QuickBooks for Airbnb Listings: Investment Property Accounting

Airbnb Quickbooks Templates
Investment Property Featured Image

Who should read this guide?

This guide is written for owners of one or more investment properties listed on Airbnb who manage their accounting in QuickBooks. An investment property on Airbnb is a business model in which an operator purchases one or more properties and lists them on Airbnb with the goal of building equity far more quickly than through traditional long-term rentals. This model performs best in markets where short-term rental income significantly exceeds local long-term rental rates.

Because of this, your accounting decisions matter. Staying attentive to your financials can make a substantial difference in the performance and long-term success of your operation.

In this guide, we’ll focus on how to properly account for all income received from Airbnb from an investor’s perspective, along with how to automate your Airbnb revenue accounting using QuickBooks.

NOTE: This guide only covers Airbnb revenue accounting, not costs. For a guide about Airbnb costs and chart of accounts to consider, check out this guide instead: Accounting for Costs to Operate Airbnb Listings: Best Chart of Accounts

SKIP TO TEMPLATE

Table of Contents

Here’s what you’ll get from this guide:

  1. QuickBooks Chart of Accounts Template for Investment Properties on Airbnb
  2. How to Automate Accounting for Airbnb Listings
  3. Execute Common Transaction Workflows in QuickBooks
  4. Generate Monthly Reports in QuickBooks

Cash Flow Diagram

Airbnb Investment Cash Flow Diagram

Who should not read this guide?

There are other business models that may be more suitable in your particular scenario, which are covered better in the following guides:

QuickBooks Chart of Accounts Template for Investment Properties on Airbnb

Here we’ll describe our QuickBooks chart of accounts template for Airbnb income in great detail:

Account Codes

No. AccountType
24000Rental LiabilityLiability
24200Rental Liability: Airbnb Custom Taxes PayableLiability
42000Rental RevenueRevenue
42100Rental Revenue: Airbnb Income – Accommodation FareRevenue
42200Rental Revenue: Airbnb Income – Cleaning FeeRevenue
42300Rental Revenue: Airbnb Income – Resolution AdjustmentRevenue
42400Rental Revenue: Airbnb Refund – Accommodation FareRevenue
42500Rental Revenue: Airbnb Refund – Cleaning FeeRevenue
42600Rental Revenue: Airbnb Refund – Resolution AdjustmentRevenue
51000Rental CostsCost of Service
51100Rental Costs: Airbnb Service FeeCost of Service
61100Airbnb Tax WithholdingsExpense
IMPORT TEMPLATE

NOTE: In this guide, we only cover income accounting, not costs. For a guide about Airbnb costs and chart of accounts to consider, check out this guide instead: Accounting for Costs to Operate Airbnb Listings: Best Chart of Accounts

Detailed Explanation of Accounts

Click to expand and learn more about any particular account type.

Rental Liability

24000 – Rental Liability – This is a parent account with child accounts that account for rental liabilities.

24200 – Rental Liability: Airbnb Custom Taxes Payable – This represents all Custom Taxes collected from Airbnb and payable to a tax authority.

Rental Revenue

42000 – Rental Revenue – This is a parent account with child accounts that account for rental revenue.

42100 – Rental Revenue: Airbnb Income – Accommodation Fare – This account tracks the accommodation fare portion of each Airbnb reservation. The accommodation fare is equal to the number of nights multiplied by the average nightly rate of each reservation.

42200 – Rental Revenue: Airbnb Income – Cleaning Fee – This account tracks the cleaning fee portion of each Airbnb reservation.

42300 – Rental Revenue: Airbnb Income – Resolution Adjustment – This account tracks any resolution adjustments collected from Airbnb.

42400 – Rental Revenue:Airbnb Refund – Accommodation Fare – This account tracks accommodation fare refunds executed by Airbnb.

42500 – Rental Revenue: Airbnb Refund – Cleaning Fee – This account tracks cleaning fee refunds executed by Airbnb.

42600 – Rental Revenue: Airbnb Refund – Resolution Adjustment – This account tracks resolution adjustment refunds executed by Airbnb.

Rental Costs

51000 – Rental Costs – This is a parent account with child accounts that account for rental costs.

51100 – Rental Costs: Airbnb Service Fee – This account tracks service fee costs from Airbnb for each reservation, which is subtracted from the income.

61100 – Airbnb Tax Withholdings – This account tracks any taxes withheld by Airbnb for income tax obligations. This is very rare and usually due to the Airbnb account holder lacking tax identification information. Ideally, this account should not contain any balance and is seldom (if ever) used. To avoid income tax withholdings from Airbnb, be sure to update your Airbnb account with your tax identification information and verify your account.

