🎥 Video: Clearing and QuickBooks Integration

Clearing handles your trust account and QuickBooks handles your management company. This guide shows what each one does, which accounts to connect where, and how to send the details of what your management company earned from Clearing to QuickBooks each month.

Note: This guide is for general information only. Review the trust accounting rules in your state, and check with your accountant or CPA, who may handle some of these steps differently.

How Clearing and QuickBooks Work Together

The two tools answer different questions:

Clearing is for your trust account. It shows how much you owe each homeowner, builds owner and management statements, matches what you expect for every booking against what is in the bank, and pays owners, vendors, and your management company.
QuickBooks is for your management company. It holds your operating account, your balance sheet, and your P&L. It isn't built for short-term rentals and doesn't handle trust accounting on its own.

Clearing connects to your PMS, bank accounts, and credit cards to track your finances at the most granular level. It then sends QuickBooks the detail it needs, so you don't have to calculate it in a spreadsheet and enter it by hand.

Which Accounts to Connect Where

The ideal bank setup is two accounts: one operating account for business expenses, where you collect your management fees and other income, and one trust account that collects booking revenue.

In Clearing: connect your trust account, your PMS, your payment processor, and your booking channels. Connect credit cards only if they are used for reimbursable expenses.
Not in Clearing: your operating account. It holds your management company's own expenses, which don't belong on owner or management statements.
In QuickBooks: your operating account, your management company credit cards, and any expense tool you use.
Optional in QuickBooks: your trust account. Connect it only if your accountant requires it. See Option 2 below.

Reimbursable expenses can reach Clearing from QuickBooks (via billable charges), from a task or inventory app, from a credit card or processor like Ramp, or by adding them in Clearing yourself.

A Monthly Example

Say $2,000 from your channels lands in your trust account this month. Clearing shows how it breaks down: $1,200 to homeowners, $400 to management, $200 to cleaners, and $200 left in trust for future reservations (advance deposits).

QuickBooks only knows a $400 transfer arrived in your operating account. A transfer alone doesn't show up in your P&L, because QuickBooks doesn't know how much of the $400 was management commission and how much was cleaning fees or other income. That breakdown is what you send from Clearing.

Find What Your Management Company Earned

Go to Reporting, open the Allocation Report, select Management, and choose your dates. The report breaks down, by category, everything marked To Management, such as:

Booking financials you keep, like cleaning fees or damage waivers
Management commission and markups on expenses
Resolution payouts that go to management
Reimbursable expenses you are owed back
Deductible transactions, which are amounts you deduct from the owner's payout

Payments to vendors, like cleaners, that come out of the trust account and are billed to the owner aren't included, because they are paid with owner funds.

Now send this breakdown to QuickBooks. Open the sections below, starting with Default Settings, since every option depends on it. Then choose the invoice or the journal entry based on whether your trust account is connected to QuickBooks. If you would rather push individual transactions than a monthly summary, use Option 3.

Set Up and Sync

Step 1: Default Settings and Mapping (Do This First)

The mapping window tells Clearing which QuickBooks account, item, class, and customer to use whenever you push to QuickBooks. Set it up before your first sync, and change it any time.

Open the Mapping Window

You can open it from anywhere in Clearing where you can sync with QuickBooks, or from your settings:

Go to Settings, then Integrations, then Accounting.
Open QuickBooks and click Manage QuickBooks connection.
Click Map Clearing to QuickBooks.

The window has three tabs: Default settings, By asset, and By category.

Tip: If you add an item, account, class, or location in QuickBooks, click Refresh QuickBooks connection at the top right of the window so it shows up in your lists.

Default Settings

Use this tab to set defaults for each type of amount on your management journal entry or invoice: Management commission, Reimbursable expenses, Markup on expenses, Deductible transactions, and Resolution payouts. For each type, you choose:

Default chart of account: the QuickBooks account used for this type. Only required when you push journal entries.
Default item: the QuickBooks item (product) used for this type. Only required when you push invoices. You can create items in QuickBooks under Sales, then Products and services, and map each one to an income or expense account so it shows in your P&L.
Default aggregation level: how Clearing totals the amount. Default account/item puts it on one line. By Asset uses one line per asset, with its class. Some types also offer By Category and By Asset & Category.
Include by default: whether the type is on the journal entry or invoice automatically. You can still decide each time you push.

Booking financials and Transactions don't have a single default account or item. They are always totaled by category, and each category's account is set on the By category tab. For these two, you choose only the aggregation level (By Category or By Asset & Category) and whether to include them by default.

Main transfer amount: Choose the account for the overall transfer from your trust account to your operating account. This line balances the debits and credits in a journal entry, and you match it with the actual bank transfer.

Default invoice settings: Choose the default customer for your management invoice, and the default due date. Enter the number of days between the date you send the invoice and the date you want it paid. Clearing recommends 15 days.

By Asset

Map each Clearing asset to a QuickBooks class. You can also choose a QuickBooks location, which is currently used only for the management journal entry. Use Filter assets without a Class to find assets you haven't mapped yet. When you're done, click Apply mapping at the top of the section to save your updates. Click Refresh QB Classes or Refresh QB Locations after adding new ones in QuickBooks.

By Category

Map each Clearing category to QuickBooks. There is a column for each way you sync, so fill in the one you use:

QBO Account for pushing individual transactions
QBO Account for the management journal entry
QBO Item for the management invoice

To find gaps, use the filters for categories without a QuickBooks account for syncing transactions, or without one for the management journal entry. When you're done, click Apply mapping at the top of the section to save your updates and apply them to data you've already synced. Click Refresh QB Accounts after adding accounts in QuickBooks, and the plus sign next to Category to add a new Clearing category.

Option 1: Push a Management Invoice

Clearing creates an invoice in QuickBooks for what you earned, with one line per category. When the transfer from your trust account arrives in your operating account, you apply it to the invoice and mark it paid.

Before you sync: Set up your QuickBooks integration and mapping first. The instructions are in Step 1: Default Settings and Mapping above. Your invoice won't map correctly until your default items, classes, and categories are set.

Step 1: Map Your Categories and Assets

Booking financials and transactions don't share a single product, because you don't want cleaning fees and damage waivers on the same one. Map each Clearing category to a QuickBooks product, and each asset to a QuickBooks class. You only do this once. See Step 1: Default Settings and Mapping for how to open the mapping window and what each setting does.

Note: The category mapping has three columns. Map each Clearing category in the column that matches how you are syncing to QuickBooks:

QBO Account for pushing individual transactions
QBO Account for the management journal entry
QBO Item for the management invoice

Need a new product? In QuickBooks, go to Sales, then Products and services, create the product (for example, a service called "Management Commission"), and choose its income account. Then click Refresh QuickBooks connection in the mapping window so the product shows up in the list.

Step 2: Open the Export

From the Management Allocation Report, click Export to QBO and choose Invoice. Choose which types to include, such as management commission. You can send separate invoices if you want, or send them at different times.

In the invoice settings, set your defaults for each type:

The product to use, such as "Management Commission."
Whether to total the amount in one line, or break it out by asset, which becomes a class in QuickBooks with one line per class.
Whether the type is included by default when you push.

Step 3: Choose a Customer and Due Date

An invoice needs a customer. Create a default customer in QuickBooks, such as "Trust Account," and select it here. Then choose how many days from the push date the invoice is due. For example, if you push on the 10th and choose 15 days, it is due on the 25th. You can change the due date in QuickBooks later. You can also set both once as your defaults under Step 1: Default Settings and Mapping.

Step 4: Confirm

Click Confirm to send the invoice to QuickBooks. If you need to change it, see the FAQ below on re-syncing.

Step 5: Review the Invoice in QuickBooks

In QuickBooks, click the magnifying glass and open the recent invoice. The total is exactly what you earned, and the lines match what you saw in Clearing, with the product on each line. If you broke it out by asset, each line also shows its class.

Step 6: Match the Transfer to the Invoice

When the transfer from your trust account shows up in your QuickBooks bank feed, match it to the invoice and apply the payment. You can apply more than one transfer to the same invoice, and it is marked paid once the full amount is applied.

Option 2: Push a Journal Entry

If your trust account is connected in QuickBooks, you have real transactions to categorize there. One common approach, which you should confirm with your accountant, is to treat everything that enters the trust account as a trust liability, since you owe that money to someone.

Before you sync: Set up your QuickBooks integration and mapping first. The instructions are in Step 1: Default Settings and Mapping above. Your journal entry won't map correctly until your default accounts, classes, categories, and main transfer amount are set.

How the Liability Works

Using the example above:

The $2,000 deposit is recorded as a $2,000 credit to a trust liability account.
The $1,200 payment to the owner and the $200 payment to cleaners are each a debit to that same account (or a sub-account), reducing the liability to $600.
The $400 moved to your operating account needs to reduce the liability too, but it also needs to record what you earned by category.

A journal entry does both. It puts each category in its own account, and adds a $400 balancing debit to the trust liability account. The liability then falls to $200, the amount held for future reservations.

Step 1: Open the Export

From the Management Allocation Report, click Export to QBO and choose Journal Entry instead of Invoice.

