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Context
An important task for property managers is to ensure that the expected booking revenue matches the amount received in their bank account. Typically, the Property Management Software will provide a list of financial items for each reservation, e.g. Accommodation Fare, Cleaning Fee, etc. For each OTA (e.g., Airbnb, VRBO, etc.), the breakdown might be different as they have different ways to bundle transactions, different categories, and different methods for calculating their channel fee. This list of booking financials (also called booking lines) are passed from the PMS to Clearing and accessible by opening a booking (see the following article to understand what Clearing considers a booking in more detail: Link here).
Reconciling booking revenue helps you make sure that you have indeed received the expected revenue displayed by your PMS in your bank account. Depending on the OTA, Clearing has different methods to match booking data (from your PMS) with transactions (from your bank accounts). Each method is described below.
To compare the expected amount and the actual bank transactions, please go to "Reporting" -> "Booking reconciliation". Here, you will find a list of bookings with two columns: Expected amount and Actual payout. You will also have a column that compares those 2 amounts:
Green: Expected Payout is equal to Actual Payout
Orange/Yellow: Expected Payout is different from the Actual Payout
Red: "Expected Payout" does not have an "Actual Payout"
Note: The colour coded dots that indicate the OTA payout matches against the booking data can also be seen in the "Bookings" section in the "In Bank" Column. They are also viewable directly from an owner statement.
Technically, if you filter the list of bookings to be:
Start date = day after your last payment to owners
End date to be 12 month in the future, or more if you accept bookings further in advance
Then, the amount displayed in "Actual payout in bank" is the money you have collected for future bookings (and not paid to owners yet). This is typically from the OTAs that pay out on the reservation date, or at least, prior to the checkin/checkout dates. Airbnb pays on the checkin date, so you shouldn't have funds from them in advance.
Finally, your trust account balance should always be at least that amount of future reservations paid. Simply because your trust balance at any time should be the total amount of funds collected for future bookings, and the funds for reservations to be paid out in this month. You might also have expenses going out of the trust account, but those should be billable to owners.
So to summarize, on a monthly basis you should ensure that your bank deposits from OTAs (and payment processors like Stripe) are matched with booking data. The following sections explain how to do so depending on the OTA.
Reconciling Airbnb Bookings with Bank Deposits
Airbnb bookings are reconciled using the Clearing Chrome extension. We consider Airbnb's data as the source of truth when it comes to breaking down their payout information into individual line items for each reservation, under the same bank deposits.
The Chrome extension will send the required data and Clearing will find the corresponding bank transaction and break it down accordingly. When this is done, Clearing will recognize the booking in each payout and match them with the booking data (from your PMS).
At this moment, the reconciliation of each Airbnb booking should be green or orange. It might be orange if your PMS doesn't track resolution payouts or other Airbnb fees. In this case, you can adjust the booking financials directly in Clearing to add/edit the corresponding amounts.
The Chrome extension is a temporary way of accessing Airbnb's data while we work on a direct integration.
It is recommended that you open your Airbnb account once a week, or every 2 weeks, from the payout page. Open the Clearing chrome extension and click on "Push last 2 weeks" under the Airbnb integration. Otherwise, the extension will check every 4 hours if new payouts are available to be sent to Clearing, but this only works as long as your Airbnb account is logged in and the Chrome browser is open.
Please refer to this guide for more information about the Clearing Chrome extension.
Reconciling VRBO Bookings with Bank Deposits
If you receive payouts directly from VRBO (and not through Stripe), please open Clearing and go to "Settings" -> "Integrations" -> "Manage VRBO integration". You should follow the steps outlined to provide your VRBO email address in Clearing.
Then, just like for Airbnb, we use the Chrome extension to push financials data from VRBO to Clearing.
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Please refer to this guide for more information about the Clearing Chrome extension.
If you are using Stripe, please continue reading below.