Accounts not included in this template

For the scope of this guide, we’re mainly focused on Airbnb revenue recognition. It is important to point out that our template does not include many general accounts. We also make reference to some accounts not included in this particular template, which we’ll list here:

  • 11000 – Airbnb Payment Clearing Account – This account is created by Tallybreeze but is not included in this template in particular. This account is used to apply payments to Airbnb invoices upon the day the Airbnb reservation payout is posted. Payouts can take 3-5 days (or longer) to arrive in the bank account after posted from Airbnb. Monies owed are held in this clearing account until the payouts are received in the bank. This account also helps to automate the reconciliation process in QuickBooks.
  • 1XXXX – Operations Bank Account – This is your business operations bank account set up with your financial institution. It’s a cash asset account to facilitate your day-to-day business operations.
  • 2XXXX – Mortgage Principal – This account is a long-term liability account used to track the mortgage loan principal owed.
  • 7XXXX – Mortgage Interest – This account is an expense account and is used to track the interest payments of the mortgage loan.

Quick Setup Steps

Here’s how to import the above chart of accounts template. The chart of accounts discussed in this article can be imported into QuickBooks automatically using Tallybreeze setup tools. Here’s how to access this utility…

  1. If you haven’t already, Sign Up to Tallybreeze. It includes free use of this template.
  2. Once registered, go to the Connections manager in Tallybreeze. Connect your Airbnb account, connect your QuickBooks Online account and then create a connection between the two.
  3. Within the Connection settings, select “Set Up QuickBooks”
  4. Select your business model from the drop-down list at the top and select “Import Template to QuickBooks”.
SET UP QUICKBOOKS

How to Automate Accounting for Airbnb Listings

Airbnb can become a significant source of revenue for property investors. And with Tallybreeze, automating the reconciliation of your Airbnb reservations in QuickBooks has never been easier. In the following section, we’ll walk through how to automate revenue accounting for investment properties on Airbnb, including how to set up your chart of accounts and configure your presets.

Tallybreeze Listing Presets

The Tallybreeze team has built an easy-to-use interface that simplifies managing your Airbnb listings. Once connected to QuickBooks, the system guides you through creating accounting rules for each property, allowing you to optimize your setup quickly and efficiently.

Airbnb Investing Accounting Automation Tallybreeze Presets

Explanation of Preset Lines

In this business model, everything collected through Airbnb belongs to you. This includes the accommodation fare, cleaning fees, Airbnb’s service fee (deducted), resolution adjustments, optional custom taxes, and any applicable tax withholdings.

Airbnb Price Item%Account
Accommodation Fare100%42100 – Rental Revenue: Airbnb Income – Accommodation Fare
Cleaning Fee100%42200 – Rental Revenue: Airbnb Income – Cleaning Fee
Airbnb Service Fee100%51100 – Rental Costs: Airbnb Service Fee
Resolution Adjustment100%42300 – Rental Revenue: Airbnb Income – Resolution Adjustment
Custom Taxes100%24200 – Rental Liability: Airbnb Custom Taxes Payable
Tax Withholdings100%61100 – Airbnb Tax Withholdings
Example Reservation

Let’s assume you’ve set up Tallybreeze for this listing using the preset settings above. Now, imagine Airbnb issues a payout for a current reservation with the following itinerary price items:

  • Accommodation Fare: $2000
  • Cleaning Fee: $300
  • Airbnb Service Fee: -$60
  • Airbnb Transient Occupancy Taxes: $200
  • Reservation Total: $2440

Tallybreeze records all income received from Airbnb, separating each price item individually. The total amount to be received by Airbnb for this reservation is $2,440, which is posted to the Airbnb Payment Clearing Account. This amount will later be reconciled against the corresponding bank deposit.

AccountDebitCredit
42100 – Rental Revenue: Airbnb Income – Accommodation Fare$2000
42200 – Rental Revenue: Airbnb Income – Cleaning Fee$300
51100 – Rental Costs: Airbnb Service Fee$60
24200 – Rental Liability: Airbnb Custom Taxes Payable$200
11000 – Airbnb Payment Clearing Account (Asset)$2440

When the reservation payout is deposited into your Operations Bank Account (typically 3–5 days later), a bank rule in QuickBooks can automatically match and reconcile the amount to the Airbnb Payment Clearing Account:

AccountDebitCredit
1XXXX – Operations Bank Account$2440
11000 – Airbnb Payment Clearing Account (Asset)$2440

Set Invoice Customer & Class Categories

Finally, consider setting up a general customer (e.g., “Airbnb Guests”) within your Tallybreeze listing rules. If you prefer, you can instead assign the individual guest as the customer to store guest information directly in QuickBooks.

