after transition.
Why it matters
A message that seems routine today can become important later.
For example:
“Please send someone—the sink is leaking again.”
Or:
“Yes, I approve replacing the water heater.”
Those communications may help explain future maintenance expenses, tenant disputes or owner decisions.
How to save it
There is no reason to manually archive every casual message.
Instead, identify conversations involving important operational, legal or financial issues and save those records where appropriate.
Best format: PDF is useful for preserving important conversation threads.
Tip: Give files descriptive names such as:
123-Main-St_Tenant-Plumbing-Conversation_2026-06.pdf
10. Document Account Settings, Late Fees and Custom Templates
What to save
This final category is often forgotten.
Record important configuration choices such as:
- Late-fee amount
- Percentage-based fees
- Daily late fees
- Grace periods
- Rent due dates
- Fee-posting rules
- Management fees
- Owner visibility settings
- Notification preferences
- Custom notices
- Lease or agreement templates
- Internal processes your team follows
Why it matters
These settings determine how your rental business actually operates.
You could successfully migrate every tenant and still have problems if the new platform applies different late fees, grace periods or owner-reporting rules.
How to save it
If no export is available for a particular configuration:
- Take screenshots.
- Write down the settings.
- Preview or print important templates.
- Record any property- or lease-specific exceptions.
Best format: Screenshots plus PDF copies of templates and a simple written settings document.
Tip: Treat software configuration like a recipe. Your goal is to leave yourself enough information to reproduce the same business rules in another platform.
Bonus: Create One Master TenantCloud Backup Folder
Downloading the information is only half the job.
Organize it so you can actually find something later.
A simple structure might look like this:
TenantCloud Backup — September 2026
01 — Full Account Export
Keep TenantCloud’s original ZIP export here.
02 — Properties & Tenants
Property lists, tenant contacts and lease information.
03 — Accounting
Profit & Loss, Operating Statements, owner reports and year-to-date financials.
04 — Payments & Rent Rolls
Tenant statements, payment records and rent rolls.
05 — Leases & Documents
Signed leases, notices and other important documents.
06 — Maintenance
Maintenance reports, photos and open work orders.
07 — Owners & Vendors
Owner, vendor and service-provider information.
08 — Applications & Screening
Securely stored application information that you are permitted to retain.
09 — Communications
Only significant conversations worth preserving.
10 — Settings & Templates
Screenshots, late-fee rules, management-fee settings and custom templates.
Keep at least two secure copies—for example, one encrypted local backup and one secure cloud backup.
Do not store sensitive tenant or screening data in an unsecured shared drive.
What If You’re Not Happy With the TenantCloud to TurboTenant Migration?
Completing this TenantCloud data export does not mean you have decided to leave.
It simply gives you control.
TurboTenant may turn out to be the right solution for you.
But the transition also gives you a rare opportunity to ask a bigger question:
If you were choosing your property-management software from scratch today, what would you choose?
If you want to compare options before settling into the new system, review our guide to the best TenantCloud alternatives after the TurboTenant acquisition.
For landlords and property managers who especially value simplicity, strong accounting and reporting, predictable unit-based pricing and access to human support, SimplifyEm is one alternative worth evaluating.
SimplifyEm combines income and expense tracking, tenant and lease management, owner reporting, online rent collection, maintenance, documents and other everyday property-management tools in one platform.
Its published plans are based on portfolio size, and subscriptions include email, text and live phone support.
SimplifyEm also offers a 15-day free trial with no credit card required, so TenantCloud users can compare the workflow before making another long-term software decision.
The important point is not to switch simply because an acquisition happened.
It is to avoid moving automatically into another system without first deciding what works best for your business.
Printable TenantCloud Transition Checklist
Before your TenantCloud account moves—or before you switch to another platform—confirm that you have completed each step:
☐ Export your full TenantCloud account data
☐ Save tenant and lease information
☐ Download payment history and rent rolls
☐ Save year-to-date accounting and financial reports
☐ Export maintenance and work-order history
☐ Download signed leases and important documents
☐ Save owner, vendor and service-provider contacts
☐ Record important reports, filters and owner-sharing settings
☐ Securely preserve necessary application and screening records
☐ Save important message history
☐ Document late fees, grace periods and account settings
☐ Save custom lease, agreement and notice templates
☐ Verify that your backup files actually open
☐ Keep a second secure copy of your backup
Final Step: Back Up First, Then Choose What Comes Next
A property-management software transition does not have to feel out of your control.
The most important step is simple:
Make your own copy of the information your rental business depends on before you need it.
TenantCloud already provides useful export and reporting tools.
Start there.
Then save the documents, communications, settings and templates that may not be obvious from a general data export.
Once your backup is complete, you can evaluate the next step calmly.
You may decide to proceed with TurboTenant.
Or you may decide that this is the right time to compare a different long-term home for your properties.
If you want property-management software focused on easy day-to-day use, strong accounting and reporting, transparent unit-based pricing and accessible support, SimplifyEm is worth including in that comparison.
You can try SimplifyEm free for 15 days with no credit card required before making that decision.
Back up your information first.
Then choose the platform that makes the most sense for the way you want to manage your properties going forward.
Related Articles
- TenantCloud Acquired by TurboTenant: What Customers Need to Know— understand the acquisition and what is changing.
- 7 Things to Check Before Your TenantCloud Account Moves to TurboTenant— a broader operational checklist covering payments, pricing, accounting and support.
- Best TenantCloud Alternatives After the TurboTenant Acquisition (2026)— compare your options if you decide not to simply follow the default migration path.
