Short Term Rentals

Thanks for reaching out in the QuickBooks Community, @bmartin71184.

I'd be glad to walk you through the process in recording short term rentals in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT). 

As a property manager, you provide service to property owners and the tenants of those properties. Thus, you need to create and manage two company files:

• Rental property company. This is where you keep track of the transactions for each property you manage. This is where you record the rent income and expenses.
• Property management company. This is where you track your own business’ transactions. This is where you record your income and expenses for managing properties.

After creating a company file for rental property company, you'll have to set up customers and vendors accounts for your tenants and vendors. 

• Properties you manage. Customers
• Tenants. Customer: jobs of properties
• Owners of the properties. Vendors
• Your own property management company. Your own property management company

If you haven’t already, here's how set up the customers and vendors.

Once done, you'll have to set up accounts and items which you use to track transactions.

For complete details on what you need to set up, please refer to step 2 of this article: Record transactions for a property management company. This also contains the complete guide on how to record transactions for rental properties you manage and for your own management company in QuickBooks Desktop.

If you're still aren't sure on what accounts to use, or how to record the transactions? I'd suggest reaching out to an accountant. If you don't have an one, we can help find someone near you.

Should you need further assistance in managing your client's rental properties, please let me know here in the Community. I'm always here to help. Take care!

What if I am the property owner?

I have a single short term rental property that is titled to my LLC.

For now, I plan to use a property management/listing company (Evolve) to list on all the platforms, take the bookings, and remit the payout/profit to me.

How do I best set this up in QuickBooks Desktop?

Good morning, @ImpactProperties. 

Thanks for chiming in on this thread! 

To clarify, are you both the property manager and owner or just the owner? If you're both, you can set yourself up as a customer. 

In addition, we recommend to check out Evolve's website for more info on how to properly integrate with QBDT. 

I'll be just around the corner when you're ready to come back! 

Good morning.  Thank you for the quick reply.

I am the owner, but will be using Evolve to list and manage the sales.  That is, Evolve lists on all the platforms (Airbnb, Vrbo, etc.), gets the bookings and collects the payments.  They payout the platforms, keep 10%, and then remit the balance to me.  That balance includes the collected occupancy taxes, cleaning fees and my profit.  All other aspects of managing the property are done by me.

And to clarify this is the Evolve Vacation Rental company, not an Evolve payment processing company that I just found in Google.  I don't see anything on Evolve's website regarding QuickBooks.

Were you referring to same Evolve?

Thanks for checking back with us, @ImpactProperties.

Apologies for the mix up with the Evolve program. We did confuse the payment processing company with the rental company. 

Although you are the owner, you can still follow the steps that my colleague, @ReymondO1, has shared above. They have also included some guides that go deeper into the explanation of the set up process. 

If you ever feel you need an extra set of eyes with what accounts are needed, I recommend consulting with your accounting professional. Your accountant can review your books and advise the best way to handle this based on your business needs. 

If you don't have an accountant, don't sweat it. You can find one here in our Resource Center. 

I'll be sure to keep an eye out for your reply in case you have any additional questions or concerns. Have a good one!