Comprehensive Fix for Accounting/Quickbooks - develop Roadmap

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I would like OR to consolidate all accounting/Quickbooks related requests into this thread and work with key stakeholders to develop a roadmap. If OR doesn't do it I ask all user that have votes in other threads to please consolidate their votes here.  We need to communicate to OR how important it is to improve the financial reporting. We need to hold a virtual meeting user forum with OR to understand their issues and communicate the users need coherently.  I am an expert in the area and would be happy to facilitate and present different solutions.

The issues I think need to be addressed are listed below. I ask everyone to focus on the issue/problem rather than the solution so jointly we create a solution roadmap. If I am able to edit this post and other people reply with additional issues I will edit this and add to the list. I have tried to prioritize by pain point as I see it but this can be better prioritized in a discussion. I have also used numbers so we can refer to numbers in a discussion, if I add new points I will add them at the bottom (or as an additional sub-point) so not to change any references that are made in ensuing discussion. There they will no longer be prioritized

1. sync Credit Card fees to accounting - where supported by CC company
2. sync AirBnB/Platform fees to accounting
3. add a "Unearned Revenue"/"Customer Deposits"/"Prepayments" process to and only create the invoice (earn Revenue) upon check-in.
4. Enable more accurate/GAAP accounting processes
   1. better deal with cancelations / avoid messy manual work-arounds
   2. process refunds (ie cancellations)
5. allow users to filter which transactions sync by filtering by date, channel (as different channels may have different needs and there are some excellent tools that exist for some channels)
6. sync Credit Card company reserves currently in Adjustments - may need to have more info sync from Processor. I don't know how OR deals when the balance of the reserve is deposited (I am fairly new to OR and have not had a reserve deposited yet). I will update this line when I have a Reserve post
7. Allow for Guests to be sub-customers. ideally a choice of subs of Channel or Properties - both meet different needs and raise new issues such as should a repeat customer under a new channel or another property be duplicated, but good to discuss. This goes back to developing a "Best Practices" for VR accounting (including Property Management), establishing the philosophy/approach first and then coding to the approach - clearly PM needs to link customer to one or more property
8. Channel Bridge and Accounting integration - other solutions get full financial information from AirBnB without a channel bridge process - update / fix approach
   1. this should also fix Orphaned customers - also may be related to the prepayments / correct time of invoices issue
9. Improve Property Management Accounting (I haven't turned on PM yet so I am not personally familiar with all the issues but want to start a list):
   1. Sync commissions and allow for different models of Property Management business models and corresponding accounting
   2. sync Property Management Expenses to Quickbooks
   3. Proper trust accounting or at least track liabilities and current assets accounts for amounts owed or to be received from Owners - this info can be used for proper trust accounting and managing cash transfers in QB
10. allow to use OR Fields to customize Memos in QB transactions and/or QB custom fields
11. Facilitate integrations with other 3rd party tools like Stessa
12. Add ability to Sync Booking Tags to QB Invoices - If OR Tags on Bookings (Invoices in QB) matches a QB Tag then sync Tag with QB Invoice - Possibly in future use the upcoming auto-Tag feature to assign tags to Bookings and sync to QB

Please let me know any other issues that need to be addressed

Hi Wendy & Manel,

Thanks for taking the time to put this together.  I appreciate the work in thinking this out, and telling other community members about it.

We fully plan to sync Deposits and Fees both (covering your first couple bullets).  It's on the dev roadmap, just a matter of time to get to that moment.  That will hopefully get us to a to-the-penny reconciliation on the QB side (ie. fully quote to cash).

The Airbnb Transactions API is done on our side but is in testing and will be a month or so before it's out live.  That will eliminate the need to do Channel Bridge for Airbnb.

Thanks for helping the community here, and we'll try to nudge other requests over to here as they pop up.

PS. I like your idea of using custom fields OR to customize how the memo/description looks in QB.  Interesting!

Paul,

Thanks for the detailed reply.

