Terms

Trust accounting

Trust accounting keeps guest funds apart from your operating funds. The funds belong to owners, and to tax authorities for taxes, until they are paid out.

Trust account is the bank account that receives guest payments and holds them until payout.

Trust balance is the guest funds held, minus payouts made and minus what you still owe, such as unpaid taxes or owner balances. It always reconciles to the trust bank account.

Trust surplus means the trust account holds more than you owe. Trust deficit means it holds less. See Opening balances.

Parties

Guest books a reservation and pays rent, fees and taxes.

Owner owns a listing and receives its rental income, minus expenses and your commissions. Owner activity appears on the owner statement.

Property manager runs the listings and earns commissions and fees. Your activity appears on the property manager statement.

Ledger

Transaction is one financial event. VRTrust has five kinds: reservation, deposit, expense, fee or commission, and transfer.

General ledger is the full record of all debits and credits.

Chart of accounts is the list of accounts that transactions post to. VRTrust starts with a chart of accounts made for short-term rentals.

Account assignment names the account VRTrust uses automatically for a kind of posting. For example, the account assigned as accounts receivable holds guest deposits not yet earned.

Journal entry records a transaction in the general ledger. It has at least two lines, and its debits equal its credits.

Tags on a journal entry line say whom and what it belongs to:

Tag	Meaning
Party	Owner or manager. Revenue and expense lines tagged Owner appear on the owner statement, lines tagged Manager on the property manager statement.
Listing	The listing the line belongs to. With the party tag, it decides which owner statement shows the line.
Reservation	The reservation the line came from. Owner statements use it to show net revenue per reservation.

Starting balance of an account is the sum of its lines dated before the period. Ending balance is the sum of its lines up to and including the last day of the period.

Reservations

Guest balance is what the guest owes minus what the guest paid. VRTrust flags every reservation with a guest balance that is not zero.

Financial adjustment changes what the guest owes, such as an extra charge, a refund or a correction.

Fee adjustment changes how revenue is split between owner and manager. It does not change what the guest paid.

Revenue recognition decides when revenue counts: at check-in, at check-out or spread over the nights of the stay. Deferred revenue is money collected for a stay that has not been recognized yet.

Deposits

Deposit is a payment or payout, for example from Stripe, Airbnb, an uploaded Booking.com payout or a bank import. It applies payments to reservations and records merchant fees, reserves and co-host payouts.

Merchant fee is the processing fee of a payment provider. You pay it, or you pass it on to the owner.

Statements

Owner statement summarizes one month for one owner and listing: income, expenses, fees, taxes and the net payout.

Property manager statement shows your revenue, your expenses and what the trust account owes you or you owe it.

Trial balance lists every account balance. When total debits equal total credits, the books are consistent.