Leaving Hostaway because of their booking fee?

Comprehensive Fix for Accounting/Quickbooks - develop Roadmap

Status: In Development 58 Votes
Paul W
Jun 27, 2024 10:18 AM
OR Team Member Joined Jun, 2009 848 posts

This is really exciting news, thanks for the update!  Just curious, will this feature update include tracking refunds as well or is it mainly focused on the service fees?

We still are avoiding refunds for the time being.  Yes, I know - that stinks! - and we agree that refunds need to get in there, but QB really screwed us on how they implement refunds (eg. credit memos, changing invoice balances, etc) so it makes it really difficult to implement refunds by a sync.

We decided that it was really important to get Deposits and Fees synced over, and we should push forward on that as we had a clean design for that instead of dithering any longer.  We've held off on QB work for far too long already.

PS. So if you have a deposit that includes refunds in it, OwnerRez will send you an alert that that deposit was skipped and has to be recorded manually in QB.  Looking at the data, we think that this will still help most users with 95% of their deposits as refunds tend to occur <5% of the time.  And often, refunds are in their own standalone deposits and not included in a regular booking/payment deposits.

Alin S
Jun 27, 2024 1:44 PM
Joined Aug, 2022 44 posts

It is very exciting that progress is being made on QBO integration.

I'm not an accountant or QBO expert, but I do use the OR to QBO feature all the time. I'm a little bit confused about what is happening here. I guess the best way to clarify my confusion is by asking: How does this part of the app look in this new world? Specifically, i'm asking about the links at the bottom

 

What I'm guessing is happening is that we have an invoice with payments like in the screenshot above, and the way we add "fees" in QBO is by adding a third "thing,"...the deposit, This deposit is going to have the payments and the fees. does that sound about right? assuming the answer is yes, does it mean the deposit is going to be linked to the app (talking about the screenshot here)?

Paul W
Sep 2, 2024 10:14 AM
OR Team Member Joined Jun, 2009 848 posts

For all of you watching this QuickBooks topic, take a look at our new Deposits & Fee syncing, just released this past week.  There's no product update post about it yet (it will be included in the August 2024 edition), but you can see a support article here that is partially finished:

https://www.ownerrez.com/support/articles/quickbooks-deposits

We're super excited about this new deposit syncing option and hope we have some QB users here that will turn it on and let us know what they like/dislike.

This will now give you to-the-penny deposits in QB with matching payments and fees (ie. adjustments) included. This new deposit syncing requires you to use our Deposits feature to track your incoming payouts and deposits - it's based on that.  If you use Airbnb, Stripe, and/or Lynnbrook, deposits are created automatically for you.  If you don't use those, you need to manually record deposits in OwnerRez which then flow over to QB via this new syncing option.

PS. For those of you wondering, it does not include refunds.  So if you have a deposit that includes a refund, that deposit will be skipped.

PS 2. We are working on adding automatic deposits for Authorize.Net and Converge, so that you get those deposits automatically as well.

Stacia and Larry M
Sep 2, 2024 10:52 AM
Joined Feb, 2021 21 posts

Would this combine multiple payments sent by Airbnb into a single deposit?

 

Paul W
Sep 2, 2024 11:07 AM
OR Team Member Joined Jun, 2009 848 posts

Would this combine multiple payments sent by Airbnb into a single deposit?

Yep! That's the entire point - to take deposits that contain multiple different payments and fees and properly group them together and produce a single to-the-penny "bank deposit" in QuickBooks.  Then, when your bank transactions come into QuickBooks, you can match them up with a single click.

Note: you have to have Airbnb "transaction sync" running already in OwnerRez for your Airbnb payouts to automatically come into OwnerRez as deposits.  If you don't use Transaction Sync, make sure to turn that on first.

Look at Tools > Deposits in OwnerRez to see your current list of deposits.  Whatever is listed there is what will sync to QuickBooks.  If they don't come in there automatically (like Airbnb, Stripe, Lynnbrook), then you need to use the Manually Record button to create them yourself.  However, even if you have to manually record each deposit, it is much easier to do that on the OwnerRez side, where you have booking and payment data, than in your QuickBooks account, where you don't know which lump sum deposits go with which invoices.

I noticed that you asked this previously, then removed it:

The dropdown for fee expense doesn't open any choices - is that portion not ready yet?

That's a good question, so I wanted to answer it for others that might be wondering the same thing.  The drop-down of expenses comes from your Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks.  So if the drop-down is empty, it means you need to use Refresh References to get a new list of accounts to use.  Refresh References does a live check against your QuickBooks account, pulls the list into OwnerRez, and then you can update your OwnerRez settings.

Stacia and Larry M
Sep 2, 2024 11:42 AM
Joined Feb, 2021 21 posts

Can you look at our account and see why the manual deposit sync is not pushing? I'm hoping we can sync prior deposits as I am very far behind on bookkeeping because I hate doing the deposits so much! 

Paul W
Sep 3, 2024 8:12 AM
OR Team Member Joined Jun, 2009 848 posts

Can you look at our account and see why the manual deposit sync is not pushing? I'm hoping we can sync prior deposits as I am very far behind on bookkeeping because I hate doing the deposits so much! 

I do see deposits syncing in your account.  Here is the latest deposit, for instance.  You can see the QuickBooks Sync succeeded and links to the bank deposit on the QB side:

Previous (historical) deposits may not sync automatically until you turn them on.  This is so QB is not flooded with new transactions for deposits that were already reconciled.

You should use the manual "Action" button on older deposits to sync them manually. Each deposit in OwnerRez has new QuickBooks fields and an Actions button next to it.