1) Is it possible to be part of the beta for AirBnB transactions API? As you can see I have a lot of experience with accounting software and QB integrations. I haven't turned on QB yet as I am doing a review to make sure I have a good smooth and planned transition from my previous processes but will happily turn it on to help test the integration.

2) just to be clear the suggestion about customizing the memo / description fields, I may not have used the correct terminology. What I meant is that in setting up the transaction structure (it can be on the same screen that one selects the accounts and classes) allow a way to configure the memo/description fields by using "Field Codes". Another product that I used to sync AirBnB/VRBO transactions in the past added this over a year ago and it was really helpful to have more complete data in QB and it may not be a heavy code lift.

Thanks,

Manel

I love this thread and I can't wait for the first two points to be fixed. no more manual adjustments on my side.

my ask: the ability to tag the invoice. I created a tag group in QBO where the tags are the OTA's (AIrbnb,  VRBO..so on) then I tag the invoices appropriately. this allows me to run a P&L grouped by Tag Group to compare Airbnb vs VRBO vs ...

hope this ask make sense,

Alin

1) Is it possible to be part of the beta for AirBnB transactions API?

The Airbnb Transactions API is still in testing right now. There is no private beta yet, and we plan to release it to all when it gets through testing.  Should be out in Q1 so just a couple more weeks, or maybe the beginning of April.

2) just to be clear the suggestion about customizing the memo / description fields, I may not have used the correct terminology. What I meant is that in setting up the transaction structure (it can be on the same screen that one selects the accounts and classes) allow a way to configure the memo/description fields by using "Field Codes".

Yes, that's a great idea, and I understand what you mean.  Field Codes are already a deep part of our system, used in many places, so it would not be difficult to code it.  Like everything, it just needs to be planned out, dev'd and tasked.... and in line with current priorities/resources.

my ask: the ability to tag the invoice. I created a tag group in QBO where the tags are the OTA's (AIrbnb, VRBO..so on) then I tag the invoices appropriately. this allows me to run a P&L grouped by Tag Group to compare Airbnb vs VRBO vs ...

Hey Alin, can you clarify what you mean by "Tags"?  Is that a location or other tracking item in QB.  I'm not aware of any feature called "Tags" but then I know Intuit keeps adding a lot of new stuff, so maybe that's there now.  And if it is there, can you confirm if it is available in all versions including the lower starter plans?

Hi Paul,

Intuit has added the concept of "tags" in QuickBooks online (https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/help-article/class-list/tag-transactions-quickbooks-online/L7x3G0aLv_US_en_US). As far as I know tags are available in all versions of QuickBooks online

To me, it is just another way of grouping transactions outside the chart of accounts by user-defined dimensions. You add whatever tag name you want; all tags are part of what they call a "Tag Group" (also user-defined).

I have a tag group called "ShortTermRentals" (see screenshots). You can now tag invoices, expenses, and bills in QuickBooks Online.

Here is one OR-generated invoice that I tagged with "VRBO." QBO terminology: in the screenshot, the tag is "ShortTermRentals: VRBO," which reads as "VRBO tag from ShortTermRentals TagGroup."

What do I do with these tags?

I run a P&L report like this one, where I chose to show as columns all tags from my ShortTermRentals TagGroup. It helps me compare how different channels perform for me.

I hope I answered your question

Paul,

Thanks for the update.

Also, in relation to Allan's post, I have heard that QB is doing more and more development around Tags. Tags are a more flexible and dynamic way to Class transactions but are also more cumbersome to code/sync as they can have so many uses - there are now 3 dimension which can be used classify transactions. Also Tags tend to be at the transaction level instead of the line item level like Classes and locations

@Allan, thanks for contributing to the thread. The best practice that I have seen seen for what you are trying to do is to create sub-customers for example VRBO:Guest Name; this way you can run the same P&L but by customer and use VRBO as the customer group. After a lot of research that is how I have set-up my QB with customers grouped by Channel - these best practices were set-up before Tags were introduced. The drawback of the method I have is that you will have two customers created if you get a repeat customer coming back through a different channel or direct.

