Accounting through your PMS is a little like that Industry SuperFunds ad that entered our collective, Australian minds. We all know it, have heard it or even referenced it in our daily lives—the one that goes ‘same age, same income, same super contribution … the difference?’
We know that no property management company was born equal to another, but in our experience, they all have the same pain points and dread for their end-of-month accounting. Let us take Bob as an example; Bob owns the professional property management company BNB X. He currently does not utilize Accounting via his property management software and is getting asked questions every month from his owners about potential errors, bookings, and expenses owner statements.
Bob often has requests from owners to also resend the statements come tax time. At the top of each new month, Bob spends a good few hours accommodating these requests alone.
See, Bob is currently double entering his data from his property management software (PMS) into his accounting solution, or if he’s time-poor and resources-rich, he has an accountant on call to do this for him. He opts to try and do it himself to save some money, but a lot of the time, this does take him a while and results in a choir of owner complaints, and their confidence in BNB X plummeting. All of this is happening while Bob is trying to grow his business. Losing this trust reduces his word-of-mouth referrals, forcing him to spend a lot more budget on marketing and sales to recruit more properties to add to his portfolio, reach his quarterly goals, and ultimately (maybe) take a trip of his own.
Bob has to juggle quite a few tasks, including the worrisome job of making sure he complies with his local country and state accounting regulations. If he doesn’t do this, he knows that he will have a hefty fee to deal with if he did get audited. It is a literal money pond for Bob, and he finds himself drowning in it with no good solution for his problems.
This is where the advert analogy comes along. Susan is the owner of BNB Y; she currently automates everything from her property management software to her accounting solution.
Susan can no longer remember a time when she didn’t do this. In fact, she has forgotten all about it and is busy scaling her business from all the referrals she is getting. She even recently achieved Superhost status on Airbnb for the first time! Her owners are mostly quiet come end of month.
Her refocused attention knowing that all information flows automatically from the PMS to her accounting solution with minimal to no effort, allows her to make her guest experience airtight, hire more communication managers, and grow with more properties under her belt.
Susan also got audited last financial year and passed the audit with flying colors. Way to go her! I think Bob would be fascinated to see how well Susan is doing with her accounting!
If you find yourself resonating with Bob a little more, we definitely recommend checking out OTA+ in our Guesty Marketplace, which can help start you on Susan’s pathway and ultimately focus on the reason you started this business in the first place.
Frosina Moore is a Senior Customer Success Manager based in Guesty’s Sydney, Australia offices.
