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Property managers who oversee multiple Short-Term Rental properties on behalf of homeowners face various challenges when they have to keep homeowners updated on their assets. To ensure financial transparency, property managers must create and share owner statements for their homeowner’s Short-Term Rental and vacation rental assets.
Most property management platforms aren’t able to create automated monthly statements for homeowners as they can’t track expenses accurately and from multiple sources (credit cards, bank accounts, etc). In such cases, a property manager has to create homeowner Short-Term Rental assets statements manually. This requires both time and effort as the property manager must add all transaction details and ensure all monetary values are accurate. Such requirements limit a property manager’s ability to effectively collaborate with homeowners to ensure financial transparency.
Using Clearing, on the other hand, helps property managers keep homeowners updated in a simple and intuitive way. Clearing’s exciting new feature allows property managers to create Short-Term Rental and vacation rental homeowner statements with ease. When creating owner statements, Clearing automatically pulls booking financials details from platforms such as Airbnb, Stripe, their property management software, and more.
These details are then added to the owner statement, which a property manager can export in a PDF format. Property managers can also share read-only access to Clearing for their homeowners to access owner statements directly. These statements show all revenues and expenses for the Short-Term Rental asset and help property managers collaborate with homeowners more intuitively.
Creating Owner Statements In Clearing
Clearing has made it easier for you to create owner statements for your Short-Term Rental business by automating the process and making sure it can be completed in seconds. To create owner statements in Clearing, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Signup or Login
To create owner statements, first, you must log in to your Clearing account. Enter your credentials and click the “Log In” button to proceed. If you don’t have a Clearing account, and would like to get started, book a demo today!
Step 2: Access The Statements Dashboard
After logging into your account, the first thing you’ll need to do is access the “Statements” menu option. This can be done by clicking the appropriate option in the left-hand side menu. Make sure to select the "Owner statements" tab.
In this section, you have two options to generate owner statements:
By Owner: this option will add all the assets and financials related on the same statement for a given homeowner.
By Asset: this option lets you select a specific owner and a specific asset (or multiple) to create individual statement by asset.
The same features are available for each option. This guide will mainly focus on the option "By owner" but you can replicate any step for the option "By Asset".
Step 3: Start By Selecting An Owner
To proceed, click on that name field and select the owner’s name from the drop-down list.
Step 4: Select The Date Range
Once you have chosen which homeowner you want to generate an owner statement for, you will need to define a custom date range for the statement. To proceed, click the “from” and “to” date fields and choose the appropriate dates.
Now the homeowner statement will be generated or updated as per the defined date range.
Step 5: Understand The Content Of An Owner Statement
General Information About You And The Homeowner
The homeowner statement you generate will contain different information about you, the homeowner, and the properties you manage for them. Your business name, address, and email can be displayed at the top left corner of the statement (if added to the system). Please note that if you haven’t entered your details, you need to access your settings and do so for them to appear on the statement.
The owner’s name, address, and email will appear at the top right corner of the statement. Note that you can edit the homeowner details at any time by clicking on the “Edit owner” button.
You can also edit the name of your business displayed on the statement by clicking on Settings and then under the "Customize statements" tab. You will find a section called "Business name on owner statements" to enter the desired name. In this same section, you can upload your logo and change the colors of the statement. More details about customizing your statements are available below.
Review The Statement Summary
On top of the statement, you will find a general summary of the financials to get the net payout owned to the owner. If you had more expenses that revenue for this owner, it will be negative and it is money owned by the owner to you.
Previous balance
This is the net amount of the previous statement. To add the previous balance on the statement, click Settings and make sure to check the box "Include previous balance". Note that if you mark a statement as Paid and you don't want to bring the balance on the next statement, you should also check the box "Previous balance should not consider statements marked as Paid". If you don't check this box, you will need to add the transaction of the payment to the owner for the previous balance to make sure that they net to $0.
Revenue (positive)
This is the sum of all positive booking financials and total positive transactions on the statement. In most cases you won't have any positive transaction on the statement, only positive booking financials.
Payment from owner (positive)
If you received money from the owner, you can open the transaction details and select the "Payment from owner" type. The transaction also needs to be categorized, attached to the owner and marked "to owner".
Payment to owner (negative)
If you made any payments to the owner, you can open the transaction details and select the "Payment to owner" type. The transaction also needs to be categorized, attached to the owner and marked "to owner".
Booking fees (negative)
This is the sum of all negative booking financials (e.g., host channel fee, discounts, etc.). You can rename this line by clicking on Settings and under the customize tab, enter the name you would like.
Resolution payouts (either positive or negative)
If you added resolution payouts (found in bookings and tab "Resolution payouts"), the total "amount to owner" would be in this line.
Expenses (negative)
This is the sum of all negative transactions in the statement, not including payment to owners.
Management commission (negative)
This is the sum of all management commission calculated on each booking in the statement.
Ending balance
The ending balance is calculated as the sum of all the above. Note that certain lines are negatives.
Reserve balance
You have the option to maintain a reserve balance (also called minimum balance) for each owner. Click on the owner details to enter the reserve amount and the date you collected it. This option is added on the statement if you check the box "Include previous balance and minimum balance in statements" in the settings.
Net
The net is ending balance minus the reserve balance. Can be positive (amount to pay the owner) or negative (amount to collect from the owner).
