QuickBooks - Deposits

If you use QuickBooks Online to manage your accounting, you'll be happy to know that OwnerRez integrates with QuickBooks Online. Read about how it all works in our QuickBooks Overview article, or jump right to the QuickBooks Setup & Connecting guide to get started.

This article focuses on the relationship between OwnerRez deposits and QuickBooks bank deposits and how to automatically sync those entities for easy reconciliation.

• Why Deposits
• Comparing Deposits in OwnerRez and QuickBooks
• Prerequisites to Deposit Syncing
• Turning On and Configuring Deposit Settings
  • Deposit Bank Account
  • Fees Expense Account
• Common Issues & Questions
  • How are refunds handled?
  • Skipped deposits
  • Removing or adjusting the sync for individual deposits
  • I keep getting an error when I attempt to turn on my deposit sync!

Why Deposits

As a business, you want your "quote to cash" process to be as automated, streamlined, and complete as possible. However, you can't have an accurate quote-to-cash process if your deposits are messy or if your financial reports show lump sums that aren't categorized cleanly.

When someone books your property, the guest pays you money that you account for, deposit in the bank, pay taxes out of, and so on. As the money moves along, the accounting gets more complicated at every step. Payments come from many places (i.e., channels, websites, etc.) and may be deposited in different forms.

Further complicating things, fees are often charged by those channels, websites, and credit card processors — sometimes multiple fees simultaneously — leading to a deposit amount that does not reflect the original payments.

In other words, lump sums hit your bank account from places like Airbnb, Stripe, Vrbo, and even paper checks — so how do you reconcile them?

OwnerRez automatically creates invoices and payments in QuickBooks, but you must still match up the final QuickBooks bank transactions. QuickBooks will automatically show you the bank transactions imported from your bank account, but which deposits go with those invoices and payments?

We have fixed this problem with "deposit syncing," where OwnerRez will create "Bank Deposits" in QuickBooks with the exact amount of the final deposit and include an itemized list of payments and fees that make up that exact amount. With these Bank Deposits, you can match the bank transactions imported by QuickBooks from your bank account and be "to the penny" without manual adjustments.

Comparing Deposits in OwnerRez and QuickBooks

OwnerRez and QuickBooks have very similar deposit structures. Both consist of a list of payments, fees, and adjustments that lead to a final balance.

Here is a side-by-side comparison of a deposit that is in both OwnerRez and QuickBooks. The red arrows demonstrate which parts of the OwnerRez deposit map to the QuickBooks deposit.

It is important to understand the relationship between the deposit amount and the payments, fees, and adjustments that make up the deposit. The deposit itself has no set amount other than the sum of all the payments, fees, and adjustments that are part of it. Notice in the screenshot above that the deposits (on both sides) show an amount that exactly equals the payments, fees, and adjustments inside it with no ability to change that amount.

Prerequisites to Deposit Syncing

Deposit syncing runs as a secondary step after booking and payment data have already finished syncing to QuickBooks. Put differently, deposits cannot be synced until bookings and payments have been synced first. So, if you haven't connected QuickBooks to OwnerRez and successfully synced bookings and payments, do that first. Also, read the QuickBooksHelp What’s the Undeposited Funds account? for more information.

If you already have a solid reconciliation process and don't want to change anything, you don't have to. Deposit syncing is an additive step that does not affect bookings or payments.

If you have the "Push Payments" setting turned off, deposits cannot be synced to QuickBooks. This is because deposits are made up of payments and fees. If payments don't exist on the QuickBooks side, deposits cannot be created either. 

Deposit syncing requires "Undeposited Funds" to be used as the bank account for payments when your payments are created in QuickBooks. If you do not use Undeposited Funds, deposits cannot be synced to QuickBooks. However, you can quickly change your QuickBooks payment settings in OwnerRez to start using Undeposited Funds anytime. You may need to change individual bookings as well if they have already finished syncing.

Turning On and Configuring Deposit Syncing

If your QuickBooks connections and mappings are in good standing, and already working, you're ready to configure deposits. Go to your QuickBooks connection in OwnerRez (Settings > QuickBooks > click on the Quickbooks account you want to configure) and look for the Deposit Settings tab in the middle of the screen.

As the Deposit Settings page shows, payments must be mapped to the "Undeposited Funds" account in QuickBooks. If you enable deposit syncing, OwnerRez will automatically change your payment settings to use Undeposited Funds.