How do you imagine Tags would be configured on the QB end. It sounds like you would like a rule engine that would assign Tags at the transaction level (ie Invoice) were Classes and Locations are linked to Properties in the QB config screen of OR. Would being able to add [Channel] in front of the customer name suffice? It sounds like you would like to add Tags to Invoices based on [Channel]. If OR does implement tags, is there any other dimension that could use a Tag? I could think of PM Customer, or potentially or Owned vs Managed. If you flush the idea out a little more I can add it to the list at the top. I think Tags can be powerful and we should flush out the possible uses

Thanks for the feedback, Manel and Alin!  This is super helpful.  Tags might be the ways to go, but as you pointed out, they need to on down-stream on things like reporting.  We've seen where classes are supported by QB on reports but not other things like locations.  On the other hand, classes aren't allowed in the lower/cheap versions of QB so it sucks to have to pay the expensive QB costs for the upper plans.

I agree with Manel also that it might be an additional thing where you can assign optional tags to be applied based on criteria.... Kinda like our Trigger engine.  You have a variety of criteria and depending on what matches (type of channel, etc) you then can do Tag automation.

Putting an even cooler view on it...  We are planning something called Tag Automation in the future which will allow you to "auto-tag" bookings, guests, etc based on certain criteria.  So if a booking doesn't have an RA signed or is overdue on payment, you could auto-tag the booking as "Urgent Problem".  Then when those things change, the tag is automatically removed.  I could see this applying to the QB perhaps but as a sub-set.

We are planning something called Tag Automation in the future which will allow you to "auto-tag" bookings, guests, etc based on certain criteria.  .....

.  I could see this applying to the QB perhaps but as a sub-set.

something like this would be amazing. if this TagAutomation can be extended to QBO, than we can use QBO tags for a whole log more than what I outlined as my immediate use case where I want to tag an invoice with the source channel.

something to keep in mind, currently QBO only allows tags on invoices, expenses, and bills. you cannot tag customers or payments.

to answer your questions Manel,

How do you imagine Tags would be configured on the QB end.

Different people will use tags in different ways, really hard to answer this question. I would dare say, from OR perspective it doesn't matter how the tags are configured on QBO end. The way I see it, tags should be created in QBO and imported in OR like classes are imported today. OR doesn't need to know what the tags are used for, it just needs to allow users to add one or more of those tags to an invoice based on rules to be defined.

Would being able to add [Channel] in front of the customer name suffice? It sounds like you would like to add Tags to Invoices based on [Channel].

not sure I understand how appending the channel to the customer name will allow me to run a P&L with channels as columns. it would require QBO reporting to be a lot more powerful than it is...something along the lines of (totally made this up in 10 seconds) "parse customer name by pattern '<string>#<string>', take the first part of the pattern match and use that as a column". i don't see QBO ever building something like that...maybe an add-on (app)

I understand your idea of using sub-customers to get that P&L by channel that I want. is definitely a way to get there. tags do seem a lot cleaner way to me and it does work for that use case you outlined where you can have the same customer returning from a different channel.

If OR does implement tags, is there any other dimension that could use a Tag?

that is an awesome question. i don't have any examples in mind, the sky is the limit here (well, the limit is 300 Groups and unlimited ungrouped tags, which is quite a large number)

If you flush the idea out a little more I can add it to the list at the top. I think Tags can be powerful and we should flush out the possible uses

Tags are very powerful and they can be used for multiple different scenarios. Just so we can start somewhere, i would say the ask is:

Import from QBO the list of existing tags (the same way OR imports classes) and add the ability to tag invoices. Users can chose one or more tags to be applied on an invoice based on a rules engine (or the future TagAutomation) 

Great discussion. I have added using syncing Tags on Bookings to Invoices in QB if the same tag exists in QB

@Alin, the feature to run Reports by Parent customer exists in QB today. My customers names are VRBO:John Smith or AirBnB:Jane Doe. I use report filters to run reports on Customers VRBO, AirBnB, etc and it picks up all the child customers. As I mentioned earlier this is well documented and is the recommended method by my current syncing provider and works great

1) Is it possible to be part of the beta for AirBnB transactions API?

