Track who did the work, and count the right hours

Track who did the work, and count the right hours

All plans, including Free

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iOS, Android, web

Participants in REPSLog answer one question on every entry: who performed the activity? You, your spouse, a cleaner, a property manager, or anyone you add. Built for real estate investors logging hours for REPS or the STR loophole, the app uses the participant on each entry to decide which hours count toward which test. Participants work the same on iPhone, Android and the web app.

What it does

Every entry has a required field, Who Performed the Activity?, with Myself pre-selected. REPSLog ships with three built-in participants: Spouse, Cleaner and Property Manager. They carry a Default badge, cannot be renamed or deleted, and can be hidden. You add your own from Settings, Manage Participants, + Add a New Participant: type a name in Participant Name and tap Add Participant. Names must be unique. Your own participants carry a Custom badge and can be edited or deleted later.

The Manage Participants screen gives you four controls per row:

  • Drag handle to reorder. The order here is the order in the entry form picker.

  • Eye button to hide a participant you no longer use. Hidden participants leave the picker but stay attached to past entries.

  • Star button to choose who new entries default to. A Myself row sits at the top with a You badge; tap its star to go back to Myself. A hidden participant can never be the default; hide your current default and REPSLog resets it to Myself.

  • Delete (custom participants only) by swiping the row on mobile or tapping the trash icon in the edit sheet. If entries are assigned to that person, the confirmation says “All assigned tasks will reassign to yourself”.

Each entry row shows the participant as a colored circle with their initial, the log filter can show one or more participants, and the export has a Who Performed the Activity column (CSV) and Performed By column (PDF).

Participants also drive the counters on your dashboard:

  • 750-hour REPS counter (My Total REPS Hours): only entries performed by Myself. Pick anyone else on a long-term rental entry and the form says “Does not count towards your Total REPS hours.” The entry is still saved and exported.

  • 500-hour material participation counter (Total Material Participation Hours): Myself and Spouse are added together, with a breakdown of each.

  • Per-property 100-hour view and STR properties (100 or 500 goal): Myself and Spouse combined per property. Other participants appear in the breakdown with their own hours but are not added to your total.

AI Entry Autofill respects your default participant when the text you type does not name a person, and never picks a hidden participant.

How it works

  1. Open Settings, tap Manage Participants.

  2. Tap + Add a New Participant, enter a name in Participant Name, and tap Add Participant. It appears at the top of the list with a Custom badge.

  3. Drag rows by the grip handle to order them the way you want them in the picker. On the web app, click and drag the same handle.

  4. Tap the star on the person who does most of the work if it is not you. New entries will start with that participant selected.

  5. Log an entry. In Who Performed the Activity?, pick a participant, or tap + Add a New Participant inside the picker.

  6. Open the dashboard and tap the arrow on your total or a property to see hours by participant: Myself only on the 750 counter, Myself and Spouse combined on the 500 and STR counters.

  7. Export your log; the participant name is on every row.

Why it matters for your hours

The tests behind REPS and material participation care about whose hours they are. For the 750-hour test you must personally reach the hours; a spouse’s hours do not count. For the 500-hour test and the STR loophole, you and your spouse are generally counted together. Contractor hours are not your participation, but you want them in the record because the 100-hour test asks whether you did more than anyone else.

For a short-term rental host using the STR loophole, this is the feature that makes the 100-hour test checkable per property. Log the cleaner’s turnover at the lake cabin with Cleaner as the participant and your own guest messaging with Myself, and the cabin’s hours / 100 row on the STR view shows your hours (with your spouse’s) on the bar and the cleaner’s hours listed underneath, per property, per year. Add a “Co-host” or “Manager” participant and their hours appear the same way. That is the “more than anyone else” comparison, cabin and condo side by side, without a spreadsheet.

Participants let one log hold all of that without double counting. REPSLog applies the right rule on each counter: yours alone for 750, you plus spouse for 500 and STR, everyone visible in the breakdown. Which rule applies to you is a question for your CPA; the log makes sure the hours are labeled so the answer is easy to compute.

Good to know

  • Plan limits count only custom participants. Free includes up to 10, Starter and Premium are unlimited. Spouse, Cleaner and Property Manager are built in on every plan and do not count. At the limit, + Add a New Participant opens the upgrade screen.

  • Works on iPhone, Android and the web app, with the same controls on all three.

  • Spouse hours count only where the rules allow: combined with yours on the 500-hour and STR counters, excluded from the 750-hour counter. Other participants are never added to your total.

  • Airbnb or Vrbo hosts: Cleaner and Property Manager are built in, and a co-host is a custom participant you add once. Their hours show under each STR property’s row, never in your total.

  • Deleting reassigns, it does not erase. Entries assigned to a deleted participant move to Myself, so check your counters afterwards.

  • Hiding keeps history. A hidden participant stays on past entries, in filters and in exports.

  • Two ways for a spouse to log: sign in to the same account on a second device, or on Premium give them a managed account with their own login.

  • Read-only delegates can see the list but cannot change it. No AI setting affects participants.

Frequently asked questions

Can my spouse and I log hours together in REPSLog?

Yes. Both of you use the same account, and each entry records whether Myself or Spouse did the work. The dashboard breaks hours down by participant and combines them where the rules allow.

Do my spouse’s hours count toward the 750-hour REPS test in REPSLog?

No. The My Total REPS Hours counter includes only entries performed by Myself. Spouse hours are still logged and exported, and they are combined with yours on the 500-hour and STR counters.

Can I log hours for a contractor or property manager?

Yes. Cleaner and Property Manager are built in, and you can add anyone else. Their hours show in the per-property breakdown but are not added to your total.

How do I set a default participant for new entries?

Open Settings, Manage Participants, and tap the star on the person you want. New entries and AI autofill will start with that participant. Tap the star on the Myself row to go back.

What happens to entries if I delete a participant?

They are reassigned to Myself. Built-in participants cannot be deleted, only hidden.

Can my cleaner’s hours be tracked separately for the STR loophole?

Yes. Pick Cleaner (built in) as the participant on those entries. On the STR view each property’s row shows your hours on the bar and the cleaner’s hours listed beneath, so you can see who spent more time on that rental.

Is logging participants a good alternative to keeping my cleaner’s hours in a separate sheet?

Yes. Log the cleaner’s hours as their own participant on the same property and REPSLog shows their total next to yours on the STR view, which is exactly the comparison the 100-hour test asks for.

Related features

Learn more

Screenshots of the Manage Participants screen, the star and eye buttons and the delete flow are in How to Manage Your Categories and Participants.

From the blog: Do my spouse’s, cleaner’s or contractor’s hours count toward REPS or the STR loophole?.

Watch it: How to add, rename and delete participants on the REPSLog YouTube channel.

Try REPSLog free for 14 days on iOS, Android or the web app.

Try REPSLog free for 14 days

iPhone, Android and web. Your hours, audit-ready.