Detailed Financials Included In The Statement
Booking Financials Marked "To Owner"
By default, the owner statement includes all bookings that have a recognized date within the range you selected for all every asset of the owner you selected.
Then, for every booking that match the dates and owner selected, you will find a breakdown of the booking financials grouped by category. Note that only booking financials marked "To Owner" will be included. They will either be under the Revenue column if positive or under the Expense column if negatives.
Note that if a booking starts at the end of month 1 and checks out in month 2, if your recognized date is on departure, the recognize date will be in month 2 and your statement for month 1 will not contain this booking. You can manually adjust the recognized date of each booking. You can also split a booking to prorate financials by month.
Note that you can click on any booking to review and edit the financials associated with it.
Your Management Commission
For each booking, the statement will display your property management commission as debit and it will be deducted from the owner's payout. This management commission is a result of your property management commission formulas. You can learn more about setting up your management commission in this article.
Transactions Marked "To Owner"
In addition to booking financials, any transaction categorized, attached to an owner and most importantly, marked "to owner" will be displayed on the owner statement and included in the calculation of the owner's payout. Please note, that in most cases, only expenses that you want to deduct from the owner's payout should be marked "to owner" to add them in the statement. For example, if you purchased supplies and want to deduct the amount from the owner's payout, you need to mark the transaction "to owner" (in your Transactions section). It also needs to be categorized and attached to an owner.
Resolution Payouts Marked "To Owner"
You might have resolution payouts for previous bookings for which you either collected additional revenue from guests or had to refund them. These can be tracked under the "Resolution payouts" tab in the Bookings section. For Airbnb, you can use the Clearing Chrome Extension to bring them over or you can manually add any resolution payout. The "amount to owner" field will be used to include them in the owner statement.
IMPORTANT: You can customize the information displayed about each booking by clicking on Settings and reviewing the list of checkbox. For example, you can hide guest names and/or the name of the channel.
IMPORTANT: Do not mark "to owner" the bank deposit from channels from the Transaction section. The bookings revenue is already accounted using the booking data.
Aggregating Financials In The Statement
Summary By Booking
By default, the statement will include the most granular breakdown, by asset and by booking. You can uncheck the box "Summary by booking" to remove this summary.
Summary By Category
You can aggregate the financials by category in a separate section on the owner statement. Click "Show summary by category" to include it.
Summary By Asset & Category
You can aggregate the financials by asset and category in a separate section on the owner statement. Click "Show summary by asset and category" to include it.
Step 6: Add A Custom Text On The Statement (Optional)
You have the option to include a text on the owner statement. This can be a note to the owner or anything you want to share with them. Check the box "Add custom text" to do so.
Step 7: Add An Expense On The Owner Statement
If you need to add a new expense on the owner statement, you can do that by clicking on “Add transaction” button located just above the statement. This can be any expense that wasn't already recorded in your main list of transactions in the Transaction section. For example, if you purchased supplies in cash or want to charge your owner for additional services you provided.
After that, you will need to provide the required details to add the transaction to your owner statement. In particular, you want to make sure to attach a category, owner and make the accounting option "to owner".
Step 8: Customize Statements With Your Own Branding
Click on Settings and then Customize statements. You can update the background colour, the colour of the text and the colour of the horizontal lines. This is the perfect way to brand your statements with your own colours.
Step 9: Save The Statement
Once you are done reviewing a statement, click on "Save this statement" to create a PDF version of the statement that you can download and share by email.
Step 10: Share The Owner Statement
Once a statement is saved, you can send it by email to your owner. Simply select the statement and click on "Actions on statements". Then click on "Send this selection". From here, you will find a popup to confirm the details of the email. You can add your self as cc and any other emails.
Note that if you added receipts on transactions included in the statement, you have the option to send them in your email as well. They will be included with an hyperlink in the email.
You can customize the default body of the email sent to owners. Simply click on Settings, then Customize statement. There, you will find a section to enter your desired body.
Step 11: Pay The Owner Statement
Simply select the statement and click on "Actions on statements". Then click "Pay this selection". This option will open the payment popup to generate a payment of the net amount owned to the owner. You can also review the statement directly on the payment's page.
This option is only available for US users with a verified business by our bank partner.
Step 12: Publish The Statement On the Owner's Portal
If you have invited your owner to your Clearing organization (see this detailed article for how to invite owners), you can then publish statements on their portal. Only the PDF version will be shared. You need to check the box "Published" for them to access the statement. To invite owners, please go to settings -> Team -> Invite a new member and select Homeowner as the role.
If you included receipts on the statements, your owners will be able to access them in their portal as well. You can turn off this option by clicking on the owner, then scroll down to owner portal settings and check "Hide receipts".
Published statements are also available on the mobile app!
See how effortless it is to enhance homeowner updates and financial transparency?
Don't delay!
Get in touch with us for a free personalized demo and delve deeper into Clearing's capability of generating owner statements for your Short-Term Rental business. Explore how Clearing can redefine your approach to financial transparency.
Also, don't miss out on our insightful knowledge articles, where you'll find the latest tutorials to seamlessly automate your financial management, bookkeeping, and Trust Accounting operations.
Clearing operates as a Financial Technology Company, and it is not a bank. Deposit Accounts are issued by Evolve Bank & Trust, a Member FDIC.