The Deposit Settings page is simple. At the top, you have a master switch called "Sync Deposits" that lets you turn the entire thing off or on with one checkbox. Turning it off has no effect on other aspects of the QuickBooks integration. Bookings and payments will still continue syncing even if deposits do not.

When "Sync Deposits" is selected, there are two fields beneath it that are required: Deposit Bank Account and Fees Expense Account.

Deposit Bank Account

All deposits in QuickBooks must be mapped to a bank account. A bank account is typically a physical bank like Chase, Bank of America, etc., and is usually a Checking or Savings account. However, it is possible to have other forms of bank accounts, like "Uncategorized Assets" or other placeholders. You can add or edit your bank accounts in QuickBooks using the banking area. This is the same place where you match transactions and manage "bank feeds."

Think of the Deposit Bank Account as the actual place where the money was sent. For example, if you get payouts from Airbnb, where did Airbnb actually send that money? An "Airbnb payout" is the same thing as a deposit in OwnerRez, so the bank account that Airbnb transferred the money to is the Deposit Bank Account you should select in your settings.

By default, the Deposit Bank Account setting will show a single drop-down list of your bank accounts in QuickBooks.

If you don't see an up-to-date list of bank accounts, use the Refresh References button at the top of the page. The Refresh References function will reach out to your QuickBooks account live while you wait, get the latest list, and update your OwnerRez account. The drop-down should then show all the bank accounts that are in QuickBooks.

If all of your deposits go to the same bank account, select that account, and you're done.

However, some users have deposits going to different bank accounts depending on which channel, website, or payment processor the booking came through. If that's you, no worries - we've got you covered.

Select the second option "Use different bank accounts depending how the deposit was processed", and you'll see a mapping table called "Deposit Types" open below.

This table allows you to select a different bank account for each type of processor that sent you money. Currently, there are five options: Airbnb, Stripe, Lynnbrook Group, Manual, and All Other Types.

• Airbnb - If you use our direct integration for Airbnb to manage your Airbnb listings, OwnerRez automatically imports your Airbnb payouts as deposits. This option allows you to pick a different bank account from where your other deposits go.
• Stripe - If you use Stripe as your credit card processor, OwnerRez automatically imports deposits for you. This option allows you to say where your Stripe deposits go, allowing you to pick a bank account different from where your other deposits go.
• Lynnbrook Group - If you use Lynnbrook Group as your credit card processor, OwnerRez automatically imports deposits for you. This option allows you to say where your Lynnbrook deposits go, allowing you to pick a bank account different from where your other deposits go.
• Manual - If Airbnb, Stripe, and Lynnbrook do not cover all of your payments, you have to manually record your deposits. Even if you use one of the automated deposit methods, you might still have other manual deposits for occasional checks or cash payments. This "Manual" option allows you to specify which bank accounts your manually-recorded deposits go to. At this time, all manually-recorded deposits must go to the same bank account.
• All Other Types - This option should never really be used by the system, as the other four options cover all possible deposit scenarios currently supported by OwnerRez. We added "all other types" as a fall-back option in case the system does not know what to select or a new automatic option is added without a QuickBooks setting.

Fees Expense Account

As bookings and payments are recorded in OwnerRez, "fees" need to be accounted for. If you use one of our direct channel integrations, for instance, your bookings may include fees that automatically appear alongside the booking and payment data. These are sometimes known as "service fees" or "host fees" and are listed on the Transactions tab of the booking. Or, if you use Stripe or Lynnbrook for credit card processing, you may see a processing fee that the credit card processor charged you for processing a payment. You may have even recorded a manual fee by hand for a particular booking or payment.

If fees are included in the deposit (i.e., they lower the overall deposit amount), you need a way to expense them when the deposit is synced to QuickBooks. On the QuickBooks side, fees are known as "adjustments" on the bank deposit.

All fees and adjustments in QuickBooks must be mapped to an expense account. An expense account is typically used to record things like rent, utilities, maintenance, interest on loans, payroll, etc. Whatever your business spends money on, an expense account is used to categorize it. You can add or edit your expense accounts in QuickBooks using the register or chart of accounts.

Think of "Expense Account" as the category of item the fee paid for. For example, if Airbnb charged you a host fee, what do you call that host fee in QuickBooks? Maybe "Channel Charges" or even "Advertising" if you think of Airbnb has advertising your listings. If Stripe charged you a 2.9% processing fee, the expense account might be "Bank Charges"  in QuickBooks.

