We understand you may have some questions. If you don’t see your question below, please contact us and ask away.
BookingTrust ensures compliance with accounting regulations for short-term holiday accommodation and owner room hotels through several key features and practices:
1. The software is specifically designed to comply with Australian and New Zealand accounting regulations, having passed numerous audits in these countries.
2. It maintains a clear separation between trust/host accounts and operational funds, which is a crucial aspect of trust accounting compliance.
3. BookingTrust automates the calculation of monthly fees, charges, and their distribution, ensuring accurate and timely financial management.
4. The platform provides detailed record-keeping capabilities, automatically pulling booking and payment information from Property Management Systems (PMS) and payment gateways.
5. It enables regular reconciliation by syncing data daily and allowing manual syncing at any time, which helps in identifying and rectifying discrepancies promptly[3].
6. The software generates comprehensive reports, including trial balances, monthly revenue, and management income breakdowns, which are essential for compliance and auditing purposes.
7. BookingTrust handles complex fee structures, including global and property-specific fee configurations, ensuring accurate allocation and transparency in financial transactions
8. The platform tracks security deposits and additional charges, maintaining clear records of all transactions related to each booking.
9. It provides detailed owner statements with transparent fee breakdowns, promoting accountability and clarity in financial reporting.
By incorporating these features and adhering to strict accounting principles, BookingTrust helps property managers maintain compliance with relevant regulations while streamlining their financial management processes.
This is where you don’t have any legislative requirements to be audited each year, and you don’t have to produce 3-Way or Trial Balance reports. However, all the accounting requirements are still valid, you are looking after other people's money, so every cent needs to be accounted for on a daily or monthly basis. We like to call this ‘Compliance Accounting’, where the property manager is committed to ensuring that all funds are correctly accounted for.
So no matter whether you run a Trust or a Host account, BookingTrust is the only accounting software that directly interfaces to your Property Management Systems (PMS) and is specifically designed for only short term accommodation providers.
This is a bank account that is used exclusively for money received or held by a real estate agent for or on behalf of another person in relation to a real estate transaction and is not to be used to hold monies for any other purpose. In some states of Australia and the US, this is legislated and yearly audits are conducted to ensure that every Property Manager adheres to correct accounting practises. The software used for these businesses must be compliant in order to pass the year audit. (Yes, BookingTrust is compliant).
A trust account must be reconciled to the bank account and every cent accounted for and logged. A trial balance is required, as well a 3-way balance report at the end of each month. There is complete onus on the property manager to ensure that every cent is accounted for and at the end of each month, the owners are paid and the management fees transferred to the ‘Trading account’. There is no business operating money in the Trust account, it is only owner money. Each owner effectively has their own account and all the accounts are reconciled against the daily bank account total.
No,you just need a separate business account and either a Trust or a Host account is required to use our software.
Yes, you can just use the Software. In this case you will still have to do all your own data entry, bank reconciliations, etc.
PMS stands for Property Management Systems, such as NEwBook, Guesty, Hostify, YesBookit, 365 Villas, Uplisting, Hostaway, MrVr and more.
Familiarity with Trust Accounting regulations is important if you're in a regulated state, otherwise basic property accounting is a big advantage. We have qualified property accountants to help out if you're still starting out and need to be shown the ropes.
Yes, BookingTrust can automate the calculation of monthly fees. The software automatically calculates all monthly fees, charges, and their distribution at the end of each month[1]. This automation allows for easy management of complex fee structures, ensuring accurate and timely financial processing for short-term holiday accommodation and owner room hotels[1][3].
Key aspects of BookingTrust's fee automation include:
1. Automatic calculation of fees and charges at month-end
2. Handling of complex fee structures with global and property-specific configurations
3. Integration with Property Management Systems (PMS) for seamless data flow
4. Ability to set up various fee types, including percentages of income, flat fees per booking, room night, or per person[1]
This automated approach to fee calculation saves time, reduces errors, and ensures transparency in financial management for property managers and owners[3].
Yes, BookingTrust can automate the calculation of monthly fees. The software automatically calculates all monthly fees, charges, and their distribution at the end of each month[1]. This automation allows for easy management of complex fee structures, ensuring accurate and timely financial processing for short-term holiday accommodation and owner room hotels[1][3].
Key aspects of BookingTrust's fee automation include:
1. Automatic calculation of fees and charges at month-end
2. Handling of complex fee structures with global and property-specific configurations
3. Integration with Property Management Systems (PMS) for seamless data flow
4. Ability to set up various fee types, including percentages of income, flat fees per booking, room night, or per person
This automated approach to fee calculation saves time, reduces errors, and ensures transparency in financial management for property managers and owners
If you are a current client you can either use our Technical Assistance feature to get in touch with your query, you can email support, use our direct chat box or the direct phone number provided by our staff.