Best Accounting Software for Airbnb and Short-term Vacation Rentals

Wave Accounting markets itself as “accounting software net sales that works as hard as you do.” It’s easy, free, and intuitive software, and users can get started in seconds. The amazing thing about Instabooks is that it’s totally free accounting software for United States small businesses. It has numerous features and tools, such as invoicing, a sales tax calculator, payments, an expense tracker, a bill manager, bank reconciliation, financial reporting, and more.

before and after tax

Airbnb will send Form 1099-K to hosts with more than 200 reservations or earn over $20,000 in a calendar year. If Airbnb expenses exceed your income, this is considered a “loss.” Airbnb hosts typically can’t take a loss on passive income. In certain situations, a loss can be deducted from future rental income. Putting them in the right categories for each property is how you will save time when filling out tax forms. Hosts can write off all or a portion of indirect expenses from rental property income. The amount depends on what part of your home is used for rental purposes and how long it’s occupied.

Xero: Most user-friendly software

First, vacation rental owners must open a bank account that is specifically for their vacation rental business. Trying to keep vacation rental transactions separate from personal transactions within a single bank account can be quite a challenge. Bookkeeping and accounting are essential parts of any business, and the vacation rental industry is no different!

Cash Accounting Vs Accrual Accounting

Vacation rental owners may want to consider hiring an accountant to take care of the business’s finances. This might not be an option for every vacation rental host since keeping an accountant on retainer is a notable expense. Still, those who have larger vacation rental businesses or aim to scale their businesses can absolutely benefit from hiring a skilled accountant to keep their finances in order. You can connect your Hospitable account with an account with any of these platforms. We will feed all your booking data directly to vacation rental accounting software to automate your bookkeeping and accounting. Put simply, Airbnb accounting is about recording income and expenses related to your short-term rental property.

This means you can outsource your Airbnb accounting completely to Ximplifi if you want to. It’s time-consuming to manually record and keep on top of income and expenses. Using Airbnb accounting software saves you precious time and helps reduce mistakes caused by human error, which are always possible. Automation is key to scaling your business and giving you back more time to focus on running your business.

Step-by-Step guide on filing taxes for Airbnb

With FreshBooks, managing your Airbnb accounting becomes a breeze, not a chore. Integrations save a lot of time that you’d normally waste on switching between different dashboards or tabs. Instead of having your data scattered over different systems, you can set automated workflows or centralize your data in a single system. Check if your potential accounting bookkeeping for airbnb software integrates with a PMS like Hostfully or is supported by Zapier.

• The average Airbnb host isn’t an accountant, and they need an intuitive piece of software that will help make their rental the best Airbnb possible.
• In the end, you should think in terms of streamlining certain parts of your workflow, and automating manual or repetitive tasks by leveraging integrations with a PMP like Hostfully.
• If you didn’t receive an email don’t forgot to check your spam folder, otherwise contact support.
• Hosts hoping to select the best accounting software for Airbnb have come to the right place.
• But fear not, because technology has an answer – Airbnb accounting software.
• Xero’s strength lies in its ability to provide a wealth of data at your fingertips.

• While Quickbooks Online is great for general Airbnb accounting, it’s not designed for rental property management.
• Airbnb doesn’t subtract host fees in their 1099-K filings from the IRS.
• If Airbnb expenses exceed your income, this is considered a “loss.” Airbnb hosts typically can’t take a loss on passive income.
• It lets you automate manual or repetitive tasks and gives you back more time to focus on running your business.
• Let’s be honest, you got into short-term rentals to earn some extra cash, not to spend hours filling in spreadsheets and chasing down receipts.
• Some PMP software like Hostfully offers helpful tools to export data to the integrated accounting software.

Vacation rental accounting software is a specialized tool designed to help property owners and managers efficiently manage their financial transactions and recordkeeping related to vacation rentals. It automates tasks like income and expense tracking, tax calculations, and financial reporting. To track Airbnb income and expenses, start by setting up a dedicated bank account for your rental property transactions. Record all income and expenses, including platform fees, cleaning, maintenance and utilities.

• Its vast array of features, integrations, and pricing plans tailored to meet the needs of vacation rental property businesses of all sizes sets it apart.
• However, let’s be honest, the chances are that you’re significantly less excited about paying tax on that hard-earned Airbnb revenue.
• The system determines which taxes are applicable based on the listing address.
• It starts at $32 per month for the first two listings and goes up to $711 a month for 99 listings.
• Experts from Keystone CPA Amanda Han and Matt MacFarland shared their insights on correctly filing tax returns for short-term rentals to ensure you’re not overpaying.

Rental Fees

Of course, you need to choose a tool that fits your budget, but don’t get hung up on pricing alone. Get a consolidated ledger of all transactions categorized by property and Schedule E category. You can rent all or part of your home for less than 14 days in a year and collect rent payments tax-free. This rule is called the “Masters Exemption.” The IRS refers to it as Section 208 (a), which allows a tax break for minimal use of a dwelling space.

Overall Thoughts on Intuit Quickbooks

Luckily, you don’t have to be an accounting expert to handle bookkeeping and accounting for your STR business. Quickbooks provides small business owners with the option of four different pricing plans. The most basic plan, Simple Start, is only $12 a month and provides most small businesses with all the accounting and bookkeeping tools necessary to run a successful business. Hostaway is an easy-to-use all-encompassing property management program.