STR property management software and finances

[Marc Halpern]

I’m looking to upgrade my systems and technology. Mainly with our brokerage, the brokerage does buy and sell and that’s easy however it does property management for Airbnb‘s. It takes 20% gross. It also holds money vrbo and direct bookings Airbnb take sales tax and occupancy tax out for us and automatically pays it on our behalf VRBO and direct bookings do not. Also, there’s an Amazon credit card. It covers expenses like supplies and small things and then it gets reimbursed back from the net payout to the owners so each month there’s a net payout summary with a check for the owner, which includes all the bookings in minus the fees, taxes, and Amazon Along with the commission I am currently just using Excel to do bookkeeping, knowing the entire time that once it grows, we’re gonna have to grow with it in terms of technology. So each month there’s the net payouts and bookkeeping each quarter their sales and occupancy taxes due and then each year taxes and 1099s.

We also own several properties in five different LLCs with different partnerships. I’ve been doing those bookkeeping on Excel as well. The brokerage does cover the Amazon and vrbo fees that have to get reimbursed back. The LLCs are each responsible for their own sales tax and occupancy tax.

I’m looking for the right combination of software to automate this process as best as possible. I can put time into this so depending on the cost of the software versus my time is where my decisions are going to be made. QuickBooks seems like an obvious choice however we use owner Rez for our property management integration software. I know that does work with QuickBooks but also a lot of other software. Looking to see what’s out there, are there any consultants for this specific niche? 

Thanks in advance! 

[Jake Baker]

@Marc Halpern

I use QuickBooks Online (QBO) for my flipping business, rental businesses, and bookkeeping clients. QBO has every feature you need to run a business, excellent reporting features, and integration with other software. It is the most popular software in the industry, and most Tax Preparers are familiar with it, which makes tax season easier.