Step 2: Review and Confirm

Review the lines, then click Confirm. Clearing creates a journal entry in QuickBooks with every category on its own line. Journal entries use your chart of accounts directly, so there are no products to set up. If you break the amounts out by asset, each line also carries its class.

The balancing line uses the account you chose under Main transfer amount in the mapping settings. You then match that line with the actual bank transfer. See Step 1: Default Settings and Mapping. If you need to change a journal entry after it's synced, see the FAQ below on re-syncing.

Option 3: Sync Transactions

Options 1 and 2 send a monthly summary of what your management company earned. Option 3 pushes individual transactions instead, one at a time or in bulk. Use it when you want specific transactions in QuickBooks, such as a bank deposit that was split into sub-transactions.

🎥 Videos: Bulk sync with QuickBooks and Understanding transactions

Before you sync: Set up your QuickBooks integration and mapping first. The instructions are in Step 1: Default Settings and Mapping above. For this option, fill in the QBO Account for pushing individual transactions column on the By category tab.

Step 1: Open Bulk Sync

On the Transactions tab, click the three lines on the far left, then click Bulk sync to QuickBooks. Clearing shows all of your transactions for the time period you choose, and you can select the ones you want to send.

Step 2: Tie a QuickBooks Account to Each Transaction

QuickBooks requires an account on every transaction, so each transaction you push needs a QuickBooks account tied to it. There are two ways to do that:

Automatically with your QuickBooks mapping: On the By category tab of the mapping window, map each Clearing category to an account from your QuickBooks chart of accounts. On the By asset tab, map each Clearing asset to a QuickBooks class. These mappings live in the QuickBooks mapping settings, not the Rules tab in Clearing. See Step 1: Default Settings and Mapping.
Manually: Change the QuickBooks account on a transaction right in the list.

Make sure each transaction maps to the right account in your chart of accounts before you push it.

Step 3: Select and Push

Select a transaction, or select several at once, and click Push to QuickBooks.

Step 4: Sync Transactions With Sub-Transactions

Some transactions are split into sub-transactions, such as an OTA deposit split by reservation and asset. For these, the parent transaction and every sub-transaction need a QuickBooks account tied to them before you can select the transaction. Clearing then pushes the whole thing as one journal entry. Each line can map to its own class and account, depending on the asset and category. In QuickBooks, you match that journal entry with the deposit in your bank account.

Step 5: Check Your Synced Transactions

Once transactions are pushed, they move to the Already synced tab, along with the date each one was synced.

Frequently Asked Questions

I made a change and need to re-sync my invoice or journal entry. What do I do?

Delete the invoice or journal entry in QuickBooks first, then sync again from Clearing. Syncing again from Clearing does not override the first one. It creates a new one, so if you skip the delete, you will have two.

Should I push an invoice or a journal entry?

Both are available from the same export. Use an invoice if your trust account is not connected to QuickBooks. Use a journal entry if it is, or if you prefer not to maintain products and invoices. Your accountant can tell you which fits your books. If you want individual transactions in QuickBooks instead of a monthly summary, use Option 3.

Should trust deposits be recorded as income or as a liability in QuickBooks?

This depends on your accountant. Option 2 treats trust deposits as a liability and reduces it as you pay out. Some management companies instead recognize trust income as their own, record all rental income under one account, and treat payments to owners as an expense. In both cases, the details by channel, asset, and owner stay in Clearing, and you can still push the monthly invoice or journal entry.

How do I map Clearing categories to my QuickBooks chart of accounts?

Use the By category tab in the QuickBooks mapping window. Map each Clearing category to an account from your QuickBooks chart of accounts. See Step 1: Default Settings and Mapping.

How do I map my assets to QuickBooks classes?

Use the By asset tab in the QuickBooks mapping window. Link each Clearing asset to a class in your QuickBooks account so your data maps correctly when you push from Clearing. See Step 1: Default Settings and Mapping.

I created a new product in QuickBooks, but I don't see it in Clearing. What do I do?

Open the mapping window and click Refresh QuickBooks connection. The new product then appears in the list.

What do PMC, PMS, and reconciliation mean?

PMC: Property Management Company, meaning the short-term rental host or operator.
PMS: The Property Management Software used by the PMC.
Booking revenue reconciliation: Matching each reservation's expected payout with the actual bank deposit, so you know funds have arrived before paying owners. It also tracks funds received for future reservations.
Bank account reconciliation: Matching a bank account's transactions to its statement, by comparing the starting balance, ending balance, and total transactions, to confirm everything was captured for the period.
Trust accounting: Allocating each category of transaction, such as cleaning fees, to the management company, the owner, or pass-through.

🙋 Need more help?

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Clearing is a Financial Technology Company, not a bank.

How to Use Clearing and QuickBooks Together