I noticed you said "manual" deposit sync in your comment, so maybe you already know this and have tried it? If so, and there's a specific deposit that won't sync, write to our help desk with the specific deposit so we can take a look.

Home Suite Stays
Sep 3, 2024 12:26 PM
Joined Feb, 2023 9 posts

Thanks for the update Paul!

Honeyland Homes
Sep 4, 2024 4:31 PM
Joined Jul, 2022 3 posts

This is great news, Paul! We have been sync'd with Quickbooks and doing manual deposits (specifically for the Airbnb fee discrepancy). Can you tell me if anything will change as of today if we are with Converge?
I saw that you said Converge and Authorize.net are coming soon but in the meantime, do these updates help anything or should I continue doing our same manual Airbnb fee adjustment process until Converge is supported?

I'm looking forward to the day when it's all sync'd up and bookkeeping gets really easy!!

Paul W
Sep 5, 2024 7:51 AM
OR Team Member Joined Jun, 2009 848 posts

I saw that you said Converge and Authorize.net are coming soon but in the meantime, do these updates help anything or should I continue doing our same manual Airbnb fee adjustment process until Converge is supported?

Converge and Authorize.Net are not supported as automatic deposit yet, but you can certainly do manual deposits for Converge or Authorize.Net.  Just go to Tools > Deposits > Manually Record and create deposit records, using the Converge payments that show there.  Any deposits that are created - whether automatic or manually - can be synced to QB.

Also don't forget about Airbnb.  Regardless of your Converge CC payments, you still have Airbnb payouts coming through, and those are fully automated including the deposit.

LivingItUpHawaii
Sep 13, 2024 5:09 PM
Joined Jun, 2022 11 posts

Aloha, 

 

What are the best ways to test the Quickbooks integration before switching completely? I'm still connected with BnTally. I want to Test it for Airbnb Booking, Vrbo Booking, and direct website booking. I have already worked on the mapping on my sketch paper and created proper services for tax ( state and county). What you wish you knew before doing the integration? Mahalo Ania

 

I'm already reconciled with all my BnTally and manual entry invoices. I don't want duplicate entries, but I want to test it and see how it works booking by booking. Can I since only one or few bookings before the sinc date? 

 

Just to confirm, is there a way to set up the Default Rent by Platform. My Income statement has Airbnb Sales, Vrbo sales, Website sales - so I can verify my sales register to 1099k at the end of the year. 

AK Getaways, LLC
Sep 17, 2024 11:31 PM
Joined Jan, 2023 6 posts

I’m going to give Quickbooks a try again. I would love your recommendation on charts of accounts you’ve used to set your integration up. Thank you!

Wesley W
Sep 20, 2024 9:43 AM
Joined Apr, 2024 16 posts

I am trying this out.  However, there seems to be a slight change I would love to request.  Currently it only offers expense accounts.  Would it be possible to see other accounts, like COGS.  

 

We use COGS for the booking fees because we do owner reports through QBO, and that allows us to split and share the fees easily with owners.  However, only allowing for an expense account does not let us do this without having to either modify the report or manually reclass items.

 

I also know others who actually put it as part of the income accounts too, to just lower the income to match what was deposited.  I don't think that is best practice, but nonetheless, their practice.

 

I would HOPE QBO would make this easy for you and it is a simple change of what fields you are showing.  But that might me a dream too.

Stacia and Larry M
Sep 20, 2024 11:17 AM
Joined Feb, 2021 21 posts

As someone who also puts booking fees in COGS I have to say that it is far easier to use the automated deposits and do a JE to move in a lump sum monthly or quarterly. The amount of time we now save by doing the deposits manually far outweighs the few minutes! 

Alin S
Sep 20, 2024 12:14 PM
Joined Aug, 2022 44 posts

You can map to product and services which in turn can map to COGS. that is what i'm doing

 

Stacia and Larry M
Sep 26, 2024 11:47 AM
Joined Feb, 2021 21 posts

Is there a chance that other OTA payments are on the roadmap to be included in this awesome feature? Maybe BDC?

Alin S
Oct 4, 2024 11:35 AM
Joined Aug, 2022 44 posts

Seriously, why?

We finally managed after a long time of training to get to the finishing line of that 5k and than the organizers decided, for some reasons that only the gods of running knows, that only folks with Adidas running shoes are allowed to go over the finishing line

 

Paul W
Oct 4, 2024 12:49 PM
OR Team Member Joined Jun, 2009 848 posts

Seriously, why?

We finally managed after a long time of training to get to the finishing line of that 5k and than the organizers decided, for some reasons that only the gods of running knows, that only folks with Adidas running shoes are allowed to go over the finishing line

Hey Alin, 

We 100% agree with you, and this was an oversight in tasking and development. We are actively working on correcting this as I write this. You will not need to use PM in order to map fees to different expense accounts. We should have an update out shortly to correct this.

FYI - it was not a matter of trying to force people to use PM, but a limitation we thought was in place under the covers. We now realize that there is no limitation and it should work for everyone.

 

Michael D
Oct 4, 2024 1:37 PM
Joined Oct, 2019 55 posts

Glad to hear we'll be able to use multiple expense accounts. We weren't able to implement this great new capability as it was initially rolled out due to the one expense account limitation.

Thanks for fixing.

Alin S
Oct 8, 2024 4:25 PM
Joined Aug, 2022 44 posts

Thank you for removing deposits PM lock, awesome job.

To me personally, this feature (deposits) is still not usable because i cannot select COGS accounts for expenses. I do recall somebody else mentioning this in this thread. Are there any reasons why COGS accounts do not appear in the expense account list?