Reconciling Direct bookings (and Other Bookings Paid through a Payment Processor, like Stripe) with Bank Deposits
For bookings paid through Stripe, our direct integration with Stripe will automatically breakdown each Stripe payout according to the reservations paid to you in this bank deposit. Clearing will identify the reservations and match them with your booking data automatically.
Reconciling Booking.com Bookings with Bank Deposits
If you receive payouts directly from Booking.com (and not through Stripe), please open Clearing and go to "Settings" -> "Integrations" -> "Manage Booking.com integration". You should follow the steps outlined below to provide your Clearing email address in your Booking.com settings.
You also have the option to upload your Booking.com statements (CSV format) by following those steps:
Please watch this video to learn how to reconcile bank deposits from Booking.com. Hereās a step by step guide:
Identify the bank deposit from Booking.com
In the transaction section, you want to start by identifying the bank deposit from Booking.com.
Access Import Transactions:
Click on the three dots at the top of the Transactions section.
Select "Import Transactions."
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Choose Booking.com Section:
Look for the "Booking.com" section within the import transactions options.
Upload Payout CSV:
Export the payout CSV deposit from Booking.com, which includes details of multiple reservations and amounts.
Upload this file to Clearing.
Review and Confirm Matching:
Clearing will automatically match fields such as check-in date, pay date, total amount, etc.
Review the matched details and ensure all fields are aligned correctly.
Complete Upload:
Click on "Upload" to complete the deposit reconciliation.
Verify Reconciliation:
Check the reconciliation status. The deposit should now be marked as reconciled with an option to click āsee detailsā.
Review Deposit Details:
Click on "See Details" to view the breakdown of the CSV deposit, showing the reservations and amounts associated.
Further Match with Granular Booking Financial Data (optional):
In the three dots menu of the sub-transaction created, navigate to the Booking section.
Paste the booking ID and review the details of that booking ID prior to matching (this will including base rate, cleaning fee, host channel fee, lodging tax, and any other fees).
Select Relevant Items:
Choose the appropriate boxes, especially for fees charged separately by Booking.com.
Ensure the selected amount matches the total payout.
Match with Booking:
Click "Match with Booking" to initiate the reconciliation process.
Automated Breakdown:
Clearing will automate the breakdown of the matched amount into sub-transactions for base rate, cleaning fee, lodging tax and other fees.
Review:
Confirm that the system has accurately created sub-transactions, reconciling the bank deposit with individual booking items.
Support and Questions:
If you have any questions or need support, feel free to reach out.
If you are using Stripe, please check out the Stripe section above.
Reconciling Other OTA Bookings with Bank Deposits
How can I match any bank deposit to booking data?
Identify the bank deposit in the transaction section - you can use the filter options to filter on "matched transactions".
Click on "Open sub-transactions" on the booking you'd like to match, and click on the three dots for one of the individual line items in the booking payout. This is similar to the process followed above for Booking.com.
You will have the ability to enter one or multiple booking IDs for which this specific deposit is related to.
Once a booking is selected, we will display all the financials related to this booking.
You can check each financial item individually, until the total amount matches the total transactionās deposit.
If the totals donāt match - here is how you can troubleshoot:
You can unselect one or multiple financial items until the amounts match.
You need to make sure that you have added all the relevant bookings IDs if the transaction deposit was for multiple bookings.
If the deposit was a partial payment for a booking, you can use the āapply ratioā function that will prorate each financial item of the booking to match the transactionās amount.
Once the amounts match, click on āmatch depositā and it will break down the total deposit with each financial items selected. This button appears when the match is available.
You can always edit each sub-transaction and even delete them altogether and start again, if you discover any error.
Closing Remarks
This is all you need to do to automate matching booking details with payout transactions. While it may seem cumbersome the first time around, after going through it once, you will realize the efficiencies it brings to your booking management. Further, you will understand and appreciate the control you have over the process and the financials.
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If you are not a Clearing user, and would like to learn more about our bookkeeping and trust accounting automations, please book a demo and we will be happy to help!