New to Real Estate · Whitehall, PA · Member since 2025 · 10 posts · 9 votes
I wanted to post and see what other investors who have short term rentals use to automate and split their deposits into their bank accounts. For instance, I am looking to have the initial deposit automatically split into 5 accounts. 1. Revenue Account 2. Taxes 3. CapEx 4. Cash Reserves 5. Profit. Would love to get some different ideas of how people out there organize and automate this with in your Banks. Thank you!
Realtor · Memphis, TN · Member since 2010 · 425 posts · 117 votes
1y
Rob, great question — this is something a lot of STR operators overlook until cash flow gets messy. A few approaches I’ve seen work well:
Profit First method: Very similar to what you outlined — money automatically gets allocated into OPEX, Tax, CapEx, Reserves, and Profit. Many investors literally open separate accounts for each.
Bank automation: Some banks allow automatic percentage-based transfers on every deposit. If your bank doesn’t, tools like Relay Bank or Novo (both online banks) are designed with Profit First in mind.
Bookkeeping software: QuickBooks Online and Stessa won’t split deposits automatically, but they make it easy to tag and reconcile when paired with a bank that handles auto-splits.
Rule of thumb: Taxes and reserves are the two categories most people underfund. I’d recommend automating those first, even if you start small, then refine the percentages as you get historical data.
It’s less about the exact system and more about removing temptation to spend what should be reserved. Automation is key so you’re not making manual transfers every time.
@Rob Tomko Good question. I'd keep it simple with one or two bank accounts per property and reconcile monthly in QuickBooks (or software of your choice) to categorize revenue, expenses, and deposits (typical accounting process). Then use a basic Excel sheet to allocate your monthly ending cash balance or at any point in time across taxes, CapEx, reserves, etc, effectively creating a zero-based cash budget. This keeps everything organized without having to juggle too many bank accounts. In other words, two processes 1. Accounting and 2. Budgeting / Forecasting. That'd be my approach at least.
@Rob Tomko Ha, good to cross that bridge when you get there. In mean time, most accounting software can handle multiple properties and bank accounts as you scale (automated bank feeds, suggested categories as it learns your transactions, etc.). It still requires some manual / human intervention, but the software is out there.