By default, the Expense Account setting will show a single drop-down list of your expense accounts in QuickBooks.

If you don't see an up-to-date list of expense accounts, use the Refresh References button at the top of the page. The Refresh References function will reach out to your QuickBooks account live while you wait, get the latest list, and update your OwnerRez account. The drop-down should then show all the expense accounts that are in QuickBooks.

If all your fees go to the same expense account, select that account, and you're done.

However, some users have fees going to different expense accounts depending on which channel or credit card processor the fee was charged by. If that's you, no worries - we've got you covered.

Select the second option "Use different expense accounts depending on the fee category", and you'll see a mapping table called "Fee Categories" open below.

This table allows you to select a different expense account for each type of fee that is supported on bookings. Currently, there are three options: Channel, Credit Card Processing, and All Other Types.

• Channel—If your fee came from a channel (like Airbnb, Booking.com, or Vrbo), this option allows you to pick an expense account that is different from other types of fees. Common expense accounts for channel fees are "Advertising" and "Channel Commission".
• Credit Card Processing - If your fee came from a credit card processor (like Stripe or Lynnbrook), this option allows you to pick an expense account specific to that. Common expense accounts for credit card processing fees are "Bank Charges" and "Accounting.
• All Other Types - This option should never really be used by the system, as the other two options cover all possible fee scenarios currently supported by OwnerRez. We added "all other types" as a fall-back option in case the system does not know what to select or a new automatic option is added without a QuickBooks setting.

Common Issues & Questions

The setup instructions above should explain most of the questions you are likely to have about deposit syncing. However, some common questions are asked, and here are the answers to those questions.

How are refunds handled?

Refunds are not supported at all in our integration with QuickBooks, as documented on our Overview page in the What Transactions Are Not Included section. This is because QuickBooks handles refunds via credit memos, checks, or force-modified invoices that do not align with OwnerRez accounting. We are working on supporting them in the future.

Because of this, any deposit that includes a refund will not sync to QuickBooks. The deposit will be flagged with a "Skipped" status and a reason explaining that it contains a refund.

You will need to manually account for any deposit that has a refund by going to QuickBooks and creating a deposit or bringing in the bank transaction a different way. We plan to support deposits with refunds in the future.

Skipped deposits

Unfortunately, not all deposits can be synced to QuickBooks. Because deposits, by their nature, contain multiple types of transactions, it is possible for a deposit to exist where it is impossible to sync it automatically. Here is a list of the types of deposit that OwnerRez cannot sync to QuickBooks:

• Any deposit containing a refund
• Any deposit that contains payments that are associated with properties syncing to two or more different QuickBooks accounts
• Any deposit where the booking has QB "skipped" or turned off on the booking
• Any deposit where the payments are set to "not push" to QuickBooks on the booking

When the above scenarios occur, the deposit will show a "Skipped" status on the deposit page and a reason explaining why.

Removing or adjusting the sync for individual deposits

Need to turn on, turn off, or resync a deposit? Make a change on your QuickBooks side, or accidentally delete something? We support that!

Go to the deposit in OwnerRez and drill in to see the deposit details. Next to the QuickBooks Sync field, you'll see the current status and an Actions button.

Click the Actions button, and you'll see a drop-down menu of options that allow you to manage this specific deposit. These options run immediately while you wait, allowing you to control what is sent to QuickBooks in real-time.

I keep getting an error when I attempt to turn on my deposit sync!

First, review the Prerequisites to Deposit Syncing to ensure that you are ready to configure deposit syncing. 

QuickBooks requires that funds be deposited into the "Undeposited Funds" account before they can be deposited, so we check to make sure you have one as part of the setup process. However, we have observed that some users cannot locate or don't have an "Undeposited Funds" account. Try the following steps to resolve this error.

• Search through your chart of accounts on the QuickBooks platform to locate your Undeposited Funds account.
• If you can't see an "Undeposited Funds" account in your QuickBooks account, is it possible that you renamed it in the past? If so, try to rename back it on the QuickBooks platform.
• If you don't already have an "Undeposited Funds" account somewhere, create a new account in QuickBooks called "Undeposited Funds" with the Detail Type set to "Undeposited Funds."

• Re-sync your QuickBooks account by clicking on the Refresh References button. 
• Re-attempt the Deposit Sync configuration process.