The IRS requires contemporaneous documentation of material participation. This time-log template is built to match IRS expectations: dated entries, activity descriptions, hours, and category tagging that maps to the seven §469 tests.
What to log
- Cleaning — your hours, even if you also have a cleaner. The 100-hour test is "nobody does more"; if you do 110 hours and the cleaner does 100, you qualify.
- Guest communication — booking confirmations, check-in instructions, support during stays.
- Maintenance — repairs, supply runs, seasonal upkeep.
- Marketing — listing optimization, photography, pricing analysis.
- Bookkeeping — financial review, tax-prep coordination.
- Property visits — yes, your driving time to/from the property counts.
What NOT to log
- Hours your management company spends — those count against you on the 100-hour test
- Vacation stays — personal use is not material participation
- Time spent shopping for additional properties — that's investing, not operating
Format
Date · activity · category · hours · notes. Maintained contemporaneously (not reconstructed at year-end).
If you'd rather not keep it in a spreadsheet
RentReel is bookkeeping software built for short-term rentals that keeps the hour log next to the books, with a live gauge against the 100-hour and 500-hour tests and the REPS 750-hour threshold, and a Schedule E export for your CPA. We're not affiliated with them and receive nothing for the link — the spreadsheet above works just as well. What matters either way is that the entries are contemporaneous.