The Airbnb Transactions API is still in testing right now. There is no private beta yet, and we plan to release it to all when it gets through testing.  Should be out in Q1 so just a couple more weeks, or maybe the beginning of April

Any updates? It's now the beginning of April. :)

The Airbnb Transactions API is still in testing, it's been complicated. We all, eagerly, await it's release.

Dear Ocean Zen,

Your list (Comprehensive Fix for Accounting/Quickbooks - develop Roadmap)  is spot on - thank you!

By chance, did you figure out a work around to Item #9 on your list?  Just curious how you are handling Owner expenses and owner payouts in Quickbooks - since there isn't an easy way or a way at all to push/sync statements and payments through.  Obviously, my owner payouts are linked in Quickbooks via bank account(s)/payment methods - but it takes a lot of extra steps to reconcile all the various ins/outs.

Thank you in advance,

Kris I.

Welcome Y'all Vacation Rentals

Hi Kris,

We haven't started managing other peoples properties yet... just the ones we own until we have it all dialed in. I have thought about some tools that could do some of the automation until OR has it in place. Zapier will likely be the most useful but it would require some good coding scripting capability and likely would have to tap into the OR API to really get it done.

this gets 10 votes from me - I'd love to be involved in the beta of this.

I'd also add the whole expense side of the equation.   Currently only income transfers to QB.  But expenses, if you use the OwnerRez statements for owners, have to be double entered.  Any expense that needs to be rebilled to be an owner we should be able to add to their statement and have the sync transfer it - leaving it in only one entry point.

I originally posted this framework:

I am currently working through payments reconciliation and have several additions to the list - I am waiting for some clarifications from OR support but clearly there is a lack of understanding of accounting and finance in the development of this integration. As a Accounting and finance professional I am struggling to find the logic in some of the existing functionality and the gaps. I think a working group to identify and prioritize the issues would be very helpful. The only rationale that I can attribute is that the product evolved in stages and the accounting back end was not kept in sync and now there are some disconnects.

@Jenny O, completely understand your requirements and property management accounting is another entire piece of this. This is a big enough issue that there should be a roadmap developed and prioritized. I think this is a situation where the majority of individual users don't have enough understanding of accounting to vote for the right features. They feel the pain but don't necessarily know what the right medicine is.

As users, we would like to know if OR is committed to have a robust accounting solution or not. There have been some great improvements in the last 6 months (AirBnB sync one of them) but they aren't done in completion. As an example, the AirBnB sync is great for real time data but functionally it was a step back from the batch sync. The stripe sync is great but again it is only 80%. Unfortunately, in accounting it either reconciles or it doesn't. When it doesn't the work to go hunting for the discrepancies is extremely tedious.

Don't get me wrong I appreciate the tiresome work from the support team and I always get responses (much appreciated) but it feels like we need an expert in this area that understand the accounting issues and can help guide the prioritization and development.

A working group with video calls to go over items would be extremely productive in my opinion.

Best,

Manel

A-Men! 

It does appear to be a collection of patches vs a robust account system.  I'd love to participate in a planning and then beta team to work through this.

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This is a critical need for us as well. I have a solid accounting background and am an IT engineer by day. Would be very willing to help test and provide feedback. Let me know if I can help. 

I'm thinking of creating an unofficial OnwerRez accounting support group for us to share ideas and work arounds for the current situation and also work on a priority list of things to fix so we have a unified voice. Is there interest. I'm thinking Facebook or WhatsApp group but leaning towards WhatApp so we can easily talk live. Any interest? Any preference in platform?

Thanks,

Manel