It’s also helpful to categorize each line item using a class such as “Investment: .” To do this, create two class categories in QuickBooks for the listing: one parent class named “Investment” and a sub-class for the specific property address. See the example below:

Airbnb Investing QuickBooks Class Categories

Automate Additional Bills & Invoices (Optional)

With Tallybreeze, you’re also able to automate the creation of additional bills and invoices for each reservation. Consider the following:

  • Create a bill to set amounts payable to a tax authority for each reservation.
  • Create a bill to set amounts payable to a cleaning service for turnover of each reservation.
  • Create additional invoice to set amounts receivable by any third party for each reservation.

Quick Setup Steps

All of the above settings can be quickly set up using Tallybreeze’s presets for your listings. Here’s how to set up these presets…

  1. If you haven’t already, Sign Up to Tallybreeze.
  2. After logging into Tallybreeze, set up your connections, then go to Listing Rules.
  3. Select any listing you’d like to automate that hasn’t already been set up.
  4. Select “Load Presets”.
  5. Select your business model from the options.

From here, presets will be loaded as your listing accounting rules and you can edit as needed.

SET UP AIRBNB ACCOUNTING

Execute Common Transaction Workflows in QuickBooks

In this section, we explore the nuances of transactions for investment properties. The most common workflows for investors are outlined below:

Making a Mortgage Payment

A common transaction workflow to identify is paying your mortgage, which includes a principal amount plus interest.

Example Transaction

As an real estate investor, you make a monthly mortgage payment of $2,000 for the property at 212 Chantilly Way, of which $500 is interest. This payment is processed automatically each month through a recurring bank transaction. Once the transaction posts, you can reconcile the outgoing amount from your Operations Bank Account using the following entry:

DebitCreditClass Category
1XXXX – Operations Bank Account (Asset)$2,000Investment: 212 Chantilly Way
2XXXX – Mortgage Principal$1,500Investment: 212 Chantilly Way
7XXXX – Mortgage Interest$500Investment: 212 Chantilly Way

Detailed instructions for QuickBooks Online

Remitting Custom Taxes

In many regions, Airbnb collects transient occupancy taxes and remits them directly to local tax authorities on your behalf. If that applies to you, this section won’t be relevant. However, many operators of Airbnbs choose to receive the taxes themselves and remit payment directly, giving them more control over their funds.

If you’re using Tallybreeze, the Custom Taxes line item in your presets will automatically capture these taxes. All you need to do is remit the amount collected to the appropriate tax authority. Here’s how to handle that process:

Example

The listing at 462 Atlas Way is configured in Airbnb to collect custom taxes for all reservations. In Tallybreeze, these amounts are posted to “24200 – Rental Liability: Airbnb Custom Taxes Payable.” After running a Balance Sheet report for this listing in QuickBooks, you determine that $200 is owed in transient occupancy taxes.

To remit this amount, send your payment to the appropriate tax authority via bank transfer, ACH, check, or another accepted method. Once the payment has posted, record the outgoing transaction from your Operations Bank Account using the following entry:

DebitCreditClass Category
1XXXX – Operations Bank Account (Asset)$200Investment: 462 Atlas Way
24200 – Rental Liability: Airbnb Custom Taxes Payable$200Investment: 462 Atlas Way

Detailed instructions for QuickBooks Online

SET UP ACCOUNTING AUTOMATION

Generate Monthly Reports in QuickBooks

Now that your reservation data is automatically processed from Airbnb and accurately synced into QuickBooks, you can generate clear, professional monthly reports for your Airbnb listings. After reconciling your expenses, you’ll be able to review the detailed performance of each listing with confidence.

Profit & Loss by Class

This report is meant for internal purposes to view side-by-side, displaying the profitability of each listing for your Airbnb operations. This report is found under QuickBooks “Reports” as “Profit and Loss by Class”:

Airbnb Investing QuickBooks Profit and Loss by Class Report

Conclusion

In the right market and under the right conditions, Airbnb can be a powerful way to accelerate equity growth in your investment properties. The accounting approach outlined in this guide offers clear visibility into the performance of your Airbnb operations, helping you make informed decisions as your real estate portfolio grows.

We hope this guide has been valuable, but there are still important choices ahead—especially around how you’ll manage your financials. What will your accounting workflow look like? How will you stay organized as your portfolio expands? If you’re seriously considering—or already operating—an investment property listed on Airbnb, the numbers matter. A reliable accounting system ensures that even if one property hits a rough patch, the others remain stable and profitable.

AUTOMATE AIRBNB ACCOUNTING

Finally, there are other business models that are not covered in this guide but are covered better in the following guides. Be sure to check these out: