Do you rent out your property?

If so, you are part of an increasingly popular market projected to grow exponentially in the coming years. To be successful, you need reliable and secure financial technology to manage your finances.

Enter Clearing. Clearing is the perfect choice for Short-Term Rental property owners looking to automate their financial management and streamline their bookkeeping. From account reconciliation and budgeting data, to trust accounting and reporting, Clearing can do it all - while keeping your business organized with its easy-to-use and scalable interface.

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In this article, we're taking a deep dive into the 10 best accounting software solutions for Short-Term Rentals in 2023. We'll discuss what each software offers, how it can simplify your finances, and mention which might be best for your needs.

But first, let us discuss the criteria for selecting accounting software that we can integrate with various property management software.

Short-Term Rental Financial Management Software

Selecting the right accounting software for Short-Term Rentals involves considering several important criteria to ensure that the software meets your specific business needs and helps you manage your finances effectively. Here are some key criteria to consider:

Integration with Property Management Software

Ensure the software integrates with the online booking system or vacation rental software. This integration can help streamline the process of guest reservation management, bookings from multiple channels, payment processing, and revenue management.

Automation

Look for software that can automate repetitive tasks such as invoicing, expense tracking online payments, and revenue reconciliation. This can save time and minimize human error.

Revenue Tracking for Vacation Rental Property Managers

The rental management software should have features to track your rental income, including detailed rent collection breakdowns by property, booking source, and time period. This is crucial for understanding your income streams.

Expense Management

Choose software that allows you to easily track and categorize expenses related to your Short-Term Rentals, such as property maintenance, cleaning, utilities, and marketing.

Tax Compliance

Ensure that the software can handle the unique tax requirements of Short-Term Rentals, including occupancy taxes and any other local regulations. It should be able to generate accurate tax data and summaries.

Financial Reporting

The software should offer a variety of financial reports and automation tools such as profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements. These reporting tools provide insights into your business's financial health.

User-Friendly Interface

A user-friendly interface is essential, especially if you're not a financial expert. The software should be easy to navigate and use, with clear instructions and intuitive features.

Accounting and Vacation Rental Software Scalability

If you plan to expand your short-term vacation rental business, ensure the software can accommodate growth. It should be able to handle an increasing number of investment properties and avoid double bookings without becoming overly complex.

Data Security

Data security is paramount since you'll handle sensitive financial and guest information. Choose software with strong encryption and other security measures to protect your data.

Support and Updates

Look for software providers that offer reliable customer support if you encounter any issues or have questions. Additionally, regular updates to the software can indicate that the provider is actively maintaining and improving their product.

Cost

Consider the cost of the software in relation to your budget. Some software options are subscription-based, while others might have a one-time purchase cost. Evaluate whether the features provided justify the cost.

Reviews and Recommendations

Research user reviews and recommendations from other short-term vacation rental owners. Their experiences can provide valuable insights into how well the software performs in real-world scenarios.

Customization

Depending on your specific business needs, you might require certain customization options. Check if the software solution allows you to tailor it to your requirements.

Mobile Responsiveness

In a fast-paced business like short-term vacation rentals, accessing your accounting software on mobile devices can be highly beneficial.

Trial Period

If possible, opt for a software solution that offers a free trial period or money back guarantee. This allows you to test the software's features and suitability for your business before purchasing.

Top 10 Best Short-Term Rental Accounting Software

Accounting for your vacation rental business can be a daunting task. However, with the right accounting software, you can easily handle all your bookkeeping needs with just a few clicks.

To help you, we’ve compiled a list of the top 10 best accounting software (in no particular order) for Short-Term Rental businesses in 2023.

QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks Online is a great option if you're looking for easy-to-use accounting software for your booking engine. It has premium features to manage your property finances and is cloud-based so you’ll be able to access it from anywhere.

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QuickBooks Online allows you to track your expenses, income, and bank accounts in one place. It also helps you accurately categorize transactions like per property maintenance charges and cleaning fees so that you can know exactly where each payment is going and how much revenue you're bringing in. You can also reconcile rental accounts, issue invoices quickly, run detailed reports to help with tax season, and more. Automated bookkeeping tools like cleared check reconciliation make it even easier to manage multiple properties simultaneously.

QuickBooks Online has a number of plans available that offer different levels of support for property managers. You can choose from their basic plan or upgrade to their Plus or Advanced plans if you need more features. And if you don't want to commit to a long-term plan right away, they offer a free trial period so that you can try it out before committing.

Xero

When it comes to top-notch accounting software for Short-Term Rentals in 2023, one of the best choices is Xero. Xero makes financial management hassle-free with a streamlined interface and automated processes.

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Specifically, Xero offers features like:

• Easy bank reconciliation: Reconcile your bank accounts quickly with live bank feeds.
• Automated bookkeeping: Track your income and expenses with real-time updates.
• Bulk payments: Make mass payments to employees or homeowners in one click.
• Detailed reporting: Generate reports on your cash flow, profits, losses, etc., with ease.

With Xero, you can keep your books up to date, manage invoicing smoothly, save time, and simplify payment processing—making it a perfect accounting software for Short-Term Rental businesses in 2023.

FreshBooks

FreshBooks is an excellent accounting software choice for property managers and owners in the Short-Term Rental space. It is an intuitive and easy-to-use software that can help you track your transactions and get the most out of your Short-Term Rental software and income.

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The main features of FreshBooks include:

• Automated invoice tracking that makes sure all of your payments are up to date
• Easy-to-use budgeting tools to help you keep track of your income, expenses, and cash flow
• Ability to generate financial reports quickly in a variety of formats, including PDFs, spreadsheets, and email templates

FreshBooks also has mobile apps available for Android and iOS devices to access your account on the go.

Clearing

When it comes to accounting software for Short-Term Rentals, Clearing is a name to be reckoned with. Not only does this software streamline the financial management of rental properties, but it also automates bookkeeping and bank account reconciliation.

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Clearing makes it easier for you to easily track your cash flow in one place, reconcile your accounts, pay homeowners at the click of a button, and close your books faster than ever before.

Not only that, Clearing utilizes cutting-edge technology that ensures accuracy and avoids booking reconciliation errors when managing rental properties. Its advanced features also make it easier to automate payout transaction allocations from Airbnb, Vrbo, or any other OTA. Clearing puts the tools in the property manager’s hands, so they don’t need additional assistance from an accountant during their month-to-month bookkeeping activities.

Last but certainly not least, Clearing offers automated trust accounting and integration into Property Management Software and/or other accounting software (even some from this list) - so, whether you use Clearing as a stand-alone system or integrate it with your accounting contractor’s preferred software, there will always be a way to get value out of this tool. 

When finding the best accounting software for Short-Term Rentals in 2023, you can't go wrong with Clearing. It’s one of the only tools designed specifically for Short-Term Rentals, which means it is built for your financial challenges. Its user-friendly design makes it easy to learn and scale, regardless of your experience level with managing rental properties. So next time you select a software package for managing your Short-Term Rental income and expenses—you know which one to choose!

InDinero

InDinero is one of the most popular accounting software available for property managers - and for good reason. InDinero integrates with Airbnb directly to help you simplify your accounting, including automatically tracking your cash flow and reconciling your accounts. This can save you time and energy when managing your books.

InDinero also simplifies tax filing—you can pull in all your Airbnb transactions and create reports that streamline tax preparation. And if you have multiple properties on Airbnb, InDinero can consolidate all of your financial data from each property into one place so that you can manage it easily.

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Plus, InDinero’s AI-powered analytics lets you analyze data to gain insights into your business’s performance, which will help you make strategic decisions and ensure profitability. You can also keep an eye on cash flow trends and see what’s working to stay in control of each aspect of your business.

Best of all? InDinero is highly affordable – making it a great choice for any property manager who wants simple and powerful accounting software for their Short-Term Rental business.

Zoho Books

Regarding accounting software for Short-Term Rentals, Zoho Books is a great option. This cloud-based platform has many features that make it perfect for managing your Airbnb accounts and finances.

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Tracks Income and Expenses

Most importantly, Zoho Books can track all of your Airbnb income and expenses for you. It has automated transaction matching capabilities and allows you to categorize transactions individually. This makes tracking income and expenses more easy than ever.

Generates Reports

Another bonus of Zoho Books is that it generates reports quickly, so you can easily get insights into your Short-Term Rental business. Reports are updated in real-time, so you have the most up-to-date information about your rental’s finances.

Receipt Storage

Zoho Books also stores receipts for all your transactions, making the audit process painless and headache-free. Plus, it integrates with other popular software like Xero, QuickBooks, PayPal, Stripe, and more—making it easy to stay on top of your expenses.

Sage Business Cloud Accounting

If you’re looking for a great accounting software for Short-Term Rentals, look no further than Sage Business Cloud Accounting. This popular program offers users a number of key features that make it easy for property managers to manage their Short-Term Rental management finances.

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For starters, Sage Business Cloud Accounting offers unlimited financial transactions, and users can easily upload bank statements into the program. You'll also have access to budgeting tools that track income and expenses daily or monthly. In addition, the software allows you to generate reports on key financial metrics such as sales, margins, and ROI. Plus, the reporting feature lets you easily track each property's performance.

Here are some other features Sage Business Cloud Accounting offers:

1. Automatically track rental payments and log receipt information.
2. Automatically reconcile your bank accounts with transactions imported directly from your bank or credit card company each day.
3. Access financial data in real-time with anytime access from any device connected to the internet.
4. Generate customized invoices and track online payment status quickly with an integrated billing system.
5. Easily manage expense claims with an automated system that updates records after each claim is approved or rejected by admins (or other authorized personnel).

Wave

Wave's simple and easy-to-use interface makes the complex accounting processes a breeze, enabling you to organize all your rental property—and Airbnb—accounting.

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Wave comes with all the features you want—we're talking invoicing capabilities, client record storing, and access to detailed financial reports. Wave also helps you manage tax-related matters, including deduction and credit allocations. If that's not enough, you can also track your rental property details, revenues, and expenses in one place, giving you a centralized dashboard for monitoring your business's success. With Wave Accounting, all of your Airbnb property data is securely stored, so there's never any worry about data integrity or privacy.

Wave also offers contracted bookkeeping services as an option to those Short-Term Rental property managers who don’t want to do it themselves…. It sounds like a bonus to me!

Bench Accounting

Bench Accounting is one of the best accounting software for Short-Term Rentals in 2023. Bench Accounting offers contracted professional bookkeeping services tailored to Short-Term Rental hosts. Their team of bookkeepers is trained to process expenses and transactions, understand sales tax regulations in different states, and optimize your financial process.

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You can also access a range of automated services that include:

• Reconciling bank and credit card accounts
• Categorizing expenses and income for better financial tracking
• Generating tax reports
• Providing comprehensive insights into your financial data

With Bench Accounting, you can rest assured that all your finances are handled accurately and efficiently. They provide up-to-date financial statements so you can efficiently manage your finances with confidence and peace of mind.

Finding the right accounting software for Short-Term Rental businesses can be challenging, as each property manager’s needs will be unique. It's important to consider the features, pricing, and integrations for each system you evaluate. The best accounting software for Short-Term Rentals should have a robust feature set that automates bookkeeping and provides a single dashboard to view your financial data. With a complete view of your rental property management software and finances, you can make more informed decisions about your business operations and maximize profitability for your Airbnb or Short-Term Rental property.

Clearing is the perfect solution, as it is the only one designed specifically for the Short-Term Rental industry. It's an all-in-one platform that automates financial and property management features which allows you to implement trust accounting for each property in your portfolio easily. Connect for a demo today and see how Clearing can help you manage your Airbnb or Short-Term Rental property finances.

Clearing is a Financial Technology Company, not a bank. Deposit Accounts are issued by Evolve Bank & Trust, Member FDIC. All company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Use of them does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by them.

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